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Brooklyn's Popina Explores Common Ground Between Italy & The American South
By
Nell Casey
Published Aug 30, 2017
Modified Aug 30, 2017
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Scott Heins/Gothamist
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By
Nell Casey
Published Aug 30, 2017
Modified Aug 30, 2017
Share
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Has any archetype been more commonly evoked in the restaurant business than grandmothers, nonnas, and other means by which to describe the person who gave birth to your parents? The third generation matriarch literally watches over your dining experience at Popina, a new Italian-American Southern-inspired restaurant that opened in the former Pok Pok Phat Thai space on the Columbia Street Waterfront. Wave to Franca, the Italian nonna making pasta in Bari, as you tuck into your own bowl of fettucine studded with guanciale, corn and jalapeno, with a dusting of pecorino cheese.
Chef Chris McDade—who cooked at Maialino and Café Altro Paradiso prior to opening this new venture with fellow Maialino alum James O'Brien—says he's been "very influenced by both Southern and Italian cuisine," calling out both cuisines for their simplicity and "amazing sense of place." Under that interpretation he created the above pasta in addition to arancini ($7) made with Carolina Gold Rice, a burrata dish ($16) with cornbread, and a "Hot Chicken Milanese" ($23), the pounded flat breast coated in hot chili oil.
Hot Chicken Milanese (Scott Heins/Gothamist)
While Franca holds court inside, the backyard area offers a more casual dining experience, with picnic benches and tables perched on gravel and pavers. There's an unofficial bocce court out there, too, either for killing time before a meal or perhaps helping to digest post pasta or chocolate chess pie, which comes with whipped cream and amarena cherries.
O'Brien's wine list skews Italian, with drop-ins by United States and French wine-makers. Cocktails ($12) stick close to the classics, like a Bottled Negroni; a Manhattan-adjacent option called Fancy Free with bourbon, maraschino and bitters; and the Honeysuckle made with tequila, lime, honey and jalapeno.
127 Columbia Street, 718-222-1901; popinanyc.com
Popina Menu by Nell Casey on Scribd
Popina Beverage Menu by Nell Casey on Scribd
Tagged
columbia street waterfront district
italian
new restaurant and bar radar
popina
original
Nell Casey
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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