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The Nino and Irving show makes me rethink a long-held belief in separating music and food as much as possible. At Nino's Tuscany, the fifth restaurant of Nino Selimaj, 89-year-old pianist-songwriter Irving Fields can dazzle discretely only inches from your table. The master musician's piano is an octave shorter than most. His nimble fingers own it and his whimsical arrangements, many Latin-flavored, may be fully appreciated without denting conversation. The clientele includes fans of both Irving and Nino. Tony Bennett lives nearby and often dines there. Nino and Irving are dapper men, deft at bringing hospitality and entertainment to individual tables or the whole place. Mr. Selimaj specializes in creating warm settings of Italian flavor. He is abetted by artist Michael Litzig, whose terracotta-hued abstract murals of Tuscan scenes are the restaurant's dominant visual. Mr. Selimaj has done a major retuning of the former Eleanora space, with changes from floor to ceiling, including lighting and wall treatments. Nino's Tuscany seats up to 150 guests in an L-shaped configuration, with a side room that is perfect for parties. Chef Massimo Felici's culinary arias are carefully composed Italian classics, vibrant with good taste and generosity of spirit. The alert and solicitous staff points out the four-pound lobsters that are idling in a nearby tank, awaiting a spicy arabiatta preparation--a Nino signature--before spelling out the seasonal specials. Game is up, and wild boar gets a Barolo wine sauce sendoff atop a bed of soft polenta, while flat papardelle pasta is layered with venison spiked with Cabernet. Another special pasta, tagliatelli, has a robust robe of braised veal shank in natural sauce studded with peas. Antipasti from the regular menu ($8 to $13) range from a rather humdrum assortment of cold meats, cheese and chicken liver, to grilled quail done with lentils, wild boar sausage with broccoli di rape, and stews of tripe or calamari and greens. My favorite is polpettine della nonna-small lamb meatballs scented with rosemary and lemon. Nino's Tuscany shines with pasta, those cited above as well as tender dumplings called gnudi, featuring spinach, chard and ricotta in a sauce of butter and crispy sage leaves. The hit parade also includes gorgonzola-slathered gnocchi, and other forms that may vary from day to day, all unified by a gloriously rich rabbit sauce. Among the mains, spicy Cornish hen is marinated overnight, then flattened and charcoal grilled. Pork loin is appealingly roasted with apples; moist salmon comes from the oven in a crust of zucchini and potato slices with a gaeta olive sauce and tomato emulsion. Another Nino's signature, osso buco--he has two restaurants by that name--arrives dark and delicious, complete with marrow fork. It reposes dauntingly on a bed of hyper-saffroned risotto. Digging into familiar, well-made desserts of Napoleon, tirami su or chocolate mousse, you may discover that Nino's Tuscany is the only restaurant with its own jingle, written by Mr. Fields. In tango tempo, it goes like this: The food is tops in quality |
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