Gelato maestro moves onto the savory stuff
BY BEN MUESSIG
The Brooklyn Paper
Self-described “gelato maestro” Gino Cammarata has closed his Bensonhurst ice cream shop Oro Verde Gelati — which was located within a tanning salon, oddly enough — to open a small plates restaurant and “vino bar” boasting a full menu of classical Mediterranean dishes on Fourth Avenue at 99th Street.
The new eatery, Piattini, will offer classic Sicilian entrees alongside less-known Italian dishes prepared by Cammarata, who is famous for masterfully making traditional gelato flavors like fig, ricotta cream, and pistachio, and serving them boldly — like his acclaimed brioche gelato sandwich.
“It’s a light menu with a very fresh ingredients,” said Cammarata.
“The food quality is going to be high.”
Thankfully, Cammarata won’t abandon his bread and butter — gelato.
“There will be a gelato machine,” the chef promised. “That’s my signature.”
Piattini [9824 Fourth Avenue at 99th Street in Bay Ridge, (718) 759-0009)], will have a soft opening this week.
I went and it was super dupper.
It made me think, you know money would not be bad to have lots of cause I would eat here whenever I wanted and take my friends, its not that it was more money than any top spot nor was it not worth every penny, its just that at $200 PP with nice wine it add's up quick if I went once a month, exp since I have lots of friends:>)
$21 mixed crudo, some oysters $12, grand cru pasta's inc a first for me tuna belly ravioli (in a tomate caper etc sauce) $20+ and for me one pasta aint enough so figure $80 for food
I saw a $36 wine I could guzzle, had a Spanish rose w/ oysters that was a brilliant match, and there are plenty of $40-60 wines worthy of creating happyness. So add $70 wine at 1.25 bottles PP + $80 = $150 = $200PP
Great great great meal, hope to afford to go back soon, but most of all I am happy I have lots of friends first and that they like Grand Sichuan BYOB too.....
Gee’s Bend is a small rural community nestled into a curve in the Alabama River southwest of Selma, Alabama. Founded in antebellum times, it was the site of cotton plantations.... During the Great Depression, the federal government stepped in to purchase land and homes for the community, bringing strange renown — as an "Alabama Africa" — to this sleepy hamlet.Really cool stuff although unfortunately, there are only a few images on their website, and they don't even seem to be the really nice ones. Google image search turns up some more though.
The town’s women developed a distinctive, bold, and sophisticated quilting style based on traditional American (and African American) quilts, but with a geometric simplicity reminiscent of Amish quilts and modern art. The women of Gee’s Bend passed their skills and aesthetic down through at least six generations to the present. In 2002, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in partnership with the nonprofit Tinwood Alliance, of Atlanta, presented an exhibition of seventy quilt masterpieces from the Bend. The exhibition, entitled "The Quilts of Gee’s Bend," is accompanied by two companion books, The Quilts of Gee’s Bend, and the larger Gee’s Bend: The Women and Their Quilts, both published by Tinwood Media, as well as a documentary video on the Gee’s Bend quilters and a double-CD of Gee’s Bend gospel music from 1941 and 2002.
The "Quilts of Gee’s Bend" exhibition has received tremendous international acclaim, beginning at its showing in Houston, then at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the other museums on its twelve-city American tour.
SLR cameras were designed for the film era. The "reflex" refers to the mirror inside, which redirects light to the viewfinder and then flips out of the way when the shutter is fired, letting the light fall onto the film. Because of the mirror, the body of an SLR is relatively large, and because the lenses are so far away from the film plane (or, these days, the sensor chip), they have to be big, too. Look at the size difference between a compact camera and an SLR for an instant example of this.Panasonic was first to market with the G1, which really doesn't look that much smaller than a full on SLR. But now Olympus has just announced a much more compact offering. Love the retro styling on that one. This might be a really great camera, combining the best of both worlds with a super compact body, super large sensor, and interchangeable lenses. I really like it.
Micro Four Thirds does away with the mirror, making the camera much smaller. The gimmick is that you can still change lenses, just like an SLR. And because the sensor size is standard across Micro Four Thirds cameras, the confusion of focal length multipliers disappears (although if you do want to know the 35mm equivalent, just times multiply by two), and you you don’t have to sell all your glass if you swap from one camera brand to another.
Unless he stands for damnation. Because despite his sensitive, soothing demeanor, I find myself nagged by the prospect that Jacob could be playing with the dark pieces in this cosmic game. The final moments of the opening sequence may have offered a clue that Jacob is more charismatic Lucifer Morningstar than feel-good sexy Jesus. As Loophole McNameless walked away, head full of hate and schemes, the camera tilted up and we got a full-scale profile shot of the Statue, which was still intact in the 19th century. The mug on the edifice sure didn't look like a jackal to me, thus ruling out the Egyptian God Anubis, protector of the dead. No, that face looked like a crocodile, which gets you Sobek, a morally ambiguous dark god who oversees dark waters and preys on sinful souls in the afterlife. (Very Smokey.) Even worse, Set, the Egyptian god of chaos and evil, was a shapeshifter who often morphed into crocodiles and hippos (another candidate for Four Toed's face) in his clashes with archenemy Horus. Set was linked to infertility (seems Horus once ripped off Set's testicles) (serious!) (and ouch!) and was partial to fish and lettuce. Hey...didn't we see Jacob munching on a filet-o-fish lettuce wrap last night? And aren't devilish gods all for the concept of choice and free will?
If these mythological readings are correct, then we must wonder: What's a seemingly nice guy like Jacob doing on an Island like this? And why the hell is he living in a statue like that? A Christ-like figure dwelling within a statue that's a monument to evil makes for a nifty metaphor for redemption. But it could mean Jacob is the devil. Time will tell.
