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Maybe Wheel will comment more fully, but here's my quick take. We went to ESCA last night, which is the all seafood restaurant in the Mario Batali empire (you know, the guy with the food show, the long red hair, and the funny shoes who brought us Po, Lupa, and Babao.) The menu had us absolutely dizzy. We literally wanted to order evey single thing (well, O.K., only MB and I wanted to order the sea urchin.) All Italian wine. A great Northern Italian white from the area (Tirol) we traveled through last year, and an amazing example of the elusive (red) Lagrain (sp?) grape which we searched for in Italy, but now it seems finally found the one we wanted right here in NYC. With the Quinterelli for dessert we were feeling no pain. Oh, the food? Great. The fried fish was amazing (vongole and the frito-misto (sp?),) maybe the best I've ever had. Pasta's (as you might expect at a Mario restaurant) were perfect, although the perriwinkle and chilie was not as amazing as we had hoped. The eel (appetizer) was also not a favorite (although surely not bad.) The beet and botarga salad was a winner, as was the big stuffed clam (anyone remember what that was called?) I'd say: order lots of appetizers. Expensive; sure. Weird location - 43rd and 9th; for sure. Good time; good bet.