While we were planning our recent trip to New York City, our friend recommended that we stop in to see her friend who is the chef at Pasquale Jones, a small wood-fired restaurant on the edge of SoHo and Little Italy. We didn’t know if we would have time to go, but since we were staying in SoHo, we walked past it several times, and after checking out their menu (and lured in by their charming colorful sign), we made it a priority. We went after our Eleven Madison Park lunch, so we wanted something totally different and casual for dinner: good pizza, pasta, and wine. This hit the spot!
We were excited to see that they had our favorite Chianti on the list, Monteraponi. We had never seen it on a restaurant wine list before this. We get it from Biondivino in San Francisco and actually visited the winery last year. We can’t wait to go back and spend more time with them in Italy. You’ll also find G.B. Burlotto, Giuseppe Mascarello, Giuseppe Rinaldi, Vietti, and Giacomo Conterno.
Once the bottle of Monteraponi was ordered, we moved on to pizzas. Try the clam and/or Diavola pizzas. The clam is a white seafood pizza (the best we’ve ever tried) and the Divaola is covered in amazing spicy Italian salami. The pizza here is to die for. Its crust was amazing and one of the best Italian pizzas we’ve had in the U.S.
We also got to head down into the kitchen to visit with Chef Tim Caspare. Pasquale Jones is not only known for its pizza but also its incredible handmade pasta. We were lucky enough to see chef Tim making stuffed pasta for an event the next day. He’s trained in Italy, and worked at Quince in San Francisco, and with Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park. He seems to love what he’s doing right now, and you can tell with the food he’s putting out.
If you are in NYC and you don’t go here, you are definitely missing out. No doubt we’ll be back here again on our next trip to NYC.
Thank you to Alaska Airlines for sponsoring this post.