Cafe Spaghetti

Whether we can trace roots to the boot or not, many Americans grew up calling Italian cuisine their comfort food. At Cafe Spaghetti, a casual Italian restaurant in Carroll Gardens, Chef Sal Lamboglia applies cheffy bonafides to family recipes (not to mention his actual family) and, in so doing, hits that warming, comforting note.

The restaurant calls itself an “ode to the neighborhood Italian restaurant,” but is, in practice, the very thing it celebrates. From the outside, the restaurant is friendly and understated in forest green. It fits right into the block. Inside, you’ll find that requisite Italianismo ephemera displayed in homage. The photo of Sinatra is relegated to the bathroom, but still: box ticked. It’s cute, winky but not meta–it doesn’t call attention to itself.

The space’s main feature is its gorgeous backyard—one of the best-feeling outdoor dining spaces in the city. It’s spacious, fenced-in, crawling with ivy, charmingly appointed with colorful parasols and a vintage baby blue vespa in the center. Adjacent buildings’ rears soar above, adding to that Brooklyn feel—that true New York City sense of lives nested within lives, and that we all walk the same streets.

The saucework here does a lot of the heavy lifting on the menu and it is unctuous, tomato acidity kept in check with mounted butter and precise seasoning that stands up beautifully to that finishing dusting of parmesan. It gives the sense that this sauce is the product of feeling rather than thought–the X-factor whose presence makes one marinara taste like a gorgeous family secret and whose absence leaves another totally forgettable. There is no better demonstration of Cafe Spaghetti’s success in this arena than the Spaghetti Pomodoro, rich and glossy, complex and delicious. 

The house-baked garlic twists are a grown-up realization of the garlic bread you’re craving–the perfect accompaniment to any meal. The branzino is a tender and beautifully cooked filet topped with oregano and breadcrumbs, served with a salad that plays on that home-cooking staple of green beans and potatoes. The Orrichete with sausage and broccoli rabe is toothsome, the bitter greens giving that vegetal crunch and clarity to the sweet chunks of sausage whose savory fat pools in the little ear-shaped pasta cups. The tiramisu is made by chef Lamboglia’s father and is not to be missed; where so many others are mushy throwaway mishmash of the requisite flavors, this is a careful layering of taste and texture.

There are many different versions of almost the same menu throughout the city. From gleaming aeries to joints with a bag of Polly-O in the back. But Cafe Spaghetti adds an earnest reverence and affection to the equation, making it the best kind of throwback: the one that reminds you why this food felt so comforting in the first place.