Parm

250 Vesey St, New York, NY 10080

Parm is the lesser-known, more accessible and thriftier cousin of the iconic Greenwich Village red-sauce joint Carbone, and it delivers on the massive expectations that come with this association. Carbone has an overwhelming level of influence on the city’s food offerings, not only evidenced by the far-flung plethora of Parm restaurants, with locations in Battery Park City, NoLita and one on the Upper West Side. You’ll see Carbone’s sauce in nearly every grocery store in the city. You could say it is admirable that the owners of Carbone had the shrewdness and initiative to open a decidedly less fancy version of their wildly successful restaurant that noticeably didn’t skimp on quality and ambiance. A distinctive checkered floor is just one aspect of the restaurant that gives is some flair (albeit a superficial one). The Battery Park City location’s proximity to the Hudson and the quiet solitude of the southern tip of Manhattan is yet another; I appreciated it as I’m never in this neighborhood. My friends and I ordered a Caesar salad to start, with deep green romaine and generous shavings of sharp, zingy Parmesan. One of my friends and I followed this up with an iconic Carbone dish ubiquitous on social media: Rigatoni alla Vodka. The rigatoni’s shape is beautifully imperfect; the pasta is clearly handmade. The vodka sauce is sweet, spicy and creamy, and the meal reinforced my strong favoritism for this pasta dish above others (seriously, I haven’t ordered plain marinara pasta in a long time since moving to NYC). The deliciousness of the dish caused me to wonder aloud to my friends what effect the vodka has on tomatoes’ natural flavor. I’ve heard that the vodka reveals a hidden flavor of tomatoes but the reason as to how it does so is unbeknownst to me. Anyway, I digress. I will try Carbone some day (maybe), but this trip to Parm was not only kinder to my wallet than the former would’ve been, but deeply memorable. The experience instilled hope in myself that exceedingly upscale restaurants with a reputation to uphold don’t pay too much attention to fancy posturing, instead focusing on making their food more accessible to everyday New Yorkers. Yet, with their brand savvy honed from years of managing Carbone, their less fancy cousin Parm retains a trendy and stylish aesthetic. If you’re visiting the city and can’t make a reservation for Carbone (or aren’t motivated to go through the trouble for it) I’d wholeheartedly recommend dining at Parm at any of their locations. The surrounding neighborhoods of the Parm locations also give you more flexibility in the type of outing you’re looking to have (Battery Park City and UWS are more relaxed, NoLita is more boisterous and lively). Even for a cuisine as common as Italian, NYC is constantly innovating on its traditions and Parm was a fine example of this wonderful trend.