A Love Letter to Lillo Cucina Italiana
Gnocchi tartufo at Lillo
I rarely revisit restaurants. My list of places I want to try in the city is well over 1,500 spots, and I love discovering new places. At most, I’ll go back to some of my favorite spots a second or third time to try more of the menu or to get a dish that I feel particularly strongly about. However, there is one restaurant I can’t help but go back to again and again.
I’ve probably been to Lillo Cucina Italiana at least 15 times in the past 18 months. Last fall, there was a week I went thrice. I’m certainly not there because it’s an easy place to hang out. The restaurant has six tables, no bathroom, limited cooling in the summer, and only accepts cash. In a way that’s all part of the charm, along with the handwritten specials, family photos, a Spongebob portrait, Italian memorabilia, fantastic merch (see below), and other random knick knacks that line the walls. It’s the type of place that feels like it has been there for decades despite opening in 2018.
The most charming part of the restaurant, though, is its owner, Giampietro “Lillo” Remia, who left a job at his family’s pastry shop in Rome to move to New York with his Brooklynite girlfriend. They met in Rome while he was working on his side hustle as a tour guide that showed clients Rome via a ride on the back of his motorcycle (a much cooler tour guide than I, clearly). They’re now married with kids, and his wife often helps out at the restaurant on occassion. When she’s not there, Remia has a staff member or two helping with dishes but is largely a one-man wonder, hustling back and forth between the kitchen and tables to take orders and subsequently cook them. There’s a TV perfectly positioned for him to watch soccer while making pasta.
Remia is unique — he’s tall with serious sideburns and flowing grey-tinged hair that is usually tucked behind a bandana and adds a few more inches to his already imposing figure. He may seem gruff if you aren’t a regular or Italian, but he opened Lillo to build community and create a space to talk about Italian soccer and politics, and he’s clearly more animated when those topics are the subject of discussion.
Even if he is curt with you, it’s worth letting it roll off your shoulders, especially when you see what he can do with a cream sauce. Perfectly shaped and seasoned veal tortellini in his somehow light and rich cream sauce is my favorite pasta dish in New York. The truffle (tartufo) and pink sauces, which I believe both do include some of that cream sauce, should also not be overlooked, especially when featured in Lillo’s fettuccine tartufo and lobster ravioli, respectively.
I’m not typically a huge gnocchi fan, but Lillo converted me. His gnocchi, found listed on one of the handful of handwritten specials menus on the wall, are airy and scored so that each dumpling soaks up plenty of whichever of his masterful sauces you choose. In addition to the obviously fantastic gnocchi tartufo and gnocchi crema, it’s worth trying Lillo’s beet gnocchi, whose dough has a purple hue, infused with the beet’s sweet and earthy flavors. All of Lillo’s life-affirming pastas will run you $14-18 (even the lobster ravioli tops out at $18!) and will likely ruin the $25-30 pasta offerings at upscale NYC restaurants for you. P.S. Don’t miss the carciofi (artichokes) to round out your carb filled meal. They are grilled until they’re just barely fork tender and finished simply with olive oil, garlic, and sage.
Like so many New York restaurants, Lillo was founded by an immigrant looking to add something he saw missing in our city’s food landscape. What he has built is my ideal New York City restaurant — charming, no nonsense, and serving excellent homestyle food at affordable prices. Who cares if you have to pee at the Trader Joe’s down the block before dinner?
My favorite t-shirt
