Dining Guide

B.B. Italia

Benjamin Berg has added this classic Italian American restaurant to his string of BB spots (Lemon, Butchers), hoping to re-create the food and ambience of Manhattan Italian eateries of his youth. Here, his success rate is mixed. Casually dressed customers sit at white-clothed tables in a room bustling with food-delivery carts, roaming jacketed managers, and Sinatra music. It’s straightforward and nostalgic—and so is the food. We started with crab claws, dense with a garlicky pesto, and a thin (and slightly off-tasting) lobster bisque. We dove into a generous bowl of spaghetti: thick homemade pasta with an abundance of small, dense meatballs. A veal saltimbocca arrived overcooked, but the whipped potatoes were tasty. Our frozen Brandy Alexanders made a fitting finish in this shrine to the past.