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Buon Appetito! Italian Restaurant Week starts tomorrow and we know just where to feast

Buon Appetito! Italian Restaurant Week starts tomorrow and we know just where to feast
Photo by Stefano Giovannini

Mangia tutti!

Starting Thursday, indulge in hearty platters of Italian cuisine from Greenpoint to Coney Island at a canoli-sweet discount during Brooklyn’s first-ever Italian Restaurant Week. The event, which runs through Oct. 17 and is sponsored by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, is scheduled to coincide with Columbus Day and Italian Heritage Month and participating Italian restaurateurs say that the promotion is the perfect reminder for food-loving Brooklynites to savor the red sauce simmering right under their noses.

“It is important to remind everyone that Brooklyn is a wonderful place to eat and that some of the best food is right here,” said legendary proprietor Joe Chirco, who opened Marco Polo Ristorante in 1983 and recently handed the reins over to his son Marco.

The classy, upscale Court Street eatery will offer a $28 prix-fixe three-course menu. Diners will get their choice of a six antipastis, 10 entrees — including gnocchi with tomato sauce and mozzarella, salmon with fresh herbs and oregano, and a grilled hanger steak with mushrooms and peppers in port wine sauce — and a choice of a puffed pastry with vanilla ice cream or house cheesecake for dessert.

Waterfront Sheepshead Bay restaurant Il Fornetto will offer a $25 three-course dinner, with entree choices including fettuccine pasta in vodka cream sauce with shrimp and bay scallops, gnocchi in a meat sauce, and seared boneless chicken with mushrooms, onions, extra virgin olive oil and a side of roasted potatoes.

Saucy: Antonio Miriello, manager of Il Fornetto in Sheepshead Bay, shows off the joint’s Gnocchi al Ragu di Carne dish, which is on the $25 three-course dinner menu at the eatery during Italian Restaurant Week.
Photo by Stefano Giovannini

The other 37 participating restaurants run the gamut of Italian fare, including mom-and-pop red sauce joints, up-scale, New Italian establishments, and regional restaurants dishing out Sicilian and Neopolitan-style food.

Eateries taking part and offering fixed-price menus all week long include: century-old Gargiulo’s Restaurant in Coney Island, Il Fornetto in Sheepshead Bay, La Palina in Bensonhurst, and Joe’s of Avenue U in Gravesend.

Newer establishments that are offering restaurant week deals include Bay Ridge’s Vicolo Ristorante, which specializes in wood-fired, brick oven pizza, and Broccolino in Prospect Heights, steps away from the Barclays Center.

Italian Restaurant Week in Brooklyn (Borough-wide, www.ibrooklyn.com/go_brooklyn/italian_restaurant_week.aspx). Oct. 10–17, Lunch for $14.92 or $18 and Dinner for $25 or $28.

Reach reporter Natalie Musumeci at nmusumeci@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-4505. Follow her at twitter.com/souleddout.
Hearty meal: “Bucatini Carbonara” made with bucatini pasta mixed with onions, pancetta, eggs, and a light cream sauce is on a $28 fixed-price dinner menu at Marco Polo Ristorante during Italian Restaurant Week.
Photo by Stefano Giovannini