Monday, May 13, 2013

Attention East 5th Street neighbors: 'We will never be a bar!'

On East Fifth Street, Risotteria Melotti is taking over the short-lived Ballaro Bakery near the 9th Precinct, as we first reported. And they are on this month's CB3/SLA docket for a beer-wine license.

Ahead of that, this sign appeared on its front window earlier last week... (Unfortunately, we never saw it before the Block Association meeting Thursday night...)


[Photo courtesy of Goggla]

The sign reads, in part:

"We, their managers and chef, applied for wine/beer only license because we would like to be able to serve a glass of wine with our risottos.

We will never be a bar! No people screaming outside! We live in the East Village and we would never expose our neighbors to such things!"

Ah, the old "we would like to be able to serve a glass of wine with our risottos" line, eh?

Ha, just kidding!

This is the first American outpost for the Melotti family, who live in Isola della Scala, in the south of Verona, and who has always produced, processed and sold their rice in Italy. (As we cut-n-paste from their website.) They opened a restaurant near Verona in 2002. (Read their story here.) You can find a menu and see photos of the food here.

So ... Are such notes/signs necessary today in a neighborhood where the thought of a new place serving alcohol sometimes brings about unmitigated hysteria?

13 comments:

shmnyc said...

Gluten-free risotto? What's the point?!

Gojira said...

I'm going to open a restaurant that serves nothing but gluten-free gluten, and just pile on to the nonsense.

Anonymous said...

Pretty sure gluten comes from wheat, and risotto is rice, so...(?)

shmnyc said...

Anonymous 11:02,

You're right.

According to wikipedia "True gluten, with gliadin and glutenin, is limited to certain members of the grass family. The stored proteins of maize and rice are sometimes called glutens, but their proteins differ from true gluten."

Still, I prefer sticky risotto.

Anonymous said...

smdh so clever as usual!

Anonymous said...

All rice/risotto is gluten free, sticky or not. So I don't think it really comes into the sticky factor. Rice companies (and I guess now restaurants) use the gluten-free tag to make it seem like it's something more special/healthier than usual, but it's no different than it has been since humankind has started eating it.

abrod said...

Today it's gluten-free risotto with a glass of wine; tomorrow it's another Superdive.

Eden Bee said...

Not only has that sign been up a while but there were responses posted to it..telling them to fuck off and they suck and etc etc..I did not get a pic of those though just that one too..That's why there is a DO NOT POST sign next to their sign.

Mark Hand The Catchman said...

'Gluten free' is another of those dietary craze that pop up once in a while, while there are tru people with allergies to gluten someone thought 'oh i'll be healthier if i don't eat gluten'.. then off course you'll see them outside bars smoking and heaving out a gallon of party margaritas and chicken wings...

Gojira said...

@ShutUpHooker - hahahahaaaa! Priceless, and SO true! It's like the people who go to McDonald's, order a Triple Whopper, supersize fries, apple pie and a Diet Coke!

Anonymous said...

I hope you're not going to make fun of gluten free Marlboros next.

Hey19 said...

I love any kind of risotto or paella or fried rice, or anything, anything like that, so this sounds good to me. All the better w a glass of wine.

Anonymous said...

Yes, it's trendy to be gluten-free but some people actually suffer from an autoimmune response when they eat gluten. You know the kid who will go into shock and stop breathing because a peanut is nearby? That actually happens to people who have celiac disease. Their immune system will start eating their intestinal lining and stomach--and it does long-term damage along from making them vomit or be completely incapacitated for a week or so after the poisoning takes place, depending on the person. So it's not really something to make fun of. It now affects 1 in 133 people and the rate is rising for many reasons. I know it's a fad and all that but celiac is also a disease that's serious--different from a trendy hipster kind of fad. I don't know if Risotteria is safe for people with celiac in the same way that Jennifer's Way is but thought educating people about this might be helpful.