Out on the Town

Wow, how things can change in 24 hours!

Last night, I was out on the town with my gorgeous family, enjoying a divine meal at Frankie’s Spuntino 570. Tonight, I’m in bed, eating canned soup and rice cakes.

Let’s hope tomorrow will be a bit more like yesterday, shall we?

Workout of the Day:

I wasn’t feeling well, but I thought it was just from the wine, or the three gnocchi I had, choosing to ignore totally forgetting that gnocchi are not only potato and also have flour in them. So, we did a gentle workout to see if it helped. It didn’t.

• 5 minute uphill walking (7.5 incline, 4.2 pace)
• 30 minutes elliptical (level 10)

Breakfast was a pumpkin smoothie that, no joke, I forgot to photograph again (but it was still delicious.)

Lunch was an Amy’s frozen Palak Paneer that while delish, is not worth taking up your computer’s brain space with a photo, as well as a fresh and perfectly sweet bosc pear.

Dinner was this Health Valley Organic* reduced sodium garden vegetable soup.

I have to tell you, as someone guilty of eating almost exclusively full sodium foods, this soup pleasantly surprised me with it’s flavor. Considering it was canned soup, it tasted fairly fresh and rather bold in it’s spicing.

Yesterday’s dinner was far more interesting, however, and far more delicious. My dad was itching to get to Frankie’s Suptino 570, the third installment of Frank Castronovo and Frank Fancinelli’s gorgeous Italian Frankie’s Spuntino in the village. So, we braved the traffic (both the president and the Rockefeller center tree) and headed downtown.

The restaurant was warmly lit and elegant in it’s simplicity. It felt quite cozy but not terribly loud, which is a pleasant change.

The menu is simple, classically Italian fair executed beautifully. They specialize in classics and a wide variety of antipasto, with artfully prepared vegetables, cheeses and meats.

While it was hard to choose from the wonderful and rare specials (venison, anyone? How about pork cheeks?) we selected three starters for the four of us to share.

Frankie's meatballs

We started with the meatballs, which have been rated as some of the best in the city, and I’d be inclined to agree with this assessment. Tender, bold and moist, I could have eaten four bowls of these gladly, and taken a bath in the sauce.

Jerusalem artichoke salad

Prawns

We also shared the prawn special and the jerusalem artichoke salad, both of which were light and lovely.

For dinner, I was having a massive vegetable craving, so had four of the antipasto delights: roasted cauliflower, sauteed broccoli rabe, roasted carrots, and Setti Anni peppers. While I was surprised that they were served cold, (My fault, not their’s – it was antipasto, after all!) they were all excellently prepared, and not overly oily, which is an issue I often find with antipasto vegetables.

Anthony had cavatelli with sausage, dad had rigatoni with ragu, and mom had grilled octopus with roasted artichoke. Everyone enjoyed their entrees, and I stole several hundred bites Anthony generously shared some of his sausage with me.

For desert, we shared a cheese plate, which was perfectly lovely, though we were too full from the amazing meal to fully enjoy it.

The whole family!

All in all, I’d highly recommend a visit to Frankie’s Spuntino, an affordable and nourishing restaurant to the soul and spirit.

Frankie’s Spuntino – Frankie’s 570

570 Hudson St,

New York, NY 10014

212-924-0818

*Note: If you buy the soup through this link, it’s through my amazon store, so I get, like, .02. If you’d rather me not, feel free to just go to Amazon!