SADLY, A VOCE IS NOW CLOSED.
The Uptown incarnation of A Voce opened late last year to lots of fanfare and good reviews. Since then, its buzz has seemed to fizzle and simmer. You don’t hear much about it anymore, sitting up there in the Time Warner Building with its beautiful views of Central Park.
But I guess press no longer matters, because there was a decent crowd dining at A Voce this Saturday night. It would have been nice to have taken our time and experience an entire meal (like the rest of the crowd). But like usual, I had somewhere else to be and so we came in to sit at the bar and get the dish that everybody’s been talking about since they opened and the one that made Time Out’s list.
It is simply called Pancetta, but it’s so much more than that. It’s cured pork belly that is garnished with crushed pistachios, figs, and a drizzle of balsamic. The presentation might have been artful if the pancetta wasn’t so long. The length made me think of an eel and was almost laughable. Maybe because the photo in Time Out was only a piece of it, I expected this to be short and plumper rather than long and thin.
I’m also not a huge fan of pork belly because I don’t like to deal with that layer of fat. If it’s cooked right the fat becomes very crispy and soaks into the meat creating lots of tender, rich flavor. And basically that’s what happened here. The fat wasn’t crispy, but it was hard to tell where the fat ended and the meat began. Which in my mind is a good thing.
The bites were pretty perfect. They were luscious, earthy, salty, sweet, and very decadent. I see why this dish is talked about so often.
We also tried to order the Calamari, but I guess we confused the bartender since we also asked about the Stracciatella. She sent us the latter dish by mistake. Which was fine because we were curious about it. It’s basically just a few spoonfuls of incredibly creamy, tender pugliese mozzarella with garnishes of artichokes and bresaola (dried beef). You could tell this came from the same chef since it was similarly composed. And it too had lots of complexity and rich deliciousness.
I really should return here for a full dinner. It’s not too expensive and the food that I tried was pretty spot-on. So I guess we should continue to talk about A Voce and Missy Robbins’ modern Italian dishes. At least until something else opens up in the Time Warner Building.
Would A Voce’s Pancetta make my Top 100 of the year? It gets an 8 out of 10 because through the richness, there was technique and balance that led to an enjoyable take on pork belly.
