An ominous puddle in the corner of a barebones restroom, tattooed with graffiti and grime, tells the person dining at the restaurant that they should leave as soon as possible. Borgo, a trattoria in NoMad, exudes the opposite aesthetic. The bathroom is quaint and terracotta tiled: a vintage porcelain toilet on one end, and the smallest, yet functional, sink on the other side, with walls lined with unique ceramic sconces adorned by custom linen. The restroom gives a portrayal of Borgo as being a homey and comfortable restaurant while maintaining the upscale classiness that comes alongside the significant price tag.
I arrived at 124 E. 27th St. five minutes prior to my 9:15 p.m. reservation, greeted by general manager Matt Felsenfeld. I was escorted through the main dining hall—a cozy rectangular room with an ornate segmental vaulted ceiling and a wood-cladded bar covering one of the walls—through a tight hallway and into the secondary dining room, which was a mirrored image of the first, only this time the kitchen was located where the bar once was. A half-height wall panelled with Spanish cedar served as a barrier in between the cooking and eating parts of the second dining room. I was given a booth table next to a casement window looking out onto the street and across from the dessert prep table. The strategic placement of every table ensured that they each had a view of the dishes coming out. Seeing each plate come out was like a premonition to ordering my own food.
The waitress started off by noting that everything on the menu could, and was meant to, be shared. I started with Borgo’s take on “focaccia,” in quotation marks because it lacks yeast, making it a focaccia-esque bread. It was cheesy, oily and hit every nail on the head when it came to pre-meal bread service. Many of the plates are progressive takes on traditional meals originating from the Ligurian town which shares a name with the restaurant.
The general aesthetic of the cuisine is refined, yet personal and homey. The home-cooked aspect of the food came out alongside our appetizers: arancini alla norma, delicata squash and panzanella. The arancini were warm to the touch, but not too hot that they burned the inside of my mouth. The delicata squash was an experimental take on squash, being served as fried rings, topped with pecorino ginepro and chili honey, three ingredients which, in my mind, shouldn’t have worked, but somehow did. The panzanella was made from sunchokes, gran mugello and kale, three seasonal ingredients that perfectly complement the weather outside.
I had no time to contemplate the four plates I had just eaten, as the pasta course was on its way out of the kitchen: a mushroom and walnut ravioli, along with zucca alla parmigiana. The ravioli was exactly as I’d imagined: warm, flavor-dense and satisfying. As for the zucca alla parmigiana, I had never had one, so it was a pleasant surprise when I learned that it was a lasagna-adjacent dish. The zucca was topped with chestnuts, which took the flavor palette to the next level. The pasta was immediately followed by the flavorful and comforting fennel sausage, which was served alongside Umbrian lentils and broccoli rabe. The licorice taste of the sausage, combined with the bitter broccoli and the sweet lentils, made for an exceptional bite when eaten together. Independently, the items stood phenomenally, with each ingredient bringing a unique flavor to an otherwise simple presentation. I ended the meal with the pumpkin pie sundae. While definitely not a traditional Italian dish, it was beyond satisfying, with hints of chocolate complementing the nuttiness of the pumpkin. The meal in its entirety was fantastic, hitting every pressure point in the stomach. As I said, the restroom in a restaurant never lies.
