A lot of fancy New York restaurants have opened outposts in Miami. But what happens when a fancy South Beach place takes the plunge in Manhattan?
Casa Tua, a Miami Italian-ish joint that has been a magnet for boldfacers in the Sunshine State, leapfrogged to the Upper East Side this month.
While the original has a snooty reputation, the New York outpost is mostly welcoming, but it’s definitely more scene than cuisine. I can’t say I’m surprised
After long construction delays, it’s great to have life again at the relaunched Surrey Hotel on East 76 Street, that former site of Cafe Boulud, which was dark for four, pandemic-shadowed years.
Casa Tua founder Miky Grendene told WWD he chose the Surrey because, “I think the UES needs, more than downtown, new blood, new things, new energy.”
The floor crew — mostly men clad in suits and ties — moves as efficiently as Josh Allen’s Bills in the fourth quarter. There were so many who said they were Casa Tua veterans that I wondered who was minding the store in Miami. I heard “tutto bene?” more times than a two-hour meal could stand.
Casa Tua offers two strikingly different experiences: the buzzing main dining room and a sexier lounge on the opposite side of the hotel lobby.
There’s energy and star power to spare in both, but especially in the main room. I spotted Channel 5 star Rosanna Scotto, marketing powerhouse Alison Brod and author and former “Real Housewife” Ramona Singer on the same night.
“[This] is a place for the 50-and-up crowd to see and be seen,” my wide-eyed friend noted of the women flouncing around the artwork-festooned, Cipriani-like setting in miniskirts.
The lounge’s warm lighting, dark wood, gleaming mirrors, cozy banquettes, and mellow Italian-Spanish soundtrack are made for romance. Only a nearby male diner’s booming come-ons to the waitress shattered the mood.
Wherever you sit, the energy on the plate can be lacking. The mid-priced (by today’s standards) menu boasts quality ingredients but it isn’t in the strongly seasoned league of nearby Sant Ambroeus.
Casa Tua’s dishes are annoyingly ordinary for its extraordinary social aspirations. They unpredictably swing from first-rate to total duds.
Well-spiced bresaola ($36) with shaved Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, in a generous portion, had more flavor than the oddly bland, 36-month-aged prosciutto di Parma ($42), which was sliced to thick.
Lobster spaghetti a la chittara ($42) arrived al dente with a pleasing chili-sparked tomato sauce.
But on two occasions, the timid cacio e pepe ($32) twice had us wondering, “Where’s the pepe?”
Chicken alla diavola ($44) lived up to its name, as juicy as it was peppercorn-sparked. But veal milanese ($72 and enough for two) lacked character beneath a crisp batter.
In a lifetime of minestrone-slurping, I never had any as thin as Casa Tua’s attempt at the classic soup ($22). Either re-name it “hot water with carrot and potato fragments” or put it on the first plane back to Miami.
Traditional desserts such as tiramusu are good, but go with “Miky’s Pistachio Gelato,” a $30, creamy, multi-layer affair atop crackling Rice Krispies.
It’s large enough for at least three, and delicious enough to put earlier duds behind you.
Casa Tua is remarkably public-friendly despite the fact that it’s attached to a private club of the same name. The warmth was absent only in an unsmiling hostess who claimed the lounge, where I asked to be seated, was “fully committed” at 7 p.m.; it turned out to be less than half-full all night.
I’ll be back to the lounge for a new, lighter menu they plan to launch this week — and hope for a crowd worthy of the setting.
