Archestratus, the first food critic, praised Italian cuisine's "top-quality and seasonal" ingredients and "fair to middling" ability to tranquilize out-of-control mayors. Judge for yourself with today's Groupon: for $30, you get $60 worth of Northern Italian cuisine at Cafe Tiramisu.
Cafe Tiramisu's white-linen tablecloths and softly glowing wall sconces and paper lanterns ease eyes into dancing over Chef Paul DeMartino's well-curated menu. Thin slices of beef carpaccio offer a summer-weight blanket for layers of chilly shaved parmesan, extra-virgin olive oil, and capers ($10), and mussels bathe themselves in a creamy garlic, white-wine sauce ($11). Spin linguini with your fork, stopping to pick up shrimp, scallops, artichokes, spinach, and portobello mushrooms ($17), or use a spoon to shovel veal or chicken saltimbocca into your handbag ($15+).
Café Tiramisu
Café Tiramisu continues the culinary legacy of the DeMartino family, who ran the revered eatery Piccolo Mondo for nearly 20 years. As his sons handle Café Tiramisu’s business end, patriarch Paul DeMartino focuses on the grill, preparing a menu of antipasto, homemade pastas, and sumptuous entrees inspired by the cookery of Northern Italy. Steaming dishes make their way into the dining room, where wall-mounted lamps cast a soft light upon white-clothed tables and the bar's impressive selection of red and white wines, served by the bottle, glass, or the cupped hands of an overeager dinner companion.