Taste: Il Buco Alimentari & Vineria

My 30th birthday was such a grand birthday...It was my golden birthday, in which I am hoping it will be my golden year. I turned 30 on 12/30/11. This year- I celebrated for days and received such charming gifts from friends- beautiful gold alexis bitter earrings, hermes perfume, a bouquet of white peonies, champagne, caviar, a beautiful striped blue and white scarf, books and more...tonight a dear friend of mine, Carolina decided to take me for a birthday dinner in the east village..we decided to try a consistently good joint: Bianca, but was unable to get seating because A) it is the New Year and a happening Thursday night and B) this restaurant is always packed- the food is consistently good (and did I mention reasonably priced). We tried bumbling into a few new places, i.e.: Wren- but again were unfortunate to find seating. Until we luckily stumbled upon Il Buco Alimentari & Vineria, the sister restaurant to the famous "Il Buco". We got a bar table for 2 quickly and was immediately greeted by an extremely friendly staff. For appetizers we enjoyed: crispy artichokes, sardines and bruschetta. For entree we split an amazing papardelle with chunks of veal.. We concluded with a tasting of gelato e sorbets..divine..we each had one cocktail - me a dry and tasty red and she a light beer. The food was yummy, not overly pretentious and good. I definitely recommend this venue and will return to try their market foods- paninis' cheese and meats to go..

http://www.ilbuco.com/