* Baci & Abbracci
image c/o Flickr
CUISINE: Italian and Gourmet Pizza
ADDRESS: 204 Grand St., Brooklyn, NY 11211
nr. Bedford Ave.
PHONE: 718.599.6599
HOURS: Mon-Fri, 4pm-midnight; Sat-Sun, noon-1am
CARDS: American Express, MasterCard, Visa
BOOZE: Full Bar
ENTREES: $10-$22
MENU: Click Here
BRUNCH: Yes, Weekends
OUTDOOR DINING: Yes
SUBWAY: L at Bedford Ave.
MAP: Click Here
DELIVERY: Yes, S. 9th St. to N. 15th St., Manhattan Ave. to Kent Ave.
WEBSITE: www.baciabbracciny.com
TIME OUT NY SAYS: Though its name means "hugs and kisses" in Italian, Baci & Abbracci carefully balances its grandma-style Italian rusticity with a Euro-chic sensibility. Subtle architectural touches, like saucer-shaped light fixtures and a chrome-furniture-filled back garden, lend the casual eatery a modern, space-age look. The old-world influences pop up in the kitchen. The bulging wood-burning oven (imported from Naples) evokes the homeland, and Sorrento native Francesco Mastellone tosses the pies. In addition to pizzas, the menu includes classic dishes like sauteed calamari and veal milanese. We especially liked the polpa e patate appetizer, meaty hunks of octopus and boiled potato slices tossed with slivers of zesty raw garlic, olive oil and plenty of parsley. We also enjoyed a sauceless pizza topped with chewy smoked mozzarella, strips of mild pancetta and caramelized onions. Unfortunately, the crust lacked the crispness of a perfect thin-crust pie. A dessert, torta di nonna, with custardy sabayon, chocolate-cream piping, and crushed, toasted pine nuts and pecans, was named for -- you guessed it -- grandma.
photo: Paul Treacy, Village Voice
FROM NY MAGAZINE: Patrons of this casual, low-fanfare eatery can bank on a warm welcome, if not the kisses and hugs promised in the restaurant’s name. The decor is inviting, too, with rustic tables, a wood-burning pizza oven, marble countertops, and Italian tilework. Balancing confident panache with unpretentious ease, B&A isn’t edgy or superhip and doesn't strive to be. The kitchen favors solid, well-crafted renditions of antipasto, pasta, and pizza, including the welcome familiars linguini with clam sauce and four-cheese pie (quattro formaggi). Antipasti, served in generous, easy-to-share portions, focus on fresh vegetables and shellfish, and set off richer sauced dishes like pasta with fennel in cream sauce and the visually ravishing violette di Parma, jewel-toned red beet gnocchi in cheese sauce. But pizza is the high point here: With crusts that are tender, chewy, and crispy in all the right places, these pies boast decision-defying toppings like smoked mozzarella, pancetta, and caramelized onions, and fresh bufala mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, and arugula. Lucky locals say that this newcomer is sure to give the now-established Fornino, which opened in 2005, a hearty run for its well-beloved pie. Mangia bene, Williamsburg. Weekend brunch features frittatas and eggs Benedict along with eggs to order and a breakfast pizza, topped with tomato, mozzarella, egg, and diner’s choice of ham, sausage, or smoky pancetta. Recommended Dishes: Lattuga alla Trentina salad, $9; Baci & Abbraci pizza , $13; verdure ripiene, $11
FROM VILLAGE VOICE: We sat stunned in the lovely back garden of Baci & Abbracci, our gaze directed at the cloudless sky. Up above wheeled hundreds of fawn-gray doves in concentric circles, their wings glinting white as they turned toward the sun. A faint flapping could be heard as they resolved themselves into three vortices, which disappeared one by one over the line of rooftops. Seeing us gaping, the waiter came over to explain, "A guy on the next block keeps birds on his roof, and he likes to put on a show around sunset."Williamsburg's Grand Street is gradually developing as a dining destination, and Baci & Abbracci ("Kisses and Hugs") is proving to be its flagship. In addition to the garden—which won't be of much use come late October—the restaurant offers a spare and diffusely lit interior of bare brick and a menu with a bravura combination of wood-oven pizzas, solid but predictable apps, quirky and amazing pastas, and voluminous secondi. The thin-crust pizzas cost around $13 each, and one is enough for two people if each also orders an appetizer. With the same name as the restaurant, the signature pie is a char-dappled wonder of creamy mozzarella, sweet caramelized onions, and pancetta, which, rather than being cut up into unsatisfying slivers, is thrown in huge greasy gobs onto the pie. The union of sweet and salty flavors is sublime.
If a demonstration of the pasta's quirkiness is needed, just turn to the gnocchi. In America, these gnurled bits of nourishment are invariably made with potatoes, but in Italy, one can find versions made with bread crumbs or semolina. At Baci & Abbracci, they're fabricated from polenta in gnochetti con ragu di coniglio ($13), giving them a coarse texture that picks up sauce and cheese like dirt on a rolling snowball. The sauce, too, is distinguished: a profuse inundation of rabbit ragu shotgunned with black peppercorns. Even stranger is the gnocchi that leads off the menu of fresh pasta (there's a dried-pasta menu as well, which you can safely ignore). Violette di parma ($12) is named after a fusty perfume manufactured in Parma, a city in Emilia-Romagna associated with Verdi and Proust. These semolina globules (the gnocchi, not Verdi and Proust), dyed deep red with beets, swim in a sauce of cheese and wild arugula, which imparts a faintly bitter taste like the sting of faded love.
Listen to the pasta specials when the waiter recites them. One evening we enjoyed homemade ravioli stuffed with pumpkin. Happy Halloween! Should your meal progress that far, a recommended secondi is stracotto di maiale ($16). Normally, this term designates a pork roast draped with sausages. At Baci & Abbracci, it's a thick pork chop braised in a fragrant rosemary sauce and sided with roasted potatoes. Not as exciting as the pastas, other secondi include veal scallops Milanese, chicken sautéed with sausages, and the not-very-Italian trout almondine.
Inevitably it took a few visits to ferret out the best dishes on the lengthy menu. Making some choices we'd previously avoided, we ordered the calzone ($14) on our final visit. It turned out to be a massive flop of charred yeasty dough enfolding salami, ricotta, and tons of diced mozzarella. And if you've never tasted a calzone made with top-quality cheese, you're in for a treat.
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Posted by: uggsky | December 22, 2009 08:38 AM
Fabulous, Fabulous, Fabulous! My husband and I were looking for a nice restaurant to eat at for our first Anniversary. Looking at a list of restaurants, I was immediately attracted to this restaurant because of the name, "Kisses and Hugs". We thoroughly enjoyed every bite of our appetizer, meal and dessert. The service was perfect. We ate outside in the garden and it was romantic. I felt like I was away somewhere. Definitely worth the experience. The food was awesome and I am looking forward to going back!!
Posted by: Stephanie T | July 21, 2009 03:18 AM
i went there to enjoy suppostly napolitan style pizza,,,,,,,and it was a disaster..piza taste horrible not even close to the real italian one. iam orginally from napoli and i was very very dissapointed with the taste.....food has no soul at all!!!!!!!!!!i will never go there again
Posted by: carolina | January 5, 2009 06:56 PM
Simple but excellent Italian. Can be a bit loud. And it's true it's not cheap, but the pasta isn't exorbitant so if you're not the kind of diner who needs appetizers, wine and dessert with every meal you can get a good dinner for not too much.
Posted by: DanB | April 26, 2008 07:31 PM
Very pleasant, very enjoyable restaurant with a garden. Great salads, great bread, excellent white wine (Chardonney style) from Abruzzo for $7 a glass, attentive service, delicious chocolate tartufo ice cream. Entrees were good, but not remarkable. I had the duck and my friend had the pesto linguini. Bill was $35 each including tax and tip.
Posted by: mopar | April 13, 2008 04:44 PM
I was delievered a small portion of soggy pasta with a "lamb ragout" that consisted in 2 bites of overcooked meat.13$.my beet salad came with tasteless tomatoes and what they called "frisee" was 2 pieces of frisee drowned in regular lettuce.9$.When i called to complain,not only the guy on the phone refused to apologize but was straight up rude,which made me even angrier.i didn't know the pasta is not soggy,its "homemade".avoid this shithole and head a few blocks to aurora for good italian food and decent service.
Posted by: max | December 11, 2007 12:43 AM
This restaurant serves the best Italian food in Brooklyn. Classics are done to perfection and the staff is great. Go there-you won't be disappointed.
Posted by: JoEllen | July 22, 2007 06:51 AM
The first two times I went here for dinner the food, service, etc. was excellent. Tonight however the service was horrible (I think it was the blonde waitresses first night because she clearly forgot to fire our entrees as well as forgetting about the drinks we ordered) and the food was really bland. Or rather the entrees that they had to make in a rush because the waitress forgot about them were really bland. I'd like to think it was just an off night so there is a slight chance I may return.
Posted by: M. | June 19, 2007 03:22 AM
This place is consistently good, with wait staff who actually seem to be professionals. How refreshing. A dropped fork replaced within seconds. The weekend brunch is nice, too.
Posted by: R&C | May 20, 2007 11:05 PM
I just tried the margherita pizza after reading that they were voted Best New Pizza Joint in Time Out Eat Out 2007 awards. I have to say I was dissapointed. I still prefer Fornino's pizza. The pie was small for the price and not very impressive in terms of taste.
Posted by: Lauren | April 16, 2007 04:03 AM
fornino wont deliver so I settle for this which is too $$$ for the size of pizza, but still tasty
Posted by: fornino | November 21, 2006 01:11 AM
Not cheap... but not bad.
Posted by: fortuna | October 16, 2006 12:43 AM