Sneaking to Savoia

Savoia is probably my new favorite Italian restaurant. On a tip from my uncle, I went on an impromptu tasting mission to Carroll Gardens on a pleasant Sunday evening not so long ago to give the place a whirl. After one meal, I am a total convert. Of course, it does help that a fifteen minute wait was remedied by a glass of gratis prosecco handed off by a doe-eyed bartender. Ahhh… Italia.

It’s a big deal for me to claim this Italian restaurant as my favorite. If there is anything I have learned since moving out of Manhattan, it’s that Brooklyn is big... And click-y. It’s the neighborhood—Carroll Gardens is not remotely close to my part of Brooklyn. Also, my neighborhood is Italian and just the idea of going to another haunt for pasta and peroni induces a chill down my back, imagining a mobster from two blocks over giving me the axe from disloyalty. But one bite of anything on the menu and you will be sneaking there every weekend.

A plate-sized pancake of pan-fried artichoke and calamari was our fritter starter. Crispy, not greasy batter held chunks of choke and calamari rings, packing the punch with each bite. A tomato salad came out as a heaping mound of too-flavorful-for-the-start-of-the-season slices, augmented by paper-thin ringlets of onion, a heavy hand of oregano and fresh leaves of basil.

Shrimp and eggplant caponata was a hands-down favorite. An ample portion of fresh, flavorful caponata took over a dinner plate only to get crowned with at least six sautéed shrimp. Homemade white and foccacia breads made for excellent scoops for the decadent dip.

We eyed the pizzas and the pastas all around, knowing that we didn’t have much more room in our stomachs. While the pizzas looked fantastic, they looked devastatingly large at that point in the meal. We opted for a fusili which came with sun-dried tomatoes, shrimp, and got robed in a creamy pesto, unlike anything either of us have had before—in New York, the United States, Italy, and elsewhere.

This was the best. I didn’t think I’d be able to eat much, no matter how tasty, but I managed to uphold my half of the entrée, even venturing to the other side for a few last bites.