Notes: Reservations required; casual with an edge dress code; Italian-skewed wine list is well structured, with good options across a good price range.
We tried Nora Gray on a recent Saturday night, just a couple of weeks after it opened. This very small (45 seats, but feels like 20), very chic space felt welcoming and cozy, even more so given the frigid, wet outside temperature. The Southern Italian food could have come straight out of a highly skilled home cook’s kitchen. We ate family style, sharing several appetizers (amazingly fresh, plump sardines; perfectly seasoned meatballs on top of a bed of slighty chewy calamari; mushroom cavatelli that has left me craving more since) and mains including the steak with capers and anchovies (perfectly cooked to medium rare perfection) and the rabbit.
Nora Gray is worth a visit; the food and the space feel fresh and hit the nail on the head. The only weird factor is that the small space and constant stream of patrons coming in and exchanging hugs with the owners (Ryan Gray, Emma Cardarelli and Lisa McConnell) and staff leaves you feeling a little bit like an intruder on a Sunday night family dinner, at a stranger’s house, but overall the feeling is more homey than awkward. You also get the sense that you were lucky to get a seat at a table which might very well be impossible to nail down once Nora Gray goes mainstream.
