1. The Mediter­ranean Ware­house in New­town has under­gone some ren­o­va­tions tak­ing out the wall sep­a­rat­ing the pizze­ria from the ware­house, so now there’s an extend­ed deli counter and you dine among the shelves. The price of an indi­vid­ual piz­za may have grad­u­al­ly increased $4 over the past cou­ple’o years but now you can get a bowl of (microwaved) pas­ta topped fresh­ly with Parme­san & roc­quette for $6.50, and that’s a pret­ty good lunch. Espe­cial­ly if you add in some gela­to too.

Gnocch gnocch. Who’s there? Deli­cious­ness.

2. If per­haps you’re look­ing to get your Welling­ton on a Plate din­ner menu on, and you think you’ll give Lager­field anoth­er try after the last abom­i­na­tion, but it turns out when you final­ly get some­one to acknowl­edge you that they’re all booked up, and Bet­tys [sic] is closed, you should go to Fratel­li. Admit­ted­ly, their WOP menu is $70 (it includes wine), but they also offer a Fratel­li Feast on Tues­days for $35. It’s car­ba­li­cious­ly fan­tas­tic. Tonight we enjoyed the choice of flat­bread and olives or mar­gari­ta piz­za from their wood-fired oven, then light & puffy gnoc­chi in marsala & gor­gonzo­la sauce topped with radic­chio, fen­nel and roc­quette (my friend had a mush­room risot­to which was one of the nicest I’ve ever tried), and then the best tiramisu in town, rich in orange liqueur (or Bai­ley’s & pra­line gela­to). Pair that with a bot­tle of San­giovese for $43 and some love­ly ser­vice, and you’ve got a bloody good evening.