brooklyn & little italy

though i've been to new york a number of times, i've never walked across the brooklyn bridge or really ventured out into any of the boroughs besides manhattan. so this time we spent most of the morning walking through the financial district and made it over the bridge into brooklyn. it was a beautiful day, but hot hot hot. lucky for me, lunch (and ice cream) was waiting on the other side.

jason checked out a few restaurants before we left rochester and decided we should check out grimaldi's or pete's downtown. we made it down towards both a little bit before noon and there was already a line at least a block long waiting for grimaldi's to open. there's no way we were waiting for that so we walked down to pete's downtown which was closed for a private party. bummer. we gawked through the windows at the pizza next door at ignazio's and decided to give it a whirl, especially since we hadn't had any pizza yet since coming to the city. we had a short, ten minute wait before we were seated and promptly ordered classes of fresh, homemade lemonade. it was probably the best lemonade i've ever had. ever. and while jason would have liked even less sugar, i thought it was perfectly tart.

and then there was the pizza. ah, but really, it's hard to find bad pizza in new york (i'm sure it's there, but i've yet to find it). another patron recommended the smoked chicken, so we had a basic margherita with smoked chicken on half. jason really liked the chicken, i didn't care for it so much, too much smoke. but the pizza was great.

since it was in the mid nineties, we made sure to save enough room for ice cream i spotted as soon as we made it to brooklyn. after lunch we walked across the street to the brooklyn ice cream factory. jason had chocolate and i had peaches and cream. his chocolate was good, but if i hadn't known mine was peaches and cream, i never would have guessed it. the pieces of peach were almost unnoticeable and it definitely didn't taste like peach either. what a disappointment.

after poking around the park, checking out the manhattan skyline, and watching the garbage barge go by, we made our way back across the bridge, walked through chinatown, and made it to little italy in time for dinner.

we walked all the way up mulberry street, through the menus and tourists, and sat in a park on the corner of mulberry and spring streets to escape the heat a bit. until i noticed this place - rice to riches - across the street. who knew rice pudding was so popular? not this girl. it definitely seems like an odd commodity. people were pouring out of there with small bowls of pudding (and eating them on the bench next to me), so they must be doing something right.

after marveling at the thought of mailing rice pudding to someone as a gift, we headed back down mulberry street to pick a place for dinner. and this is where i should have known better. little italy is one place i always always always look up restaurant reviews and have a couple in mind before i go. but not this time. this time i was too busy getting other things ready before we left that it slipped my mind. and jason, to no fault of his own, didn't realize how bad little italy can be if you don't do a bit of research ahead of time. case in point: positano.

we walked by, scoping out the strip - who's eating there? are they all tourists? what are they eating? does it look good? who has food left on their plate? are people eating the bread? - and settled on positano. it looked good on the outside - food looked good, good mix of new yorkers and tourists, and people were eating their food. so we sit. and we order. yes, we'll try the sangria, especially since it's still close to 90 outside. that's when we should have left - my sangria was red wine with canned fruit cocktail. really?! but we already ordered. so we waited for the food.

jason had pasta with vodka sauce. not bad, but not the best. i had veal stuffed with mozzarella, prosciutto, and basil with pasta in a marsala sauce. one of my favorites. my veal was stuffed with breadcrumbs and breadcrumbs only. not a combination of bread and the others. not even a hint of mozz or prosciutto or basil. nothing. but soggy bread. but the pasta was good, right? not unless you like salt pasta. the only flavor was salt. it was awful. and at $30-something a plate, i'd expect way more from these guys. i learned my lesson again: always research before you go.