Ristorante Morini - Wine & Spirits Magazine

Restaurant Review

Ristorante Morini

by Alan Tardi • May 8, 2014

At Ristorante Morini on the Upper East Side, the latest installment in Michael White’s bourgeoning empire, the vibe is decidedly fancier and the food more classically Italian but it is also uncommonly delicious. Mare Nostrum, for example, combines baby octopus, calamari, shrimp and scallops with saline sea beans and briny olives in a delicate broth spiked with colatura and a discreet touch of pepperoncino. And White’s rendition of carbonara finds a perfect balance between rusticity and refinement that would make even a hardened coal burner swoon (though they might wish the short housemade bucatini-like pasta was just a bit more al dente). And while beverage director Richard Anderson services the neighborhood with a list deep in Champagne and grand cru Burgundy, he’s also stuffed it full with unusual gems, like pignoletto from Emilia-Romagna and Dettori’s Ottomarzo, a plush red made from a rare Sardinian grape called pascale.

1167 Madison Ave. (btw. 85th & 86th Sts.), New York, NY

Italian

212-249-0444

ristorantemorini.com

This story appears in the print issue of April 2014.
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TAGS Italian New & Notable New York New York City Restaurant

David Paradela
Associate Editor

David joined Wine & Spirits in 2021 after immersing himself in the world of wine at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally from Boston, he graduated from Boston University with a degree in English and completed a master’s degree in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College in 2021. Prior to working at the magazine, he served as an editor and staff writer for the music blog Sound of Boston and worked in scientific publishing. Aside from wine, he loves basketball, arguing about Taylor Swift’s best album, and everything Greta Gerwig touches.

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Tastings Editor

Corey Warren moved to New York in 2015—fifteen years too late to join The Strokes—after earning a degree at Cornell in Comparative Literature. He started polishing glasses at Betony and threw himself into the restaurant world. Later, while a captain at Aquavit, he began working part time in the Wine & Spirits tasting department. Now, in addition to running tastings, he serves as critic for the wines of the Loire, Southern France, Argentina and South Africa. Corey likes almost anything bubbly, from Miller High Life, the Champagne of beers, to Champagne, the Champagne of Champagne, but he’ll drink anything once, and loves finding unique wines.

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Patricio Tapia
Senior Correspondent

After graduating with a degree in journalism from the Universidad de Chile in Santiago, Patricio Tapia attended Bordeaux University in France, where he studied for a diploma in wine tasting and winemaking. Since then, he has visited wine regions around the world and authored several books, including his annual Descorchados, a Chilean wine guide; The Wines of Colchagua Valley; TodoVino and Wines for Great Occasions. Tapia is also the South American correspondent for The Oxford Companion to Wine, The World Atlas of Wine and Oz Clarke’s Pocket Wine Book. For the past three years, he’s been a host on the El Gourmet channel in South America. At Wine & Spirits, Tapia is the critic for the wines of Argentina, Chile and Spain, and regularly contributes articles on these regions.