al di là Trattoria

Anna Klinger and Emiliano Coppa opened al di là on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Carroll Street in 1998, and for nearly three decades it has been the restaurant Park Slope measures everything else against. The cooking is Northern Italian without apology — malfatti rolled by hand, braised rabbit with black olives, tripe for the faithful — served in a room of mismatched chairs, dark wood, and a chandelier that has watched a generation of anniversaries.

Klinger runs the kitchen and Coppa the floor, and the pair live half a block away, which may explain why the place still feels kept rather than managed. The attached wine bar closed some years back; the trattoria carried on exactly as it was. Come at opening on a weeknight and the corner windows catch the last of the Fifth Avenue light.