Cafe Spaghetti

Chef Sal Lamboglia, who grew up in Bensonhurst, opened Cafe Spaghetti on Union Street near the Columbia Street waterfront in 2022, and it has been one of the harder tables to get in this corner of Carroll Gardens ever since. There is a small enclosed room facing the street, but most of the seats are out back, in a gravel courtyard under yellow umbrellas with a Vespa parked in the middle — one of the most pleasant backyards in Brooklyn on a warm night.

The menu keeps to Italian-American favorites done with care. Start with the rice balls — cacio e pepe arancini — and spiedini alla romana in anchovy-tomato sauce, then the spaghetti pomodoro, rich and buttery, or pasta e piselli; orecchiette with sausage and broccoli rabe is a regular's order. Tony's tiramisu, heavy on espresso, closes it out. Lamboglia's team also runs Bar Ferdinando around the corner, the revived century-old focacceria.