Pepolino

Since 1999, Pepolino has been cooking Tuscan food on the corner of West Broadway and Lispenard Street, long before Tribeca became what it is today. The founders, chef Patrizio Siddu and pastry chef Enzo Pezone, both came from Cibreo, the much-loved Florence restaurant, and they built Pepolino around the rustic, unfussy cooking they knew there rather than whatever was in fashion. The room is polished Tuscan rustic, with wooden tables, exposed brick, warm yellow walls and big windows, and many of its roughly 30 staff have been here since the start. As Siddu has put it, it is a neighborhood restaurant, and that is what it has always been.

New York Turk came here for a solo Italian dinner in 2025, and the menu rewards a slow evening. Start with the pappa al pomodoro, the Florentine tomato and bread soup that is the restaurant's most popular dish, then the pappardelle al Pepolino with tomato sauce and fresh thyme, or the veal and ricotta meatballs. The roasted branzino with rosemary is a lighter main, and in autumn the kitchen turns to pappardelle with wild boar ragu. Whatever you order, finish with Enzo's ricotta cheesecake, which regulars call one of the best in the city. Ask for a table upstairs by the window. Note that the entrance has a few steps.