In anticipation of the summer – I’ve been eating less these days. I make it a point to hold off on breakfast by drinking some grapefruit juice or tea or coffee and then eating a lunch on the light side and then grabbing an early dinner and maybe a handful of almonds before bedtime. I still haven’t bought that scale I wanted to get, but that’s on the list of things to do to get ready for the season. Tracking your metrics is important!
I tell you this because I think my stomach is shrinking. Not that I couldn’t get it up to 93 Plates size in a few weeks with a bit of effort, but I just can’t eat like I’ve been able to recently, which means my food touring suffers. This was a big disappointment when I arrived in Little Italy at Enzo’s.
Going reviewless for this one, people on the street would tell me where the best calamari was. This was a problem because there was a cacophony of suggestions and no clear winner. Enzo’s looked good, but the waiter suggested the fried meatballs instead, so the order went in (instead of the calamari).
Then this happened:
Christ-on-a-stick look how excellent that looks … I had just about the whole loaf. Slathered with butter, it was pure heaven. If you go up to Little Italy in the Bronx and you only have one thing, have this olive loaf. I say this because it was the best thing out of the four things I tasted on my “food tour of Bronx’s Little Italy,” but it was also that good. Those olives. Whole olives baked right into the bread. Steaming hot juicy black olives. If I went again, I would stop in here to have the bread and then move on.
Yeah, the meatballs weren’t exceptional. When the guy said “our fried meatballs are good,” I was expecting breaded, deep fried meatballs (like a deep fried oreo) – crispy on the outside, juicy in the middle. My guess is that they were just regular meatballs thrown into the fryer with no consideration for what people might be expecting. Then they were served under a sautée of onions and red peppers – tasty but moist – which brought the crispness down even further.
The bread, though. Damn. That bread was glorious.
In a related story, I received this message from a wrong number on my google voice:
What if I’d skipped out on the bill … they could be coming for me right now.
Enzo’s
2339 Arthur Avenue
Bronx, NY 10458
(718) 733-4455
fyi – you weren’t in Little Italy, you were on Arthur Avenue (that’s all you need to say)
It’s a better little italy than Manhattan’s
your site will be the ultimate NYC dining guide
Thank you so much for that comment! I really appreciate it. It’s my favorite comment ever!
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