Description
Anella started out shaky a couple of years ago, with mediocre pizzas and a mixed-bag quasi-Italian menu. Since then, under new chef Joseph Ogrodnek, the place has completely turned around.
Pizzas have been deep-sixed, but many of the original dishes remain, spectacularly reconfigured. There's an asparagus appetizer arranged like a miniature village, with the stalks stacked like Legos, a fiddlehead-radish salad on the side, and a runny egg on top, and one of the city's most perfect plates of fried calamari. One evening, a crudo of mackerel squirted with pesto and decorated with basil flowers blew our minds. The backyard garden is one of the city's most pleasant secluded spaces.
