Morini has an authentic look about it, as if they had dismantled a restaurant in Emilia-Romagna and reassembled it on Lafayette St on the Lower East Side. Morini is another restaurant from the partnership of chef Michael White and restaurateur Chris Cannon that includes the roughly year old and highly acclaimed Marea and others. In a nugget of a feel good story, Morini is named after White's mentor, a chef he worked under in Emilia-Romagna, Gianluigi Morini. Now one would easily assume that if your going to name a restaurant after your Italian mentor, then attention to detail will be found.
The wine selections are above board. It's really nice to see a list that offers a sound number of selections without being overwhelming. A pleasant circumstance of having a restaurant of Emilia-Romagna is a serious commitment to one of its prized wines, lambrusco. Not the soda pop wines like Riunite, but the pleasantly dry, often frothy, seriously palatable food pairing wines that are often more difficult to find than Julian Assange. Here they not only offer nine labels, but have three glass pours, which are also offered as a flight.
As for the food, all I can say after one visit, is that I want more. A basic green salad was garnished with a variety of bitter greens and lightly dressed in a vinaigrette that made a refreshing starter. Their pastas will surely garner plenty attention over time. The tagliatelle with ragu antica offered the exceptional silky texture of a fresh made pasta with the rich ragu that clung to the noodles. It was a dish that you wanted to gobble up, but simply had to savor slowly like watch the sun set over the ocean.
The rest of the menu looked pretty interesting too, with small plates, fish and meat entrees and featured hunks of meat like a spit-roasted porchetta. There is enough variety to please everyone and prices are quite reasonable with pastas in the upper teens and mains under $30.
Osteria Morini, 218 Lafayette near Spring. 212-965-8777, http://www.osteriamorini.com/
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