Enoteca on Court 06-26-2011

Location: 347 Court St. BK

Time: 6pm

People: RB, CK and myself

Feelings: Since Carroll Gardens used to be a predominantly Italian neighborhood, there are countless Italian restaurants and specialty stores to choose from. Lucali is perhaps the most famous pizzeria, but they are cash only, don't deliver and are overpriced. So if you are looking for a mid range price with refined flavor that is more Italian than American Italian, look no further than Enoteca on Court. Don't worry, they of course have a wood burning oven.

Enoteca offers small plates of cheeses, bruschetta, and salumi that would be perfect with wine. If you are not much of a pizza lover, they also serve excellent salads, panini calzones, pasta and spiedini (Italian skewers). My other Italian neighborhood favorites, Brucie, Bocca Lupo, Rucola are the experts of non pizza dishes, so stick with pizza here if you can.

The oven baked pasta dishes such as baked ziti ($7) are quite tasty, but their beet salad ($9) has more sleek flavor that comes with seriously powerful Gorgonzola cheese and subtly sweet orange fig dressing.

Their small vegetarian pizza ($13, large is $19, tomatoes, mozzarella, eggplant, zucchini and peppers) is not actually very small. Its cracker thin crust is baked to perfection. The crust is perfectly crispy, and both the sauce and cheese are fresh and high quality. They also have Nutella pizza with strawberries!

While Brucie and Rucola might attract outer borough residents, Enoteca is a solid neighborhood restaurant that would live up to its expectation every time. Places like Enoteca make our neighborhood so appealing--and make us stay here despite its ever rising rents.