Jonathan Gold Reviews Superba Snack Bar in Venice

Jonathan Gold check in at Paul Hibler and chef Jason Neroni's popular new Venice addition, Superba Snack Back. Gold is intrigued by the "abstract Italian" menu, especially the pastas:

Neroni's style is what you might call abstracted Italian, which is to say that it incorporates tastes and textures associated with Italian cooking without actually duplicating an Italian dish.

If the restaurant has a specialty, it is probably the pastas. They are handmade, slightly stiff and leaning toward excess — twisted casarecce with chanterelles, Parmesan and a dusting of the dried fish roe bottarga; the floppy hand-folded penne called garganelli with shell beans and shreds of pheasant; and agnolotti, like oblong ravioli, with crab and the last of the season's corn ... His whole-wheat rigatoni is more or less in the style of cacio e pepe, cooked extremely al dente and tossed with cheese and a punishing handful of black pepper — it doesn't quite taste like anything you'd get in Rome. It tastes like Venice Beach.

[Photo: Elizabeth Daniels]

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