Thanks bspeilman for your Great info. I have to say I perused all the menus, and looked at the places, and Piano Due, had the best combo for me. Made a reservation for 7:30 and I am finally at the end of my quest! Yey! Thanks again. BTW, it is a perfect location from our Crowne Plaza Times Square!

You're quite welcome. Buon Appetito!

jroth - yes, Puglia was/is certainly not fine food by any means. All I meant to say is that even in the early 70's there were regional Italian restaurants in NYC, if you knew where to look.

And something I think we forget is that Mario opened Po in 1993 (I know because I lived around the corner from Po and would see this weird chubby guy with orange hair and shoes yakking with the old guys in Zito's) and Babbo in 1998. There used to be a place down Bleecker Street between 7th and Christopher - it had been there for at least 5 years previous to that, that would feature a different region of Italian food every 6 weeks. And of course, Tuscan food became quite popular in the late 70's when Sylvano Marchetto opened Da Sylvano . . .

And one further note about Puglia cuisine in NYC. I Trulli does it quite well.

The restaurant landscape changed dramatically in the late 1970's. Puglia's was a place to go with a group and have fun while your Italian friends complained that it never met the standard's that their mother set.

The fact that Little Italy is now a small island between an expanded Chinatown from the south and east and the tragically hip from the north, speaks not only of the sophistication in tastes but the move to the suburbs.

We used to go to night court on a date and Little Italy for dessert. What the hell did we know?

BTW, in the early 80's we would go to Luna's or Grotto Azzura and then Ferraras for dessert. I used to love the old red sauce Ialian restaurant in old Little Italy. Remember the juice glasses for wine....now that's Italian ;-)!

And the thing I remember most about the old red sauce Italian restaurants in old Little Italy isn't the food - it's Joey Gallo and his buddies getting whacked at Umbertos :-)

Ever since Bobby De Niro and Marty Scorsese left the neighborhood and John Gotti's "social club" became a hip boutique, it hasn't been the same.

sf7307, now that's Italian! :-)