Rooftop Dining in the Smoke

Some friends came back into town so of course we had to meet up for dinner before one of their shows. They particlarly wanted to go to Serra by Birreria.at Eataly It’s a rooftop restaurant which they used to bill as their beer garden. Normally this would sound great, but this was the day that NYC was impacted by the smoke from the wildfires in Canada the most - Air Quality Index reached nearly 500 and the skies were orange for a good hour or two in the afternoon. Luckily for us, the entire rooftop was in an enclosed space so we didn’t have any risk of being exposed.

We started off with some drinks, which were definitely more potent than I expected. My companion wanted soda and asked the typical, do you have coke or pepsi question. And the answer surprised us.. it was no, but we have an Italian version of it.

Frorm there, my companion and I shared a few different plates. Our other companions also ordered a couple shared plates

We tried the Panelle (basically a fried chickpea paste), and they had the arancini (italian fried risotto balls) and the Straciatella (toast with a soft mozzarella (like the interior of burrata) drizzled with honey and a ‘Nduja - spreadable spicy pork).

For our main dishes, we shared a pasta and a secondi. We chose the ravioli (ricotta and pea ravioli, lemon butter, pea tendrils).

The pasta was the perfect al dente with a nice pasta to filling ratio. The ricotta inside tasted fresh and more gritty and not watery as you typically experience with the frozen kinds. The sauce was very lemony but paired well with the fresh pea shoots on top, making the entire dish refreshing and not heavy at all, perfect for the summertime.

For our main we went with the halibut (seared halibut, salsa piccata).

This was also a lighter dish and paired well with the pasta.

Since our meal felt relatively light, we went for the dessert meant for 2; vaso di cioccolato (chocolate cookies, 70% chocolate cremeux, whipped cream, dark chocolate crunchy, rum-soaked sponge cake).

This fun dessert came in a flowerpot made to look like a plant. The flowers were made of gum paste and the little drops were merengue and the green was just cake crumbs. Underneath that was a mixture of all the ingredients listed above, with the cremeaux and layers of cake and cookies. It was not nearly as rich as we thought it might be, which I appreciated.

Overall a very fun meal. Would go back.