It had been decades since I had been to Hearth, Chef Marco Canora’s market-driven upscale Tuscan-American restaurant on the lower east side. My eldest son took me there for my birthday when he was living and working in the city.

My dining partner has recently had her birthday celebration there and it was so good, she wanted to return. The bartender happily filled her request for the specialty cocktail they had created for her party.  The “I Can’t Feel My (Scar)fazzi” combines Tito’s, Amaretto and Cappelletti, a bitter, sweet, herbal wine-base aperitif.  I sipped their Old Fashioned made with Doc Swinson’s rum cask bourbon ($18, each).

To start, my friend ordered the chickpea flour pancake ($8) topped with an olive tapenade; I started with the flavorful Tuscan white bean soup with black cabbage, breadcrumbs and parmesan from amazing 3-course prix fixe $39 restaurant week menu available when we dined.

I followed my hearty soup with the wild cod in a light broth with a few manila clams plus celery root and leeks. She had the thick and juicy Berkshire pork chop with braised cabbage and apple butter ($36). We washed that down with a glass of Verduno, Pelaverga, Alessandria, 2020, Piedmont ($18, each).

We shared the olive oil cake with blood orange marmalade and honey mascarpone that came with my restaurant-week dinner.

I highly recommend a trip to the lower east side to dine at this warm and cozy restaurant.

Hearth
Lower East Side
403 E 12th St
New York, NY 10009
(646) 602-1300
restauranthearth.com