#TerrificTakeout #PeachysPicks #PeachyDeegan #Primola @ManhattanPeachy A Peachy's Pick Since 2012, Primola Since 1986 Summer 2018
Incredible Chicken Paillard!
Insalata Speciale Primola
It's not who you know, it's WHOM YOU KNOW and we love knowing Giuliano Zuliani and Samuel Morocho, host and executive chef and co-owners of the highly esteemed Primola, bastion of old-world Italian excellence in the absolute best part of town, the Upper East Side.
Primola has been a Peachy's Pick Since 2012.
It recently was included in our best restaurants list for 2018:
and it was most recently featured last winter:
When you enter a restaurant, it is delightful to be seated promptly by the owner himself (or herself...we don't see many hers) and have a lovely plate of crudites and charcuterie immediatly brought to you. And when they know you as well as Primola knows Peachy, they also bring your most favorite Italian red. We love it at Primola and this is what dining perfection looks like from the start. It is getting harder and harder to find new places that are as great as Primola and we are heartbroken to announce that Marcony just closed.
Salads are a great idea any day but in summer, they are especially fantastic! Particularly on the days when it is too hot to eat anything else, salads are amazing refreshment and we don't want to see salads that are too boring or too trendy and overly creative, we want to see salads that are just right. Giuliano's salads are just right. We began with the Insalata Ortolana: baby string beans with mixed peppers and mushrooms. It's a menu regular under antipasti. The endive radiates like the summer sun and the lightest amount of dressing accentuates the flavor perfectly. Yes, you read that right. Peachy trusts Primola to dress salads and she can count on one hand the places she trusts to do this to her liking. You will love the fresh, fabulous classic too.
Another regular is the Insalata Speciale Primola, the signature salad here. Onion, tomato, green beans, mushrooms, cucumbers and lettuce all announce the level of precision achieved in dicing perfection from the Primola kitchen. It was of course as fresh and wonderful as it looks in the picture.
In this case, the dressing was put on the side for Ms. Pretty Picky.
Note we never edit the pictures.
You are as excellent as Giuliano, or we don't publish.
You are as excellent as Giuliano, or we don't publish.
A special the night we visited was the absolutely majestic Asparagus Salad, with cherry tomato, hearts of palm and cannellini beans. Light and refreshing, the salad was delicious and creatively sliced on the diagonal, which we prefer. Even the salads are fashionable at Primola!
Since there is no beach in Manhattan to collect starfish from, you can collect appetizers that look like them! Meet Roasted Peppers with Fresh Anchovies, which to us looks like a summer starfish. The starburst arrangement of anchovies is indeed majestic and the flavor is superlative. Raisins are a welcome accompaniment.
We are huge proponents of risotto done well, and the Risotto with Radiccho Shrimp was a special the night we visited.
A bastion of warm comfort, the delicate little shrimp luxuriate on the most gorgeous bed of risotto you will find in Manhattan. Every bite is delightful and if you thought it was too hot to eat risotto, when it is in front of you, you can't help but delicately devour it. Dining at Primola is a distinct pleasure.
As you know, it is bathing suit season but that is no reason to skip pasta entirely! (As if Peachy would do that anyway!) A beacon of nutrition, Orecchiette Pugliese con Broccoli Rabe is fabulously enhanced with amazingly garlicy broccoli rabe that teams up with gorgeously al dente orecchiette. To Peachy, it looked like the rolling green hills of Ireland which is a big compliment.
A special when we visited was the Salmon Paillard with seasonal salad, so we opted for that as our fish entree. The salmon was perfectly crisp on the outside but balanced and moist on the inside. Not many do this as perfectly as Primola does. The salad is a terrific companion in its colorful and vibrant nature. The meat entree we chose continued along the Paillard theme and the Paillard di Pollo con Verdure Di Stagoni we might have liked even better. Pounded perfectly and joined by asparagus, zucchini, onions, red peppers and mushrooms, the chicken at Primola is a pure celebration of summer and the best Chicken Paillard in Manhattan right now. You probably remember Swifty's was pretty good at this but sadly they have closed.
Green beans are Peachy's favorite so she had them on the side and they were exactly what she was looking for. The day we visited, we heard three rounds of Happy Birthday at three different tables, and Peachy Deegan herself has celebrated her birthday at Primola.
The lovely Aria Bleeker celebrated her second birthday with her equally delightful family:
The cordial atmosphere of Primola and congenial buzz of classy chatter fills the summer air and Primola is a place where you call the waiters a gentlemen and a scholar (overheard). Primola is a massive comfort in the wild world of Manhattan where trends come and go but Giuliano continues to reign over the Upper East Side in his consistent perfection!
We adore cappuccino with skim milk, berries and cream and this is the perfect summer dessert.
Primola continues to be Highly Recommended by Whom You Know.
Giuliano is very old school and we have yet to convince him to have a website or Twitter but maybe someday!
1226 2nd Avenue # 1 New York, NY 10065
Contact: (212) 758-1775
Open Weekdays 12pm-3pm, 5pm-11pm; Weekends 5pm-11pm
