The New CAFE DANTE

What is It ???

SMALL PLATES ECLECTIC MENU

Non-Driven Italian Wine List

Old Patrons Probably Won't Like It

The New Dante

South Room Bar

Linden Pride

Caffe Dante's New Owner

DANTE The new owners, including Linden Pride, formerly of AvroKO, have spruced up the 100-year-old cafe with green leather banquettes, but the space retains a vintage Italian Greenwich Village look with its pressed tin ceiling. The menu is now mostly small plates: beef tartare, burrata, flatbread and cold pasta salad. Italian aperitifs dominate the cocktail list: 79-81 Macdougal Street (Bleecker Street), 212-982-5275

A Picture of Former Caffe Dante Owner

Mari Flotta on the Homepage of The New Dante

The new Dante on Macdougal Street in Greenwich Village is

absolutely nothing like the former beloved Caffe Dante, a caffe

that was a fixture of Greenwich Village for exactly 100 years

before closing earlier this year, when former owner

Mario Flotta sold Caffe Dante to Linden Pride who has been

quoted as saying the new Dante will be very much like the old

one with some changes. "Not" !!! The new Dante looks very nice

although quite different from the former caffe .. The entire concept

of the new Dante pretty much has nothing to do with the old one.

The New Dante has been billed as a Small Plates / Apertivo Bar 

that has little resemblance to anything remotely Italian .. It's billed

as an Italian Apertivo Bar, yet the Wine list has barely 20% 

Italian Wines in its makeup an the food apart from a few

Italian items, seems anything but Italian.

Although the new owner (s) has stated that the New Dante

will be very much like and in the spirit of the former Caffe Dante,

it seems doubtful that writers & students would be able to go into

the place, get a Cappuccino and sit writing for an hour or two.

The former Caffe Dante was a Greenwich Village Italian Caffe where

people could go just for a Cappuccino or Espresso and maybe a

pastry if they liked, hang out with friends or be there on there own just 

relaxing, reading, writing, whatever ..

There was a rumor that the new Dante would be serving dinner and drinks

at night and that is what customers would be expected to order, and

spend probably a minimum of $30 and upwards, but during the day 

people would be able to just go in for a Cappuccino or Espresso. it seems

doubtful that this will be possible, but time will tell. Time will tell what the

New Dante is, if its successful or not and if it stays the same as the owners

now intend or if it will morf into something else.

The New DANTE

North Side Dining Room

APEROL SPRITZ

On The Menu

 .

.

.

ROCCO CARBONE

ROCCO'S IS CARBONE ?

ROCCO'S IS CARBONE !

The former Greenwich Village Old-Schhol Red-Sauce Italian Joint, Rocco's a beloved little neighborhood trattoria closed two years ago as most people know. Squeezed out by a greedy lanlord and the so-called Torrisi Boys; Mario Carbone, Rich Torrisi, and Jeff Zalaznick ... Some hard-core old-school Italians were really miffed and the final straw some said was when the ne-owners superimposed the name "Carbone" right over the Old Rocco Neon Sign .. They said the Torrisi Boys add "Insult to Injury" with that one, not to mention prices like $52 Veal Parmigiano and sky-high prices across the board on; cocktails, food, and wine ...

FRANK & AVA
"MANGIA BENE" !!!

Frank Sinatra & Ava Gardner

"Looks Like Minestrone"

CLICK HERE !

New York Italian

PATSY'S

"FRANK SINATRA 'S FAVORITE"

West 56th Street

NEW YORK, NY

Frank Sinatra & Ava Gardner

"MANGIA BENE"

RAO'S

East Harlem, New York

New York's Toughest Table

Cause "Frankie No" Says "NO" !!!!

JOHN'S PIZZERIA

Bleecker Street

Greenwich Village

NEW YORK

FAICCO'S

Manhattan's Best Pork Store

Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village

GABAGOOL !!!!

PIZZA

NEW YORK & AMERICA'S

BEST PIZZA

DiFar Pizza

Avenue J , Brooklyn, NY

The MAESTRO of PIZZA

Mr. Dom DeMarco

BAR PITTI

The # 1 Best Italian Trattoria

in NEW YORK

Greenwich Village

and

"CELEBRITY CENTRAL"

CARBONE

Formely Rocco's Restorante

For More Than 70 Years

In Greewnich Village

Now New York's Hottest New Restaurant

CLICK HERE !

NEW YORK'S BEST SUNDAY SAUCE

"GRAVY"

Recipes & Stories In SUNDAY SAUCE

by Daniel Bellino-Zwicke

Ingredients

For

SUNDAY SAUCE alla BELLINO

THE BELLINO FAMILY

1939

Philipo, Lucia, Tony, Josephina

Philipo & Josephina Bellino Were Both Born

In "Lecarra Freddi" SICILY

The Same Town as The SINATRA FAMILY

and CHARLES "LUCKY" LUCCIANO

BAR PITTI

NEW YORK'S # 1 BEST TRATTORIA

and

"CELEBRITY CENTRAL"

Greenwich Village, New York

A MEATBALL PARM SANDWICH

Read About Meatball Parm Mondays

in

Daniel Bellino-Zwicke 's

SUNDAY SAUCE

"When Italian-Americans Cook"

 GINO'S

In Memeory of GINO'S
One of NY'S GREATEST

ITALIAN RESTAURANTS

EVER !!!!

CLEMENZA (Richard Castellano)

SHOWS MICHAEL (Al Pacino)

HOW To MAKE

SUNDAY SAUCE alla CLEMENZA

CLICK HERE !

VESUVIO

Prince Street

Soho, New York

photo Daniel Bellino-Zwicke

NEWPORT STEAKS

CLICK HERE !

Chianti, Barolo, Brunello

and

Newport Steaks

in

Greewnich Village

New York

Click Here !

La TAVOLA

Is

NEW YORK ITALIAN

CAFFE DANTE

NEW YORK'S BEST ESPRESSO

Greenwich Village New York

photo Daniel Bellino-Zwicke

Ingredients

The NEGRONI

Cocktail

at

Daniel Bellino's House

photo Daniel Bellino-Zwicke

FLORENCE ITALIAN MEAT MARKET

Creators of The NEWPORT STEAK

GREENWICH VILLAGE, NEW YORK

Newport Steaks

From Florence Prime Meat Market

Greenwich Village

SPAGHETTI & MEATBALLS

Recipe In SUNDAY SAUCE

CAFFE REGGIO

GREENWICH VILLAGE

NEW YORK

photo Daniel Bellino-Zwicke

NEW YORK ITALIAN

GREENWICH VILLAGE RESIDENT

MARIO BATALI

CLICK HERE !

For The WORLD'S BEST ITALIAN

SUNDAY SAUCE GRAVY

Click Above !!!

CLICK HERE !

For SUNDAY SAUCE

"GRAVY"

Italian Cookbook Author

Greenwich Village Native

Daniel Bellino-Zwicke

Making SAUCE 

In Greenwich Village

Sirio Maccioni

Founder of Le Cirrque

and

Creator of "PASTA PRIMAVERA"

Recipe in SUNDAY SAUCE

SINATRA

"JUST BECAUSE"

MULBERRY STREET

LITTLE ITALY

New York

Minetta Tavern Memories

Back in the 30's, 40's, 50's and 60's Minetta Tavern owned by Eddie Minetta was the place to be for Actors, Writers, Musicians, and especially Prize Fighters like, Primo Canero, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Tony Janiro. Writers like Ernest Hemingway and William Carlos Williams hung along with the likes of the great Joe DiMaggio ...

THE VILLAGE ....GREENWICH VILLAGE

SCENES of GREENWICH VILLAGE

From Top to Bottom:

PORTO RICO COFFEE ...Bleecker Street

Mcdougal Street ... Houston St. to Bleecker Street Block

CAFFE DANTE ..   McDOUGAL Between Houston and Bleecker

McDougal Street Looking North between BLEECKER and MINETTA LANE

MINETTA TAVERN  ...McDougal Street at Minetta Lane

All photos by  Daniel Bellino Zwicke

"La TAVOLA" For GREENWICH VILLAGE ITALIAN by Greenwich Village Italian Native Daniel Bellino-Zwicke

MY MORNING SMOOTHIE

Yes I just love my Berry Smoothie in the morning. It tasty, refreshing, and good. Makes me feel good, in my mind and throughout my whole body. Wish I would have gotten started on these babies a long time ago. You are what you eat. This is oh so true, not just a cliched saying. If you're 50 or older you'll know what I'm talking about.
      Well, today my smoothie was made of 1 banana, about 7 fresh Strawberries, 4 Kiwis,1 pineapple slice, a bit of water and a good dose of Honey. Everything was fresh except the pineapple slice which I happened to have in a container in the frig. My shakes depend on what is on sale and or is the best price when I go down to Chinatown(New York) where the prices on fruits and vegetables are 1/2 to just a third the price of produce in the supermarkets near my house. When I was in Chinatown yesterday I got 12 Kiwis for only $3.00, and a large container of fresh Strawberries for only $2.50 and I picked up 3 bananas for 65 cents. Last week I was able to get a large container of Blueberries for just $2.00 .. Dam, I wish I would have bought 2 more containers and froze them. They were so cheap. Berries can be really expensive. Those same amount of Blueberries that I paid just 2 dollars for would have cost me 7 or 8 dollars at my local supermarket.
      Well as last week, I was making my shakes with Blueberries, Bananas, Kiwi, Honey, and Pineapple, this week I'm making them the same way, just substituting the Blueberries for Strawberries as the Strawberries were cheaper and the Blueberries more expensive this week. The point is, you buy what is on sale and you'll save a lot in the course of a year.
    It's not cheap making these Smoothies my dear friends, but it can be a lot cheaper if you are smart. I approximate that I spend about $12.00 a week on my smoothie ingredients. And I'd wager to say that other people might spend $25 to $30 a week on the same exact ingredients, simply because they are not as good of a shopper as me or they have so much money it doesn't matter to them. I calculable that I spend about $600 ..
And I also calculate that if I wasn't such a smart shopper that I would pay $1,200 to $1,500 a year on the same exact fruits and vegetables for my daily Smoothie consumption. Wow! That's a big difference! Huge! That's an average of about $750 a year that I ,save by being a good shopper and buying only produce that are on sale in Chinatown as compared to the overpriced supermarkets in my neighborhood (Greenwich Village, NY). Do you relieve that's $3,750 in five years time compared to what I could spend if I wasn't so frugal. That's $7,500 in 10 years time. Dam! That's a lot of dough. Even if I was more conservative on that figure i could easily say that I save $6,000 every 10 years with my wise produce purchases. Looking forward to the next 10 years, saving that $6,000 then taking a nice vacation to Sicily with that, where I'll eat fruits and vegetables like you've never seen. Yummm!



Daniel Bellino Zwicke




                                     
                 STRAWBERRIES BLUEBERRIES and BANANAS

   

                                     MAIN INGREDIENTS 
                     of MY FAVORITE FRUIT SMOOTHIE

                               Along With Water and Honey




A FRUIT SMOOTHIE A DAY KEEPS The DOCTOR AWAY