Porchetta

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The logistics of roasting whole hogs over wood fires in cramped East Village cubbyholes being what they are, Sara Jenkins’s version is a variation on the porchetta theme, and a toothsome one at that. She uses boned-out pork loins from contented, free-rooting Hampshire hogs, wraps them in pork bellies, and seasons them with a heady paste of wild-fennel pollen, thyme, sage, rosemary, garlic, and an aggressive dose of salt and pepper. These substantial specimens are tied up with string and oven-roasted until the meat is remarkably tender and the skin has turned to something like the color and consistency of a delicate peanut brittle.

Visitors to this handsomely tiled, marble-countered storefront can take their porchetta straight or in a sandwich—the former accompanied by garlicky sautéed greens and wonderful beans that keep their integrity, the latter stuffed into a Sullivan St Bakery ciabatta roll. There are crisp roast potatoes, too, mingled with porchetta “burnt ends,” and a chicory salad with a bracing garlic dressing. There is also, for the disoriented vegetarian, a fresh-mozzarella sandwich, smartly garnished with sweet semi-dried tomatoes and chopped herbs.

Although Porchetta is geared for takeout, Jenkins and her partners have made the minuscule premises a comfortable and civilized place to eat in, too, with six stools lining a wooden ledge, a wooden bench outside, and a convivial, almost old-world ambience. Takeout orders are wrapped in brown butcher paper; eat-in ones are served on old-fashioned grandma-style china. If it weren’t for the high-tech Electrolux oven and the reggae soundtrack, you might imagine you’d wandered into some friendly old taverna on the outskirts of Rome or Florence, where some talented super-nonna is carefully crafting you a plate of food she’s slaved over all day. All of this, of course, makes for a great new addition to East Village dining. What elevates it to citywide-attraction and four-U.G.-star-status, though, is the pork. Porchetta’s porchetta is drop-dead delicious, abundantly juicy, aggressively seasoned, and varied in its myriad textures, from the moist, fine-grained loin meat to the chewy fatty crackling, and the little melting baconlike bits that season the potatoes. It fills the shop with a lovely aroma that wafts its way down the block, causing startled passersby to lift their noses and sniff the air like cartoon hoboes on the trail of a windowsill pie. Resistance is futile. — Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld

Like the dough at Totonno’s, the pork has been known on occasion to run out, so call ahead.

Porchetta plate (with greens and beans) or porchetta sandwich, potatoes.

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New York Magazine Reviews

• Robin Raisfeld and Rob Patronite's Full Review (10/13/08)

Best of New York Awards

• Best New Cheap-Eats Mash-Up (2013)
• Best Porchetta (2009)
• Rob Patronite's Pick for Best New Restaurant (2009)

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• Adam Platt's Where to Eat 2009 (1/5/09)
• Adam Platt's Where to Eat 2009 (1/5/09)
• Fall Preview 2008: Where the Underground Gourmet Will Be Eating (9/1/08)
• Get an Italian Fast-Food Favorite at East Village's Porchetta (9/29/08)