NYC Italian Eats: The New Guard

Bust out the fancy-schmancy: big-ticket dining at the city’s Italian vanguards

A fancy meal always meant French—at least that's what we thought we should think. Fine service, multiple courses, bottles of wine, impeccable servers with indecipherable accents.

But upscale dining is continuously expanding its worldview, and high-end Italian in New York is better than ever: Old-school standbys like Il Mulino and Bamonte's have laid the groundwork for many forward-thinking restaurants, which constantly push the boundaries, conceptions and flavors of what Italian cuisine is all about. And at a price: Eating at these posh spots does not come cheap, with most pastas in the $25 range and entrées reaching the high forties. Then again, can you really put a price on a reservation at Babbo? —Jane Lerner

Pictured: Alto...and its wall of wines