The pastas are perfect at the new Red Hook hot spot Bar Mario  

By Scott Lynch

Alessandro Bandini has lived in New York City since 1997, arriving as a chef from Florence but spending the next 25 or so years working front of the house at a variety of Manhattan restaurants, including a long stint at the now-shuttered West Village celebrity-sighting hangout Da Silvano, and eventually opening Osteria Carlina on Hudson Street in 2021, with his buddy Moreno Cerutti, who’s from Turin.

But somehow Bandini had never been to Red Hook until last May, when a friend took him and Cerutti to get barbecue at Billy Durney’s peerless Hometown. And that was that. “It was magical,” Bandini tells Brooklyn Magazine. “Perfect sunlight, perfect vibe, we were totally happy. We fell in love with the neighborhood right there.”

A non-fictional Bar Mario (Scott Lynch)

The duo had been kicking around the idea of opening a new place in an “unassuming location” for a few years, Bandini says. “We’d have these conversations in Cerutti’s car blasting Italian music and one of the songs is by a rocker named Luciano Ligabue, who’s massive in Italy. He sings a lot about [an imaginary place called] Bar Mario, like a hangout for older Italian men, playing cards out front. It’s a very common scene in the provinces of Italy. Very romantic.”

So when the old Fort Defiance space on the corner of Van Brunt and Dikeman became available last August, it felt like fate to Bandini and Cerutti, and Red Hook got the perfect neighborhood spot, a real-life Bar Mario that’s already a huge hit with the locals. Last Friday evening every seat in the house was taken before 6, and the crowd, many of them already regulars, was in high spirits.

Bar Mario may be named after fictional rural Italian dive bars of yore, but the alcohol prices here in Red Hook are very much in line with Brooklyn of 2023. The cocktails start at $15 and include what Tammie Teclemarian called an “immaculate negroni” in her Underground Gourmet report. There’s a two-page wine list where glasses cost from $15 to $28, and bottles run from $55 to more than $300.

The food prices are more gentle, and the menu focuses on dishes from both Florence and Turin, “our two gastronomy traditions,” as Bandini put it. Our party of two had an overly large feast, and everything was terrific, but our favorite dish of the night was probably the “Spaghetti Hangover,” an outrageously robust plate of chewy pasta tossed in olive oil with tons of very salty, big-flavored things like anchovies, capers, onions, garlic, chilis, tomatoes, and two types of sharp cheese. So good.

“Spaghetti Hangover,” $18 (Scott Lynch)

Also very rich and delicious was the homemade potato gnocchi, served in a creamy, cheesy sauce and studded with toasted hazelnuts.

Gnocchi Castelmagno e Nocciole, $21 (Scott Lynch)

There was a long list of specials on the night we went, which our server Ernesto explained at length (if you’re a sucker for charming men with heavy Italian accents, you’re going to love it here), including another pasta winner, ribbons of mafalda loaded with chunks of funky, tender wild boar.

Malfada with wild boar ragu, one of many specials on the night we went (Scott Lynch)

The Vitello Tonnato was excellent, a half dozen meltingly-thin slices of veal bathing in tuna mayo, as was the lightly battered Fritto di Calamari and Shrimp, the latter crustacean retaining its sweet snap with every bite.

Fritto di Calamari and Shrimp, $16 (Scott Lynch)

Other dishes that sound good include the fried baby artichoke, the almost comically large Mario’s Caesar, the thick-stranded pici cacio e pepe, and the Van Burger, a five-ounce patty topped with giardiniera on a cute, round, housemade focaccia bun.

Vitello Tonnato, $19 (Scott Lynch)

Despite an almost complete renovation of the space from its Fort Defiance days (the floor is the same, as is some of the wood paneling, but everything else is new, including the bar, the engagement-rings light fixture, the faux tin ceiling, and basically the whole layout), it all happened pretty fast. Bandini and Cerutti signed the lease in August, opened at the beginning of February, and the place already feels like a neighborhood fixture.

As do Bandini and Cerutti, both of whom literally moved to Red Hook from Manhattan with their respective families a month ago, into a building on Richards Street. In fact, they all live on the same floor. “The stellar alignment was very unusual,” says Bandini. “Living here, I feel great. It’s really beautiful. Bar Mario has been magical for us.”

Bar Mario is located at 365 Van Brunt Street, at the corner of Dikeman Street, and is currently open on Wednesday through Friday from 5 until 11 p.m., on Saturday from noon to midnight, and on Sunday from noon until 10:30 p.m. (631-616-5695)