10/28/2024
(REPOST)❗ ❗ ❗
👇🏼DETAILS👇🏼
This was the absolute best thing I’ve done in New York (and I lived there 13 years!).
📌First, SEND to the friends you’re taking here!
At this restaurant, real grandmothers from every country across the globe are invited and hired as chefs to cook the recipes handed down to them that they cook at home for their families, that make up the fabric of the culture they were born and raised in [from website].
Here’s what you MUST know in order to go:
📅You MUST make a reservation📅
No walk-ins!
💰They are cash only💰
Come prepared — but there are several ATMs in the areas if you forget.
⏰They have limited hours⏰
They ONLY operate Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, with seatings at 2:30pm, 5:30pm, and 7:30pm.
⛵How to get there⛵
The restaurant is in Staten Island, which is a long way from Manhattan! You can get there by car/cab (45-90 minutes, depending on location/traffic), or can take the free Staten Island Ferry and walk 7 minutes (uphill!) to the restaurant.
🍝The menu changes🍝
There’s a set menu of classics + a rotating menu from the nonna in residence. We got dishes from Argentina, Japan, and Italy (& an affordable $45 bottle of wine!).
👵You can choose your nonna cuisine👵
The website shares the chef dates 1-2 months in advance. Right now the site has chefs from Sri Lanka, Egypt, Peru, Bangladesh, Greece, Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago, and more.
👩🍳They teach classes👩🍳
Aspiring chefs can meet the day’s chef 1:1 from 11:30am-2pm and get a free cooking lesson. The goal is to keep their traditions alive and pass techniques and knowledge from one generations and culture to another. ❤️ You can sign up on their website.
🥰You will get hugs🥰
The chefs are known for chatting! Maria, the tiny nonna matriarch with a thick Italian accent, spent seemingly the entire evening having conversations, holding hands, laughing, and giving hugs. It felt like they cared about each of us deeply like our own grandparents 😭😍
📍Enoteca Maria
Address: 27 Hyatt Street, Staten Island, New York 10301
Reservations: 718-447-2777
Website: enotecamaria.com Follow for more great travel locations 📍✈️🏖️