An imaginative Bronx tale

Imagination blooms in the Bronx this spring at the New York Botanical Garden and neighboring Arthur Avenue. 

The latest iteration of NYBG’s annual late-winter orchid show, “Florals in Fashion” (through April 21)  is nothing short of a triumph. The botanical garden takes a page out of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, only instead of festooning mannequins with floral-print ensembles, it has garbed them with outfits made of actual orchids by Collina Strada by Hillary Taymour, Dauphinette by Olivia Cheng and FLWR PSTL by Kristen Alpaugh that create dramatic tableaux in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. 

Some of the mannequins have animal heads. We found these less appealing. But that is a personal quibble in what may be the garden’s best orchid show to date, one that transported us and the rest of a delighted pre-St. Patrick’s Day throng to Florida without leaving New York. 

Afterward, we headed to Arthur Avenue, home of some of the best Italian restaurants, cafés, bakeries and markets this side of the Atlantic.  In the middle of the action is Zero Otto Nove Trattoria, the less formal sister of famed Roberto Restaurant, which is around the corner. (Zero Otto Nove also has locations in Armonk and Tuckahoe. The executive chef of all five locations, including Roberto, is Roberto Pasciullo.) 

The entrance features an intimate bar and seating. Hold out if you can, however – the popular spot does not take reservations – for a table in the back, whose purposely distressed décor suggests an outdoor café in, well, pick your favorite Italian city.   

We began with a Caprese pizza, a spin on salad pizza with mozzarella, cherry tomatoes and arugula. Zero Otto Nove’s pizza is a Goldilocks blend of thin dough with a thick, crispy crust.  

For the mains, our guest, who works in hospitality, chose what she said was a tasty filet of sole with mussels that she paired with a broccoli rabe that belied the vegetable’s propensity for bitterness, an Aperol spritz and a dry Chianti. We opted for one of the best pasta dishes we’ve ever had – rigatoni in a zesty butternut-squash purée that clung to the al dente pasta, accompanied by peas and mushrooms and washed down with a couple of Aperol spritzes. As one season prepared to die and another to begin, this was the perfect late-winter segue, the hearty butternut squash, a cold weather favorite, complemented by the spring hope of peas and mushrooms. 

We finished our meal by sharing a house-made cannoli – the filling oozing out of the pastry on a plate decorated with a zigzag of chocolate sauce – complemented by a latte and a double espresso. 

While we love a good tomato sauce as much as the next person, we were happy to acknowledge that Zero Otto Nove is proof that you don’t always need it to create great Southern Italian cuisine. 

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