The Gino's quartet's new restaurant is the one we have been waiting for: a rustic yet beautiful Italian restaurant with a kitchen that turns out some of the most honest, authentic food in the city. Housed in a former grocery store with 25-foot barrel-vaulted ceilings, Nostrana features acres of warm wood against walls of glass, a woodshed piled high with firewood inside the spacious yet cozy room, and a tiled, wood-fired pizza oven brought from Italy. Pizzas, thin as a silver dollar with smoky charred crusts, are center stage, but this is no pizza parlor; although chef Cathy Whims can turn out a dish as elegant as a Ferragamo bag, Nostrana coaxes intense flavors from humble ingredients in dishes like chicken slow-roasted with crackling skin and sautéed potatoes and porcini bread salsa. (Originally reviewed 12/7/05.)
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