Roberto's Restaurant   

Born a chef's son in a family of 13, Roberto Pasciullo has strong opinions on how Italian food should best be served. "My house was a feast every day," he says. "My father, his life was food and sex." At his restaurant, just off Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, Roberto delivers the former, anyway, to great acclaim. On any given Saturday the line starts early for country-style Italian fare that distinguishes itself from the more common red-sauce offerings in the neighborhood. Roberto uses nothing from a can (not even the tomatoes, which are pureed by hand). He also makes ample use of the outstanding fishmongers, bakers and butchers on the Avenue, and makes his pasta fresh daily. The menu is replete with superb Italian standards, but the specials board is where Roberto flexes his culinary imagination: Expect shell steak with cherry peppers and gorgonzola-beer sauce, Chilean sea bass with clams, mussels, and tomatoes, and other delectably distinctive fare. The friendly wait staff and warm interior of ochre-painted walls, terra cotta-tiled floors and farmhouse tables do a fine job of making you feel at home. -- Ann Volkwein