Ruburisoa- Neither Rain, Nor Sleet, Nor…

What the hell took me so long to get here?! That was all I could think after eating at Rubirosa during a monsoon that coincided with the San Genaro Festival, for two reasons: the first reason, the literal interpretation of the question, had an obvious answer because street closures complicated by pounding buckets of rain soaked my Chanel flats and slowed everything down a bit; the second abstract question is still yet to be answered.

Rubirosa is everything I like: a charming, cozy place serving Jersey style Italian dishes and fantastic, crave-worthy pizza. The menu includes dishes like mozzarella sticks and rice balls, but it is not ironic or winking, just a hip place that knows that Italian junk is the best junk ever. When I arrived at Rubirosa like a wet rat, water teeming off my umbrella and squishing in my fancy shoes, I had to manuever around the San Genaro set-up right in front of the restaurant and squeeze into a space to speak to the hostess who basically told me to go screw myself until my dining companion arrived. I went to the bathroom to try to dry off and eventually settled at the bar, still a little flummoxed. When Boyfriend arrived we were promptly seated at a nice corner table in the most back room- I definitely recommend making a reservation, this place was jamming. Our server was casual but nice, and I want to say nice things about him, but our food and drink order each got messed up at separate times. Since I was the last of my friends to dine here, I was filled with suggestions, and decided to follow them, ordering rice balls, baked clams and a pizza, half vodka sauce and half Fresco with sausage. I apparently messed up big time by missing the spaghetti alla chitarra, but I plan to go make soon and right this wrong.

The rice balls were tasty, dense but not too heavy, with a hint of cheesy tang and deliciously fresh sauce for dipping. The baked clams were heavily breaded, but heaped with garlic and butter, a promising start to the meal. Sister says the arugula salad is her fave, very cheesy; she also says she likes the meatballs, but we knew that about her already (hee hee). Boyfriend and I now realized that we should have split a small pizza and not a large, a thought didn’t even occur to us when we ordered; it definitely occurred to us when they brought us over an erroneous pizza, but insisted that we take the half that was correct, meaning we now were getting a large pizza and a half. The vodka sauce pizza was delicious, the creamy sauce adding a subtle difference to a classic slice. The crispiness of this pizza is pure perfection- crunchier than the chewy neopolitan style pizzas, but still very much a pizza, not a cracker or any of that bullshit. The Fresco pizza with sausage was addicting- their acidic, bright tomato sauce is really something special, and the sausage was thinly sliced and well seasoned; the crunchy bottom held up under the weight of the meat. We were in a food coma, but thoroughly charmed by Rubirosa so we tried to keep it together. And just like that, the rain stopped, and we grabbed our big pizza box of leftovers to head out into the San Genaro night, stars shining with the temptation of discovery, just like the one that we just made. And then we got into a cab because we were too fully to waddle around any more…

Note: the music was extremely loud, but good tunes…