"Sometimes you want pasta and sometimes you don’t really want to work hard to get it. Welcome to Spartina - the neighborhood trattoria on Melrose that’s always solid and always fairly easy to get into. The front patio is fantastic, but our suggestion with the parents is to move inside for a slightly more intimate experience. And even though pasta is king here, there are also over 40 shareable dishes from pizza to salad to an uni panini they probably won’t want. But order a bottle of red and anything is possible." - jess basser sanders, brant cox, brett keating