Tommaso

"Since 1974 this restaurant in Dyker Heights, a section of Brooklyn where hipsters seldom venture, has been serving up dishes that are classic yet transcend Italian-American clichés. Resident chef/owner/tenor Tommaso Verdillo was honoring white truffle season before many of his peers across the river had even heard of it. You can order veal cutlet Parmigiana, but you’ll never see beside it a bowl of anemic penne topped with a circle of tomato sauce. Instead of oil paintings of Chianti bottles, the decor features reproductions of Renaissance frescoes, like that snippet of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel where God extends his hand to create Adam. The food’s always good, sometimes it’s great, and if the meal doesn’t soar, it doesn’t matter because you’re listening or singing along to opera arias, classic Neapolitan songs, and the occasional pop ballad, provided by Verdillo and a rotating cast of singers with piano accompaniment every weekend." - ByGiulia Melucci

"Some red sauce joints serve a side of spaghetti. Giulia Melucci’s favorite Brooklyn spot, Tommaso, serves a side of crooning Italian ballads." - ByBon Appétit