One of the many great aspects of living
in Brooklyn is that you can still find family-run restaurants
that place a premium on consistently preparing recipes passed
down through generations. The owners remember you, because they
actually work the dining room, and after a few visits, you feel
as affectionately about them as you do about your great-aunt
Florence.
At these restaurants, you don’t have to worry about the labels
on your clothes, or paying too much for a trendy "saketini,"
or if your grandmother will be as comfortable eating there as
much as your teen.
When you go to Laura’s Gourmet Restaurant, in Windsor Terrace,
which has been serving their classic Italian fare for more than
20 years, you are graciously welcomed. The staff includes owner
Laura Leone, manager Jaennette (her daughter) and chef Sal (her
husband), and they’re all confident about how the dishes taste,
the freshness of their ingredients and their authenticity. (Leone
says her family makes regular trips to Italy to pick up hard-to-find
ingredients.) All that’s left is customer service, which is easy
for the effusive Leone, who makes spot-on wine recommendations
and generally bubbles over with enthusiasm.
She recently spruced up the restaurant’s decor with dramatic
velvet drapes and fresh paint. ("I’m a dancer, so I like
it to look like a theater," Laura said earnestly in her
heavily accented English.) Although Laura’s does sport linen
tablecloths and glittering chandeliers reminiscent of the Metropolitan
Opera, the restaurant, with its open kitchen, is comfortably
informal.
Laura’s menu of antipasti, soups, salads, pastas, brick oven
pizzas, seafood and meat entrees has remained constant, but she
frequently offers special holiday menus, including a $35 prix-fixe
four-course Valentine’s Day dinner, beginning with a champagne
cocktail, for Monday, Feb. 14. While the price seems remarkably
low on a day when most restaurants gleefully gouge customers,
it’s a typical strategy for Leone. Her goal is simply to please
her customers. She doesn’t even feel self-pity over having to
work on holidays.
"I don’t mind, because I’m surrounded by family and nice
people," said Leone. "We’ll celebrate later on. I want
to accommodate my customers and make them happy. I have the best
of both worlds."
Whether diners are celebrating a special occasion or grabbing
a quick bite after work, Laura’s menu is flexible enough for
both.
"Everything on our menu is carefully prepared from old family
recipes and simply the freshest food we can find," said
Leone. "Some of our recipes originate from the Genovese
region of Italy, where my mother [Rosetta Forconi] and I come
from, some from Tuscany where my father is from, and some from
Sicily, where my husband comes from."
Sal is joined in the kitchen by chef Giorgio, who has been with
the restaurant for more than 15 years; and Forconi’s fantastic
contributions to the menu include mushroom ravioli in cream sauce
and the "grandmother’s cake."
Whether it’s the lemon in the water or the charmingly mix-and-matched
plates or fresh flowers on the tables, the details are attended
to here. The basics, such as Forconi’s earthy porcini and portobello
mushroom ravioli or the light, housemade gnocchi with bright-green
pesto sauce, are so good they’re memorable.
Laura’s also offers thin-crust pizzas fresh from her wood-burning
oven. Her margherita pizza – served on a white platter with pretty
blue flowers – with fresh mozzarella, fresh tomatoes and basil
would give Grimaldi’s a run for its money.
While an entree of prosciutto stuffed with not-so-fresh shrimp
in a salty brown gravy missed its mark on this evening, Sal’s
chicken in a complex cognac cream sauce with mushrooms and red
peppers was a nostalgic trip down memory lane. It tasted like
the chicken a la king of my youth. Among the list of vegetables
served as side dishes, the garlicky, sauteed fresh zucchini was
served in a giant heap that we continued to enjoy the next day.
For dessert, ask Laura for her recommendations. We were thrilled
with the gorgonzola, with its buttery texture, that she paired
with a sweet pear and the aforementioned grandmother’s cake,
a lemony custard torte with pine nuts that was a refreshing pick-me-up
after our feast.
For a light meal of wine and pizza, or a four-course extravaganza,
Laura’s continues to offer great Italian classics for all occasions.
Laura’s Gourmet Kitchen (1235 Prospect
Ave. at Reeve Place in Windsor Terrace) accepts American Express,
Discover, MasterCard and Visa. Entrees: $9-$23. The restaurant
serves dinner Tuesdays through Sundays. A $16.50 prix fixe dinner
menu is offered Sundays, and Tuesdays through Thursdays. Closed
Mondays. Open for Valentine’s Day, Monday, Feb. 14. For reservations,
call (718) 436-3715.
