BITE OF THE MOMENT: Gnocco, A Cozy Italian Gem Tucked Away in Alphabet City

With the recent limitation of New York City restaurants to just takeout and delivery, I'm already missing the good old days of simply walking into a restaurant for dinner. These measures are for the best, of course, but in the meantime, I'll be dreaming about my favorite meals out.

Before we jump in, as I mentioned before, many restaurants are still open. Here's a good resource for restaurants expanding delivery. Of course, you can also go on Seamless, Grubhub, Caviar, and see what restaurants are already on there. Nothing wrong with calling up your favorite restaurant as well and seeing what their situation is. Whatever you choose, please make sure to tip well!

One particular restaurant on my mind that's still available for delivery and takeout is Gnocco. Tucked away in Alphabet City, Gnocco has been around for a good long while, celebrating their 20th anniversary this year, basically making it a city staple. It's both casual and classy, fun yet still authentic, but above all, they just make some really great Italian food.

The menus are leather bound, but - surprise! - they're actually iPads. These interactive menus can give you a photo of your meal with just a tap and have regularly updated specials.

For starters, you have to get the namesake Gnocco, a traditional Emilian dish, are airy puffs of savory deep-fried homemade dough served along prosciutto di Parma. We rarely go to Italian restaurants without ordering burrata, and here, it's pleasantly plump and creamy, and served with grape tomatoes and bread. We also tried one of the starter specials, a dish resembling flat arancini, with crispy deep fried patties filled with a creamy mixture of mushroom and rice.

Naturally, pizza and pasta are tried and true here. For pizza, we chose what we were told was the most popular option, the Tartufata - a thin crust pizza richly packed with fresh mozzarella, mushrooms, speck, and truffle sauce. Since we were already high on truffles, the best choice was to order more truffles, and we also enjoyed a lush, homemade pasta, with a generous amount of truffles sprinkled on top.

The standout of our meal was a rustic, simple Italian dish known as Maialino al Latte. The oven roasted pork loin, slow cooked in a rosemary and garlic infused milk sauce, resulted in quite possibly the most tender piece of meat I've ever had in my life, ever. Practically falling apart at the touch of a fork, it was served with mashed potatoes and sautéed spinach for a complete melt-in-your-mouth dish.

The wine list is incredibly extensive and of course, very Italian - if you need help sifting through the choices, each dish comes with a suggested wine pairing. Cocktails with rotating specials are available too, and of course, there's always Italian beer.

Once the dust settles, we hope to return back to Gnocco, and we'll be popping over for take-out in the meantime. Can't wait to see everyone back out at their favorite restaurants in the (hopefully) near-future!

This meal was provided by Gnocco - all opinions are our own!