NYC's Parm pays tribute to old-school Italian classics

The scene: For years our increasingly food-obsessed society has focused on "authenticity," with endless debate over whether a hyper-specialized eatery served the same tapas as in San Sebastian, the same noodles as Xian or recreated the true taste of Milanese risotto. But suddenly the playing field is shifting in favor of gourmet reinventions of comfort foods like barbecue, burgers and fried chicken alongside the retro domestic versions of cuisines that were created in the '50s, '60s and '70s to appeal to our national tastes. This column recently visited Leong's Asian Diner in Missouri where proudly Americanized Chinese dishes are thriving. New York's Major Food Group, whose recently closed Torissi Italian Specialties was an unfettered homage to Italian American red sauce cuisine done in a more gourmet manner, brings a similar focus to Parm, as in all things parmigiana, with two full-service Manhattan locations and a satellite sandwich stand within Yankee Stadium.

While the smaller Little Italy downtown branch may be slightly more atmospheric, the significantly larger Upper West Side location is easier to eat at, with a greater seating capacity and no-fuss walk-in dining at lunchtime. In front is a to-go sandwich counter with old-school white stick-on letters on a grooved black board, complete with a prominently displayed meat slicer for the Italian subs featuring a medley of deli meats and cheese. A case displays the fresh round and hero rolls that are in many ways the heart and soul of the restaurant, while on the opposite side of the entrance is a bar you can eat at. Most of the seating is in a large rear dining room that features bright bistro flair, with intricately patterned tile floors, wood curved-back chairs with red leather seats, red leather-lined booths, and tables topped with a playful red and white placemat-style printed paper menu. A center table adorned with olive branches and wine bottles is a nice touch. It is upscale yet casual with a timeless feel. Walls are covered with vintage photos of New York urban scenes and notably a framed menu from Mama Leone's, a longtime Theater District icon that was once the largest eatery in the city, with over 1,200 seats, but has been shuttered for more than 20 years.

Reason to visit: Eggplant parm and meatball parm sandwiches, pasta.

The food: Maybe New York, long famous for being a city of critics, is getting soft. Like Big Apple siblings Shake Shack and David Chang's Momofuko mini-empire, Parm has been greeted with almost universal love and acclaim. And like those others, this is sometimes deserved, sometimes not so much. Go with reasonable expectations and you'll find that Parm's hits outweigh the misses and it has much to recommend it.

For starters, the service is excellent, with well-informed and communicative waiters backed by an impressively large team that fills water glasses, clears tables and responds to requests with almost prescient enthusiasm. The hospitality begins immediately when a plate of garlic bread toasts and a dish of house-made, slightly oozy mozzarella is delivered to the table gratis, a fun and delicious opener.

The menu focuses on a relatively small selection of casual Italian-American and pizzeria classics, especially half a dozen featured sandwiches. All are available on your choice of a round semolina roll or an oblong sesame-studded hero roll (New York's name for what is elsewhere a sub or hoagie), or as a breadless platter, in which case it is accompanied by your choice of house salad or rigatoni with spicy tomato sauce. The namesake and most popular options are the meatball, chicken cutlet and eggplant parm, but there is also house-roasted turkey, chicken francese, the Italian, and a nearly forgotten NYC pizzeria classic, potato and egg.

Besides the sandwich/platter options, there are half a dozen classic pasta dishes including penne with pesto and shrimp, linguine with clam sauce and fusilli Bolognese, as well as an individual baked ziti with a 15-minute wait time. Appetizers are equally stereotypical of the Italian-American genre, including fried mozzarella sticks and baked clams. All of the dishes, including the heroes and pasta mains, are on the smaller side, especially given the prices, and for lunch, the $16 bowl of fusilli Bolognese looked more like a side dish.

The good news is that the pasta here is cooked perfectly and al dente in a way that is rare even at top-flight Italian restaurants. Just a tiny bit chewy, the fusilli was decorated with a small splash of fresh ricotta cheese, a nice touch in both presentation and taste. The hero rolls are really good, fresh, tasty and soft, which makes every sandwich quite messy, but it's worth the dripping and key to Parm's success. The contents were more varied in quality -- the chicken parm was just so-so, not especially flavorful, while the eggplant was exceptional. Cooked right, it was very thinly sliced, breaded and fried, but not greasy, and then stacked in several layered slices. This gave it the best of both worlds, with plenty of eggplant taste in each hearty bite, while capturing the delicateness that comes from keeping each piece thin. The meatballs were another strong offering, large, tender and meaty. In general I would definitely recommend the hero over the platter, as the rigatoni that accompanies the latter, while the same perfect al dente as the pasta main courses, was neither the promised spicy nor served warm enough.

There are just four dessert choices, but they are interesting and varied, from classic key lime pie to a dark, dense, warm brownie covered with cappuccino ice cream. There is a good beer and wine list, and Parm is a fun place to eat with elevated but not quite compelling comfort foods. If I lived in the neighborhood I would gladly take in sandwiches from here, but I wouldn't make a long-distance pilgrimage. Having grown up in New York in the '70s and '80s on a steady diet of neighborhood pizzerias, what impressed me most about the sandwiches was what they lacked, namely too much cheese and a few minutes in the oven. The norm at pizzerias serving the same array of eggplant, chicken and meatball parm heroes was to put the filling in a sliced roll, top it with relatively low-quality processed shredded mozzarella, then put it in the pizza oven to melt, resulting in a crunchy and often abrasive to the mouth roll whose contents were drowned and sometimes lost in oozy cheese. Parm's versions let the quality ingredients shine, and you can even taste a single basil leaf inside, and this approach works especially well with the more delicate eggplant. Here it tastes like eggplant, not merely something fried and covered with cheese.

Pilgrimage-worthy?: No, but a good spot for a fun neighborhood meal, especially for eggplant fans.

Rating: Mmmm (Scale: Blah, OK, Mmmm, Yum!, OMG!)

Price: $$-$$$ ($ cheap, $$ moderate, $$$ expensive)

Details: 235 Columbus Ave (70/71st St.); 212-776-4924 and 248 Mulberry Street; 212-993-7189; parmnyc.com

Larry Olmsted has been writing about food and travel for more than 15 years. An avid eater and cook, he has attended cooking classes in Italy, judged a barbecue contest and once dined with Julia Child. Follow him on Twitter, @TravelFoodGuy, and if there's a unique American eatery you think he should visit, send him an email at travel@usatoday.com. Some of the venues reviewed by this column provided complimentary services.