Elina's
Elina's ranks fifth because Rusnak and Safin have accomplished the hardest thing in this cuisine: they've made it feel both totally familiar and entirely new.
On West Grand Avenue, removed from Fulton Market's density, Elina's occupies one of the more intimate dining rooms in the city — twenty-eight seats plus a small bar, sleek wood, worn leather, and the focused quiet of a kitchen that knows what it wants to be. Chefs Ian Rusnak and Eric Safin spent years in Michelin kitchens before opening here, and that experience shows not in fussiness but in restraint: the dishes read as Italian-American icons stripped of everything superfluous, plated with confidence rather than decoration.
The room rewards attention. A first visit tends to produce the mild shock of recognizing a beloved dish and finding it sharper than you'd thought possible; a second visit confirms this was not an accident. The bar seats are first-come and among the best value in West Town for a walk-in dinner.
- Seasonal house pasta
- Classic Italian-American entrées
- Bar counter walk-in dishes
