Pic courtesy of GoWorldTravel.com
Before anyone reads any further, it should be said: This is a raw-foods restaurant we’re about to discuss. But don’t stop reading. Most raw-foods restaurants are probably a little sad in some way (this hypothesis has not been tested), but somehow Pure Food and Wine feels like a real restaurant—low-lit and humming and sexy even—and serves food that could just about pass for the cooked kind, except it won’t matter because it’s mostly delicious in its own right. Having to work without (much) heat results here in maximum flavor and texture, as in the fierce garlic, tangy-sweet tomato, and absurdly tasty basil-pistachio pesto in the tomato-zucchini lasagna. Cocktails are wickedly good too, if embarrassingly named, like the Master Cleanse Tini: a transfixing sake-honey-cayenne concoction.
Pure Food and Wine. 54 Irving Pl. between 17th & 18th Sts.; (212) 477-1010.
Prices/Features: Moderately Priced/Vegetarian-Friendly