Weekend Column: Sempre Oggi Is the Best Restaurant on the Upper West Side

By Gus Saltonstall

I’m not an expert on food, but I do like to say I am an expert about the Upper West Side.

Part of my Upper West Side experience is going out to eat in the neighborhood. While my fiancée and I remain committed to cooking the majority of our meals, there are few pleasures we value as highly as going out to eat at a good restaurant.

I have little to no patience for those who claim the Upper West Side has no good dining options.

To that unfounded accusation, I launch into a list of Amelie, Barney Greengrass, Buceo 95, Cafe Luxembourg, Cafe du Soleil, Cafe 82, Covacha, Dagon, French Roast, Genarro’s, Mama’s Too, Mermaid Inn, Metro Diner, Pisticci, Sala Thai, Salumeria Rossi, Sal & Carmines, Song E Napule, and Sushi Yasaka.

That leaves out swathes of other stellar restaurants in the neighborhood and makes no mention of the more financially extravagant but mind-numbingly good omakase at Masa, the tasting menu at Essential by Christophe, the shared plates at Tatiana, or chef Thomas Keller’s work at Per Se.

We are surrounded by world-class food.

Even with an appreciation for all that. I feel confident in my next claim.

Sempre Oggi is the best restaurant on the Upper West Side.

The food at the seasonal Italian restaurant off the corner of West 75th Street and Amsterdam Avenue is spectacular. The menu is ever evolving, changing daily depending on the freshness of a vegetable or simply the mood of the current moment.

The pastas are homemade and crafted each morning.

In this moment, menu options include a Caesar Salad with creamy dressing, breadcrumbs and parmigiano; homemade Stracciatella with marinated snow peas, lemon and focaccia; Rigatoni Pistachio with guanciale and pecorino romano; Grilled Green Circle Farm’s Boneless Chicken Leg with summer panzanella, tomatoes, and grilled peaches; and a Tiramisu with espresso-soaked lady fingers with zabaglione, mascarpone, and cocoa.

Sempre Oggi’s portion sizes are generous as the proteins fill up the plates and the bowls of pasta stand in protest to the idea of making do with three ravioli.

The food is staggering. Every ingredient purposeful. Every bite enjoyable.

Then there is the restaurant space. It is both cavernous and cozy in a way that feels like it should have been unattainable. Customers walk into a welcoming area that includes a bar fit for the museums of Central Park West, nestled under a ceiling of colorful custom ceramics inspired by the Italian architect Gio Ponti. Guests are led through a corridor that features seating options on either side before getting to the back half of the eatery, which opens up in a way that takes you by surprise on first viewing.

As the Rag’s esteemed former Here’s the Dish columnist Abigael Sidi penned, there is an “in-the-know” or “part of the family” element to the dining experience that is in large part due to the constant presence on the floor of owner Robert Guarino and general managers Bryan Holland and Colleen Brown.

My strongest advice, though, would be to sit at the countertop seats that overlook the open kitchen.

While I cringe at my own melodramatic description, to watch Chef Nick Griffo oversee his menu and team of cooks is akin to watching the New York Philharmonic’s Gustavo Dudamel lead his group of world-class musicians or Lincoln Center’s theater director Lear deBessonet oversee a cast of actors.

The experience entrances you.

It is dinner and a show.

Ticket after ticket after ticket flood into the kitchen as each member of the culinary team remains steadfast in their responsibility. One cook oversees the meats, another the fish, while someone else manages the bulk of the appetizers and desserts, another completely focused on multiple pans of pasta.

The seemingly ceaseless number of orders appears impossible to keep track of to an untrained eye, yet they do.

Griffo stands at the helm of the process, leading the cooking operation with a steely and reassuring calmness. He is completely in control without ever veering anywhere near the harshness or volume of caricature representations of chefs on television. There is clear companionship and friendship among the cooks in Sempre Oggi’s kitchen — and that environment created by Griffo — has allowed the food to sing to a phenomenal tune.

I wish I had the name of each cook in the Sempre Oggi kitchen, but they were all part of the Griffo team that got the restaurant named to the Michelin Guide last year.

For those who are consistent readers of West Side Rag, you’ll know I rarely venture into personal prose. There is often an insipidness to the whole thing that does not exist in reporting. I take the journey into essay writing when I am pulled so strongly into a topic or subject that I can’t not share my thoughts, such as the etiquette of proper walking in New York City or the strange dance involved in the 72nd Street Trader Joe’s check-out line.

I am moved by Sempre Oggi.

For me, it is the best all-around restaurant on the Upper West Side, and I hope you’ll allow me the indulgence of declaring it as such.

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