No Thanks

NoVi

by David Snyder

I would like to apologize to the residents of CityView Condos if my review of Tiedhouse, the former gastropub on the building's ground floor, contributed to the restaurant's demise earlier this year. Because so far, the eatery that took its place — NoVi (short for "North of Vine") — is worse.

The space has been brightened up — there's creamy drapery, the chalkboard covering the window behind the bar is gone and even the zebra print runner adds charm. But for now, NoVi is a NoGo.

On one visit, service was a train wreck — it took more than 20 minutes for drinks to arrive, and food took even longer. The kitchen was so backed up that the one server on duty essentially begged the table behind us to allow him to deliver their entrées piecemeal. (To be fair, service the second time around was far more polished and less harried.)

Such a wait would've been more bearable if the food were not so disappointing. I liked the roasted potatoes alongside the veal saltimbocca, but the meat itself was remarkably tough, as was the sausage in a broccoli rabe app. With some plates, I had questions about the freshness of the ingredients. Blue cheese and buffalo sauce were not enough to mute the fishiness I detected in fried calamari. Steamed clams tasted like they'd seen better days. If I could've tasted the promised truffle oil on the Bennie's Bianco flatbread pizza, the off-putting flavor of the sopressata topping might not have been so overwhelming. Even the bubbly in a pomegranate Bellini was dead flat.

Heavy enough to bend space-time, the brine-bomb gnocchi threatened to turn my tongue to jerky. Other dishes (lobster ravioli, chicken parm, penne pesto) were merely spiritless.

The one thing I had that NoVi got right was its margherita. After baking in the oven, my hand-rolled pie was finished off over a wood grill, introducing pleasant smoke and crispness. The pizza's bright Alta Cuccina plum tomato sauce was not too sweet.

Location may have something to do with this space's struggles, and short staffing suggests customer flow may be hard to gauge. I truly hope NoVi can reverse this downward trend.

(david.snyder@citypaper.net)

NoVi | CityView Condominiums, 2001 Hamilton St., 215-563-6363. Mon.-Thu., 5-10 p.m.; Fri., noon-11 p.m.; Sat.-Sun., 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Appetizers and salads, $5-$13; sandwiches, $8.50-$13; entrées, $13-$24; pizza, $12-$19.50.