Restaurant Details

Pietramala is a cozy vegan BYOB, with such a tight menu — usually no more than 10 plates — that you can comfortably order the whole thing with a group of four and not feel overwhelmed. Yet you'll never have the same meal twice: Chef Ian Graye’s incredibly inventive cooking, which treats produce with the full range of culinary techniques (charring, fermenting, compressing) pushes vegetables to acrobatic heights, and he’s always attempting new feats. (You also won’t find meat substitutes here.) Hits from a meal in June were a delicate carta de musica flatbread layered with cashew ricotta, pea shoots, charred pea pods, and nasturtiums, as well as a broccoli, green garlic, and aged tofu play on risotto so rich and nuanced, you’d swear a whole hunk of Parmesan and a cup of cream went into it. Desserts are the only thing where the experimentation can sometimes yield unwelcome results — a celery ice cream was intensely vegetal — but the whole experience merits the gamble.