It means you are inside Dalto Ristorante in Clifton, a very nice place to be, and not just because on this particular night it was raining outside.
Dalto is a small, homey mom-and-pop restaurant–the literal mom-and-pop being chef and owner Mauro D’Alto, a native of Molfetta, Italy, and his wife, Anna, a schoolteacher by day and hostess by night.
The food is simple, delicious, and, as Mauro likes to say, "authentic Italian." Best stracciatella I’ve ever had. Wonderful fettucine alla Romana, fresh and refreshing cold seafood salad, textbook spaghetti carbonara, tender veal scalloppini (six different ways)…I reviewed it for the December issue.
This picture reminds me of an experience I had in Key West many years ago. My wife and I went to the docks to watch the shrimp boats came in. One of the boats had reeled in its nets to find a thrashing swordfish–a Gulliver among Lilliputians.
The fishermen on that boat were joyous. It was a big beautiful fish, and an impromptu consortium of Key West restaurants had pooled their money to buy it.
"You’ll see swordfish specials all over town this week," one of the men told us.
We asked which restaurant he might recommend.
"Don’t go to the tourist places," he said. If we wanted to know the real Key West, we had to go to Joe’s (I no longer remember the actual name). He said that no tourists go there, none at all.
"How can you be so sure?" I asked.
"They don’t even know it exists," he said. "They walk right past it because it looks like it’s closed."
He said the front door is always locked, and there is an electric CLOSED sign in the small, always dark, front window.
And then he gave us the code.
"If the CLOSED sign is lit, the place is open. You walk down the alley and go in the back door."
And that night so we did. The place, basically a pub, was relaxed and friendly. I don’t think we looked like locals, but we had no trouble.
And the swordfish was superb.