I dropped by ‘Baita‘ at La Birreria, a fancy Italian alps pop-up restaurant located above Eataly (at the Flat Iron District). It’s said to be one of the best Christmas-themed pop-ups for NYC. I went with some workmates and we had to walk through Eataly to get a table up on the 14th floor. I highly recommend making a book beforehand — they take reservations through OpenTable and by phone.

The whole rooftop was decked out with wintery, festive decor and even skis attached to the ceiling. They also had cute little wooly blankets for each seat. The restaurant is heated and has a retractable roof — I’m not sure if they actually open the roof during clearer days as it was raining like poop today.

Just a side note, the place has a bit of a funny smell. This might be caused by the copious amount of cheese that they served or maybe because it was the rain that made it extra humid. It’s not terrible and you get used to it, but it was the first thing I noticed!

They have an incredibly extensive drinks and food menu — complete with hot & cold cocktails, beer and wine. I tried the Gnomo Cioccolato, which is a hot chocolate mixed with Frangelico. It was pretty amazing. Perfect for a winter’s day so it’s too bad that it’s so warm in New York right now,

We started off with a five cheese & meat (Affettati Misti) board and Sciatt (Beer Battered and Fried Piave Cheese). I have no pictures of that because it was so delicious that we just devoured them. The Robiola was my favourite cheese as I’m a big fan of soft and buttery cheese.

Unfortunately we only tried out the one pasta dish above, Strangolapreti; which is a housemade bread & spinach dumplings
with butter and sage. It was incredible. I loved it! Also, fun fact — according to their menu:

Strangolapreti means “priest stranglers;” as rumor has it, priests enjoyed this dish so much that they would eat it until they choked.

I enjoyed it too but I’m not sure if it was to the level of choking. 

We finished our extremely long lunch with a few more wines (also loved the moscato they served). It’s such a great place for chit chat. I didn’t really get to check out the bar area but I loved the lounging place pictured above. It was very pretty.

I had a great experience overall. If there was anything to complain about…the service could have been a bit better. Our server forgot my drink a few times and they weren’t really that busy either. Maybe she was just having an off day.

Nevertheless, I would very much like to come back to try their dinner menu. Luckily they will be sticking around until March. :)