Staten Island Restaurant Tour, Part VII: Il Sogno (Annadale)
Good heavens. Not another new phone? This episode of the Staten Island Restaurant Tour is the first to use my third new phone of the year, the Google Pixel 7a, and features side-by-side food shots with another of my many phones, the Samsung Galaxy A14. We’ll get to those in a moment. First, welcome to Annadale, the seventh-from-last stop on the Staten Island Railway. Annadale has historical ties to Anna Seguine, a descendant of French Huguenot Protestants, linking it to previous episodes of the tour via stations at Huguenot (named for the Huguenots) and Prince’s Bay (with the Seguine Mansion). This was the second rail stop so far to feature a brick-facade station house atop the platforms, rebuilt in 1939 though its predecessors date back to 1910 and 1860.
As usual I had to decide in which direction to walk: north to a neighborhood called Arden Heights, or south to one dominated by Blue Heron Park. I’m saving nature walks for warmer weather, so I went north. My stroll took me from the station down Annadale Road, to where it merges with Amboy Road, then up Albee Avenue to North Railroad Street — SI, like the much of the frostbelt, has lots of streets named Railroad along the tracks. The logic is inescapable but the streets are more pleasant than you’d suspect. And quieter too, as the SIR passes only twice per hour. Along the way, this being the last day of November, the Xmas decorations were out in front of several homes. This is not one of the grander ones, yet somehow the modest house, skeletal snowman, and spiraling white-wire Xmas trees captured my eye with their elegance and restraint.
Study of photojournalist and twisty tree.
Dance of the Tin Soldiers along North Railroad Street. Cue The Nutcracker!
And here we are at Il Sogno, at one of SI’s many small retail clusters, with its canopied outdoor-dining area in front.
The late-November weather, though bright and photo-friendly, was not ideal for outdoor dining. But when conditions permit, this must be a nice place to dine.
Folks must like Il Sogno. At last count diners had posted 135 photos of the restaurant and its food on Google. The pictures, of both the restaurant and the food, look gorgeous. I had to see them for myself!
The place was dark but a little natural light hit my table, illuminating the bread basket and the sweet eggplant spread, which was similar to the one I’d had in episode one at Angelina’s.
The star of the show was the stuffed baked clams. They were succulent and satisfying. I forgot to use the little dedicated clam fork and devoured most of them with the larger dinner fork before realizing what I was doing!
The unretouched shot above was taken with the Pixel 7a. I’ve brightened a few shots here and there but left the food shots alone. Here’s another with the Samsung A14. I don’t want to make a habit of this dual photography but I needed to evaluate which camera I’ll be taking along in the future.
Next up was bucatini putanesca, a hearty union of fat noodles, black olives, capers, fat pale tomato chunks that reminded me of potatoes, and what was probably a tomato paste based sauce. Here it is with the Pixel 7a.
And again, with the Samsung A14. In both cases I’m using the basic out-of-the-box photo mode, not the specialized food-porn mode, which has actually proven less effective with the A14. The highlights glistening on the pasta seem more prominent with the Sammy and the grated parmesan is in better focus.
As I enjoyed my meal, a table of elderly ladies behind me discussed the migrant crisis in New York City — a sudden influx is taxing the city’s resources. As they talked about the long-ago immigration experiences of their families, I realized I was witnessing the clash of different generations of migrants. Today’s migrants — Latino guys in black shirts and pants with somber faces and impeccable manners — cooked and served most of the meals on the Tour. Anthony Bourdain once wrote that a serious chef learns to speak Spanish. If I’d had the presence of mind, I’ve have scribbled the note below in my notebook and left it in the black leather folder with the credit card slip. I hope the hardworking guys in the kitchen get to see this. In Italian, il sogno means the dream.
This is what it looks like when your train pulls in just as you arrive with no time to spare. A first for the Tour! I wish I’d been 30 seconds earlier, with enough time to boot up the Pixel and grab a shot of the train’s nose as it came down the tracks. But settling for this inferior framing was better than waiting 30 minutes for the next train — as the trains are timed to arrive in St. George up north to meet the ferries.
Next stop on the SIRT will be Eltingville, where the leading candidate is a Turkish joint, though it may be edged out by coal-fired pizza. As you can see, some trees are bare of leaves in this, the first week after Thanksgiving, though elsewhere on the island I still saw green, gold, and red.
As the day cooled, and the bright skies turned mildly smoggy, I sought out the ferry’s warmer and less crowded lower level. That tiny splinter behind the guy immersed in his phone is the Freedom Tower.
The Freedom Tower has strong emotional resonance for a New Yorker because, of course, it replaced the Twin Towers. It evokes murder and tragedy and heartbreak, but also recovery and optimism and improvement.
These trips to Staten Island have become addictive. They give me a chance to explore previously unseen parts of this great city, relax in tranquil neighborhoods filled with people who are always low-key and often kind, and enjoy the comfort of comfort food. I hope to squeeze in a few more episodes of the Tour before the really frigid weather sets in. Camera experiments notwithstanding, clear skies and mild temperatures are way more important than megapixels.
Previously on the Staten Island Restaurant Tour:
Part I: Angelina’s (Tottenville)
Part II: Fina’s Farmhouse (Arthur Kill)
Part III: Laila (Richmond Valley)
Part IV: Il Forno (Pleasant Plains)
Part V: Breaking Bread (Prince’s Bay)
Part VI: Woodrow Diner (Huguenot)
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