Fried Eel Toast and Beef Tendon Dreams at Brooklyn’s I Cavallini
At I Cavallini, Brooklyn’s shining Italian sister to Michelin-glory Four Horsemen, exec-chef Nick Curtola crafts delicacies that sound like they escaped a culinary circus: deep-fried freshwater eel on baguettes, lovingly rolled trofie pasta shaped after insomnia-fueled weeks, and 5-7 hour braised beef tendons turned into an onion salad terrine that basically screams gourmet jelly. Nick’s devotion to buying fresh veggies 3-4 times a week from Union Square Greenmarket is next-level; he literally knows bean patience—sous chef Max Baez is doomed if he rushes risina beans for 3 hours, as Nick jokes ‘These guys are brainwashed about beans.’ As Nick’s dream kitchen whirls away with 100+ trofie pasta pieces tossed in pesto and topped with peppery belprono cheese, one can only ponder if Moby Dick audiobooks help coax divine pasta or team bonding. Michelin stars were not the goal, but they accidentally nailed it. Welcome to Brooklyn’s authentic Italian labyrinth, where tendon jelly and eel toast walk the fine line between WTF and wow.
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Only in Brooklyn would you find beef tendon jelly on an onion salad served alongside eel toast and pasta shaped by pour-over audiobook sessions of Moby Dick. This ain’t your nonna’s cucina, it’s gourmet experimental theater for the woke taste buds.
If your soul craves pasta schlepped through a 2-week semolina obsession and tongue wrestling with braised cow leg cartilage jelly, I Cavallini’s got you. Brooklyn’s culinary inventors keep weird Italian alive, one torturous tendon terrine at a time.
Eel on baguette sounds like an edgy Ferris wheel snack until you realize it’s deep-fried Venice ciccheti and you’ve accidentally wandered into Michelin’s secret playground. Chefs rolling trofie while Moby Dick narrates is the dinner theater no one asked for but everyone needs.
Source: Eater | Published: 9/17/2025 | Author: Emily Venezky
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