The Four Horsemen's Italian Sibling Across Grand Street
Nick Curtola's regional Italian follow-up to The Four Horsemen is the rare Williamsburg opening that earns its Resy scramble — and the walk-in workaround most diners don't know exists.
The nervetti arrive first: braised beef tendons shaved to translucence, dressed with onions sharp enough to make you sit up. It's an opener that tells you exactly what kind of Italian restaurant this is — one that trusts you to eat the interesting cut without a preamble, and one that expects the acid to do the talking. Nick Curtola has been running the kitchen at The Four Horsemen across the street for years. I Cavallini is what happens when he stops improvising and commits.
The room is a dusky, dark-painted space with black-and-white tile and a long bar down one side. James Murphy is in the ownership group here too. Curtola runs the pass. The menu is structured Italian-style — primi as pastas, secondi as mains — and the wine list is exclusively Italian, a discipline rather than a limitation, though it does mean no Burgundy with your bucatini. Reservations release on Resy fourteen days out at 8am ET and disappear inside a minute.
Editorial Deep
The pastas are the reason to come. The trofie with pesto and Belper Knolle is the version to order — hand-rolled, dressed lightly, the shaved Swiss cow's-milk cheese giving it a savory edge that Genoese purists will grumble about and everyone else will finish. The bucatini with sungold pomodoro and ricotta salata is the summer default, and the farfallone with Calabrian chili butter and smoked pancetta is the one to order when the temperature drops. Gnocchi sardi rotates through and is worth grabbing when it appears.
Low light, dark paint, black-and-white tile floor, a long bar running the length of one side. The room reads more theatrical than casual — a stage-set version of a Brooklyn restaurant rather than the real thing weathered into place. It's a designed space, not a found one. Whether that lands depends on your tolerance for a room that knows it's being looked at.
Service is well-paced and quietly informed. A meal runs roughly two hours without ever feeling rushed or stalled, and the staff know the wine list — which matters, because it's entirely Italian and mostly unfamiliar. Ask for a recommendation and you'll get a real one, not a script. Warmth rather than polish.
The check holds up. Portions are bigger than at The Four Horsemen across the street, the pastas are handmade, the sourcing spans local markets and Italy, and the dessert program is doing genuine work rather than closing the meal. You're paying Williamsburg fine-casual pricing for cooking that would run 20% higher in Manhattan.
Yes, and specifically for the pastas and the tiramisù. This is a monthly restaurant if you live in north Brooklyn and a quarterly one if you don't. The room is designed to reward return visits — the menu shifts seasonally, the wine list rewards the diner who's been through it before, and Curtola's cooking is the kind that clarifies with familiarity rather than dulling.
What to eat
Don't miss.
Nervetti and onion salad, trofie with pesto and Belper Knolle, tiramisù
“Curtola's Italian follow-up to The Four Horsemen justifies the fourteen-day Resy scramble — and the 4:30pm walk-in line is the shortcut.”
Go for the trofie, the nervetti, and the tiramisù. Skip if you're chasing familiar Italian-American — cross Grand Street to The Four Horsemen if you want the wandering menu, or head to Lilia if you want the Williamsburg pasta institution instead.
The Verdict
