Marta

Last weekend, a friend I met in Las Vegas invited me to brunch to thank me for some introductions I made earlier in the week. I was excited to try Marta, Danny Meyer’s brand new restaurant in the Martha Washington Hotel, and suggested we meet there for early morning pizza.

The hotel looks like it is completely new; they are still finishing up the lobby, the bathrooms, and possibly the entrance (there weren’t bellmen working by the entrance and there wasn’t a very prominent sign so a lot of people with suitcases walked right past the hotel entrance). Luckily, there is a Marta plaque on one of the outside columns:

The restaurant is filled with natural sunlight and is in the lobby of the hotel on the left-hand side. There are two large pizza ovens:

Lots of seating at the bar and the restaurant:

And two floors for dining. We sat close to the bar and had a good view of the other diners enjoying the beautiful Sunday afternoon at the new restaurant. My favorite part of the meal might have been the free sparkling water they offer with your meal (and I also appreciate that they tell you it’s free…because sometimes when waiters ask you if you want still or sparkling, they’re not actually telling you both options cost money and the only free option is actually tap). We ordered a bunch of stuff to share, including the rabbit meatballs with ricotta:

The Marta Mista salad:

And the fried summer squash:

The only appetizer I wasn’t a fan of were the rabbit meatballs; I thought they were a little on the dry side and a little under-seasoned. The fried summer squash was much better than I had anticipated; they were lightly fried and not oily at all (even after they had been sitting for a while) and the touch of lemon and tomato sauce were really fresh.

For pizza, we shared the mushroom pie:

They separate the menu into fried foods, salads, cooked dishes, then pizzas with red sauce/marinara and pizzas without (with just cheese). We opted for the funghi pie and it had so many different earthy mushrooms on it paired with delicious red onion and thyme. It was definitely enough food to share for two people and we didn’t end up finishing the pie (although I think if we really tried, we could have!)

The restaurant was running like a well oiled machine even though they had only been opened for a week when we visited; it was so well run that I almost forgot it had just opened! The restaurant is close enough to our apartment that I definitely want to add Marta into our regular mix of restaurants (I love Maialino and Gramercy Tavern but Marta is right up there after my wonderful brunch there!)