Nizza Restaurant in NYC

On my way to church last week, I had the sudden urge to hop on a bus into NYC and go to my favorite restaurant. I looked in the rear view mirror and said "How about if we skip church today and go for a gluten free lunch". My son responded "no thanks, I'd rather go to church or stay home". My daughter quickly responded , "Let's go!". I said a quick prayer and asked God to forgive me for my impulsiveness. I figured that God would be okay with me skipping church since I had just attended on Christmas Eve a few days earlier. Once I cleared my conscience, I made a U turn in the middle of the road, headed home and called the bus company. "What time is your next bus?" I asked the NJ Transit Operator. "The next bus leaves at 11:42!". she replied. I looked at my Blackberry and the time was 11:40. The bus stop was about a mile away. I screamed for my daughter to hurry. We jumped into the car and parked on a side street. We ran to the bus stop and there was a man standing there already. He saw the look of anticipation in my eyes and said "the bus is late, you are okay". "Yippee!" I replied.

The bus took about 45 minutes to get into the city. Once we arrived in the city, we walked around Times Square for a bit and then headed over to 44th and 9th to visit Nizza Restaurant. The entrance to Nizza feels like a glass fun house maize. Once we figured out which door actually opened, we entered the restaurant. We were brought to a cozy booth along the back wall. With great pride, I stated "We'll both need to see the gluten free menus!". Instead of looking at me as though I were a martian, the host said "of course".

We felt indescribable joy to hold gluten free menus in our hands. My daughter and I analyzed every item as we tried to choose what to order. As we pondered, the waiter brought over a bread basket. My instinct was to waive my hand and tell him that we could not eat bread. The waiter realized what I was doing and said "Oh, these fresh bread sticks are gluten free". "Are you serious?" I asked. "Yes..... enjoy!" he replied. We devoured the breadsticks in about 3 minutes. The entire time I kept telling myself "these can't be gluten free but I'll worry about that later". They were warm, toasty and irresistable.

We finally decided what to order after we finished stuffing our faces with breadsticks. I chose the arugula salad and fettucini with pesto. My daughter chose the Margherita pizza. The arugula salad was a generous portion with fresh grated parmigiano cheese. It was delicious and satisfying. I was full but I didn't travel to NYC to eat a salad. My pesto dish was superb. The pesto sauce was very fresh and it was a delight to eat gluten free fettucini. The Margherita pizza was made with cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil. Although my daughter was full from the breadsticks, she was thrilled to enjoy pizza without any worries.

The entire dining experience was simply wonderful. No embarrassment, no anxiety and no fear of having the chef reject your special food requests. At Nizza, gluten free dining happens every day and they actually go out of their way to make you feel special! After a delicious sorbet dessert, we headed back to Port Authority. We had to wait in line 45 minutes for the bus and then the ride home took over an hour due to traffic. You may wonder, was the commute worth it? Absolutely.

Nizza also has a regular menu. For more info, please visit www.nizzanyc.com/