For Chef James De Sisto, cooking is clearly a labor of love. This is evident in the way he crafts menus. Seasonings are used to accentuate and not mask. Food is meant to simply be delicious. He dials back the clock in that way, returning to the idea of cooking because you want to serve something that’s delectable—not something that requires a PhD in gastronomy to understand. Food is supposed to be a universal language, after all.
De Sisto has displayed this idea at his Montclair restaurant Laboratorio Kitchen, which has garnered a sort of cult following on a bustling Bloomfield Avenue. Looking to dig his claws into the rest of Jersey, he branched out to Maplewood earlier this year to open his second restaurant, Osteria LK, which puts a heavier focus on Italian cuisine.
The BYOB is about simple cooking. De Sisto proudly tells me as much: “Nothing crazy here, just delicious, approachable Italian food.” Perfect. That’s my favorite.
The restaurant sits on the corner of Maplewood Avenue, surrounded by bookshops, barbers and other restaurants. Inside, like the food, it’s simple. White brick walls with birch accents, green-backed booths and white marble tabletops—spherical lamps droop down from the ceilings and an insulated patio makes for a moody side dining room.
When it comes time to look at the menu, you’ll be pleased to see ample offerings. Loads of appetizers and salads, each dish centering around seasonal produce and other local ingredients. Crispy cacio e pepe fries come piled high on a plate, showered with black pepper and grated Parmigiano Reggiano. A zingy aioli comes on the side for dipping. The fries themself are perfect—pale golden hue with an undeniably crisp outer layer, housing a fluffy potato interior.
Seafood gets the same kind of careful execution. Massive shrimp are baked with a garlicky breadcrumb mixture, lemon, oregano and a healthy glug of extra virgin olive oil. The shrimp gently cook through in the oven as opposed to an aggressive cook that you might find when sauteeing or grilling. The bottom of the plate pools with sweet shrimp juices and that garlic-breadcrumb-layered sauce.
If you’re like me, you opt for a crudo too. Something cooling and fresh to juxtapose the rich flavors of the other apps. De Sisto fans out slices of raw tuna on a plate, anointing each piece with a segment of orange. A loose, almost salsa verde-like sauce of capers, chives, fruity Taggiasca olives and a lemon-infused olive oil is lightly spooned atop the plate. These are the types of bites that I live for. Clean, buttery tuna flavor that is uplifted by its chorus but never outshined.
The entrees sing to a similar tune. De Sisto is clear-eyed on his journey to bring Maplewood diners the same kind of food that he’s become known for in Montclair, and perhaps, he’s even looking to improve upon it.
Hand-rolled cavatelli comes sauced with a ragu of butternut squash, sage and crumbled sausage. The pasta is delicate with a pleasantly slight bounce to it. It makes for the perfect companion to the sweet and savory sauce, which teeters on the blurred lines between fall and winter.
In a similar vein, albeit more familiar for the NJ populace, is a beautiful chicken parm. A plate-sized chicken cutlet, breaded, fried and doused in rich tomato sauce and creamy mozzarella before taking a trip under the broiler. It comes bubbling on a plate with a sidecar of rigatoni in sauce. This is a massive portion and more than a bang for your buck, as it could easily make for two meals. The chicken is crispy on the outside with moist and seasoned meat. It could have been pounded a hair thinner for my preference, but that’s me looking for something to critique. A commendably delicious and comforting option.
Let’s talk about steak. Steak Au Poivre is a staple at Laboratorio Kitchen, and at Osteria LK, the NY Strip “Florentine” will undoubtedly become the same. Paired with creamy mash, sauteed vegetables, charred lemon and a herby condiment, it’s a composed dish that evolves along with the seasons. The accompaniments are nice, but it’s the steak itself that really impressed me. It’s a simply seasoned, expertly grilled cut of steak. That’s it. No dry age. No truffles. No bullshit. Just perfectly executed steak that is both flavorful and melt-in-your-mouth tender. I was sort of awe-struck, it looked nothing like the “best” steaks I see on social media, or even the steaks that stick out for me in recent memory, but it delivered intoxicatingly good flavors.
When I was little, I was only allowed to order steak on my birthday—the other 365 days of the year, I’d get to steal a bite or two from my parent’s order. Steak was special and something I savored. LK’s strip reminded me of what steak tasted like to me as a child. Like in Ratatouille when Anton Ego takes one bite of vegetable stew and is instantly transported back to his youth in the French countryside. That was me. What a treat.
A Simple dessert menu doesn’t try to be anything it’s not. You might opt for a rich and creamy chocolate espuma, or a more typical tiramisu—which, like much of the rest of the menu, is no-frills and candidly delicious.
When Chef James De Sisto first told me he had his eyes set on another restaurant, I wasn’t sure how I felt. Would he copy and paste Laboratorio Kitchen in a new neighborhood? Would he stray too far from what makes his food great? Almost immediately, LK established itself as a formidable restaurant in an evergrowing Maplewood culinary scene. Osteria LK strives at something I think many chefs have forgotten about. De Sisto takes an ingredient-driven approach to cuisine that I love so much.
Forget the drowned-out trends that come and go as fads in modern dining. Let’s get back to what matters the most in food: does it taste good? Osteria LK gets it.
