Donde Dinner? - 144 East Broadway

Donde Dinner? wants to make your next dining experience an adventure. So, every Friday, we pick a restaurant and post its address for you. The catch is, that's all the information you get. No name, no type of cuisine, and no Googling. But first, here's last week's address:

1 Fifth Avenue = Otto

This week's restaurant follows typical Donde Dinner? fashion. Price, quality, and accessibility have all been taken into account. You won't be waiting at the bar for two hours with $15 cocktails and you never have to worry about a dress code. Just hop on the train, or your feet, or your bike, and head to:

144 East Broadway (map)

Where to Get $10 Pasta During National Pasta Month (Oh, It's National Pasta Month)

We've done our share of coverage on Industry Night at Osteria Mornini, which is every Monday night from 9pm til close (11pm).  For those two hours, each pasta on the menu is $10.  In honor of National Pasta Month (which is apparently the month of October), we thought we'd mention a couple more options on where to go for a $10 plate of pasta.

Otto has been serving cheap pasta since the restaurant opened back in 2003.  For $9 you could have spaghetti carbonara, puttanesca, and a handful of other Italian faithfuls.  The price has since bumped up to $10, but that's the fixed price and definitely a bargain in our book.

1 5th Avenue | 212.995.9559 | www

Principessa, one of a few newcomers to SoHo's Italian scene, is getting in on the deal starting tonight with $10 pastas that run through Thursday.  The special starts at 10pm and goes until close (midnight).  They'll take a break from the deal over the weekend, but it'll be back for Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.

199 Prince Street | 646.682.7377 | www

It's My Party, and I'll Sit Incomplete If I Want To

ottoFlorence Fabricant writes a column for the Diner's Journal titled "Dear Flo Flab," in which she takes questions and "gives advice on the fine points of entertaining at home and eating in restaurants."  The (usually) sound advice comes from someone who is clearly experienced and well versed in all things food.  One question in the column's return yesterday addresses the issue of seating incomplete parties:

Seating incomplete parties does zero good for a restaurant.  Restaurants like Otto and Balthazar serve well over 2,000 people during the weekend alone.  Plenty of other restaurants match these numbers, numbers that would not be attainable if incomplete seating policies were not in place.  The policy is even more understandable at small places like Mission Chinese Food, where, "You're looking at two hours" for a wait for two on Saturday night.  If parties are allowed to sit and hold a table for X amount of time while they wait for their friends to "park the car," "come back from the bathroom," or "close the bar tab," dinner cannot commence.  A party sat incomplete raises the wait times for everyone else.  Every square inch of real estate in NYC is valuable and restaurants, down to the tables and chairs, are no exception.

A recent article in the New Yorker titled "Check, Please" explores the challenges fine dining restaurants face making money.  Fine dining aside, every restaurant faces the same challenges.  In "Check, Please," John Colapinto explores different ways in which restaurants maximize the diner's experience while turning the table in the quickest time possible.  Turn tables, turn a profit.

Not every restaurant should adhere to a strict incomplete seating policy.  If the dining room is only half full, sit the incomplete party.  But, if the restaurant is on a wait, it makes complete sense, and should be expected, that priority will go to groups that are "all here."

Attack of the Batali Pang

Num Pang is a Cambodian sandwich shop with Greenwich Village (21 E 12th) and Midtown (140 E 41st) locations.  Today marks the start of the shops "Guest Chefs Give Back" campaign that sets to raise money for the New York City Food Bank and the Cambodian Children's Fund.

Mario Batali is the first featured chef and his "Batali Pang", available starting today, will run for the next month, through March 15th.  The sandwich is one of cotechino, which is a slow cooked Italian sausage, balsamic braised onions, Cacio di Roma cheese, and the rest of the fixens you'd find on a sandwich under the Banh Mi blanket; pickled carrots, cucumber, and cilantro.  It can be yours for $9.75 - 60% of that cost will head to above mentioned charities.

If the the cotechino is anything like the Prosecco braised version Batali's Greenwich Village pizza spot Otto does for New Year's, I'm there.  If it's any different, I'm there.