A New And Celebrated Chef Makes The Very Good Basso 56 Even Better As Basso By PXK In Chappaqua, New York
Sammy Ukaj and Sherif Nezaj with chef Peter X. Jelly
Basso 56 was doing well enough, but partners Sherif Nezaj Sammy Ukaj saw an opportunity to bring the level of its cuisine higher and to get some publicity this spring by making chef Peter X. Kelly part of the team, changing the name to Basso by PXK. Now the place is packed every night by those well familiar with Kelly's reputation as one of the area's finest chefs.
Born in Yonkers and raised in Croton-on-Hudson, Kelly went off to France to stage at various restaurants there. He returned to the U.S. at a time when New American Cuisine was in ascendance and young chefs were getting the spotlight. He opened the highly creative Xaviar's in Piermont, New York, and a few other more casual places in the region, including X20, a two-story restaurant in 2008 that was part of Yonkers's downtown development project on the city's Hudson River waterfront. Business slowed after Covid and Kelly closed the restaurant, which Nezaj and Ukaj saw as a golden opportunity to enhance Basso 56. And the transformation in the kitchen has put the restaurant at the top of those in Westchester and would handily compete with the best Italian restaurants in Manhattan.
Summer's soft-shell crabs are served with guanciale and chives.
The airy, high-ceilinged white dining rooms are largely intact, the wooden floors polished, the tables set with good linens, the lighting excellent. There is a fine bar in one room and a wall of wine bottles that stock a first-rate list.
The regular menu contains a lot of the favorite dishes from the Basso 56 days, but Kelly puts his soul and his four decades of experience into the specials, which our party of four allowed him to choose, beginning with a satiny carpaccio of sea bream with chile pepper yuzu kosho, smoked trout roe a and a touch of mint––not very Italian but very, very good and delectabile on a hot July evening. Another carpaccio, this one of very flavorful octopus, was treated to a Calabrian chile oil.
Sea urchin butter tops fresh pasta.
The summer's first sweet white corn and fregola grains were the base for crackling crisp soft shell crabs served with thin slices of guanciale and chopped chives. Refreshing and creamy was a roasted golden beet salad and ricotta whipped with honey and pistachio. Saline Prosciutto di Parma was a fine foil to warm burrata with a yellow beefsteak tomato and a drizzle of balsamico.
From the set menu were deftly fried calamari with zucchini lashed with lemon and served with a spicy tomato and garlic aïoli.
Keeping to the seasonal tenor, there was warm shrimp salad with slices of black truffle and an unusual dressing of Prosececo wine with avocado and tomato. Lentils and asparagus with lemon crumbs and mustard were the ballast for salmon, which that night was somewhat bitter. Jumbo sea scallops quickly and impeccably cooked, took on sweetness from golden raisins, saltiness from capers, texture from pignoli and vegetal flavors for a roasted cauliflower puree.
Pappardelle noodles with braised lamb sauce.
We sampled three pastas: black and white housemade spaghetti with shrimp, calamari and clams with sweet cherry tomatoes and garlic; wide pappardelle noodles lavished with a rich ragù of braised lamb topped with pecorino and rosemary crumbs; and spaghetti alla chitarra with pleasingly mild sea urchin butter, shrimp and citrus crumbs.
Superb red snapper with herb butter, mushroom ravioli, peas and steamed asparagus was a little overloaded, but a branzino fillet dusted with summer's fragrant herbs came with roasted delicata squash and potatoes moistened with olive oil.
When Kelly stays simple he still delivers big flavors, as with a grilled veal chop with mushrooms and a Georgia pork chop with Calabrian chilies and a lovely apricot glaze.
Chocolate "salami" with zabaglione
Duckling two ways is hefty enough to serve at least two or more people. You get leg confit and breast cooked rare and served with a well-rendered sabayon flavored with Marsala and sided with mushrooms and polenta blended with mascarpone.
Desserts are also well crafted, from chocolate 'salami' studded with pistachio nuggets and a creamy zabaglione; a delicately flakey millefoglie with vanilla and lemon curd; warm bread pudding with a limoncello cream and hazelnut gelato; and one of the best renditions of tiramsùs I've had in a while.
I would have been happy going to Basso before Kelly arrived, but now that he has I applaud his addition and the commitment Nezaj and Ukaj have made to create something special out of what was always very good.BASSO BY PXK
11 King Street
Chappaqua NY
914 861 2322
Open nightly for dinner.
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