AUTHOR BIO: Dana Somerstein’s passport is stamped with perfect pizza slices, delicate dumplings, and buttery baked goods. When she’s not chasing her next reservation, she practices real estate and banking law as a partner in Fort Lauderdale.
If you can’t make it to Naples for dinner, Audace offers a few reasons to be happy you’re in Manhattan. On Park Avenue South between 26th and 27th Streets, the restaurant brings a distinctly Southern Italian sensibility to the city, from the food to the people serving it. Most of the waitstaff were born in Italy, and owner Mario Ursumando opened the restaurant in 2024 with his brother, Francesco. The family connection runs deeper than a bowl of pasta and a few bottles of Barolo.
The restaurant is lively, with a warm, stylish dining room. It works for a date night, dinner with friends, or a meal that stretches well past the time you told yourself you’d head home.
Neapolitan
Ursumando, a Naples native who previously worked at Ribalta, draws on his hometown and Southern Italy for the menu. There are inventive touches, such as gnocchi filled with basil pesto and served with burrata cream, alongside his mother’s own ragù recipe.
The pizza needed little embellishment. Ours came out with the charred, airy crust you’d expect from a Neapolitan pie, with just enough chew and a wonderful depth of flavor in the crust itself. It tasted remarkably close to the pizzas we’ve had in Naples. When I asked our waiter which pizza, other than Audace’s, he had enjoyed most since moving to New York a few months earlier, he quickly and unironically answered, “Audace! I only eat my pizza here.” After tasting ours, I understood his lack of interest in the competition. Audace has earned a spot on the 50 Top Pizza USA list and won its New Entry of the Year Award in 2025.
We followed the pizza with another round of carbs: the gnocchi ripieni al pesto e tartufo. The pasta looked somewhere between ravioli and gnocchi, combining two things I’m rarely inclined to turn down. I was nervous that the basil and black truffle would compete, but neither overwhelmed the other.
Gnocchi ripieni
We also ordered the zucchini parmigiana, a zucchini lasagna layered with fried zucchini and smothered in smoked mozzarella and a creamy béchamel. It was good, although the smokiness dominated.
Zucchini parmigiana
Piramidi di Ragù Napoletano
For the main course, we had a bone-in veal Milanese, breaded and fried. It arrived in a portion that made our earlier pasta order seem rash. We finished it anyway. Fresh arugula and bright cherry tomatoes complemented the veal. We drew the line at an affogato for dessert, leaving the tiramisu for another visit. Our waiter gave it an enthusiastic recommendation.
Audace’s appeal extends beyond the cooking. The atmosphere is fun, and conversations with the Italian staff add to the pleasure of eating here. When we asked another waiter who had also moved to New York how he was enjoying life in the city, his response was, “It’s not Italy.” Fair enough. We were still happy to spend the evening in his company.
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