It is not many years since Bohemia ate chiefly in the side streets,
at restaurants such as Enrico's, Baroni's--there are a dozen such
places. They still exist, but the Village is dropping away from them.
They are very good and very cheap, and the tourist--that is, the
uptowner--thinks he is seeing Bohemia when he eats in them, but not
many of them remain at all characteristic. Bertolotti's is something
of an exception. It is a restaurant of the old style, a survival of
the days when all Bohemian restaurants were Italian. La Signora says
they have been there, just there on Third Street, for twenty years. If
you are a newcomer you will probably eat in the upstairs room, in cool
and rather remote grandeur, and the pretty daughter with the wondrous
black eyes will serve you the more elaborate of the most
extraordinarily named dishes on the menu. But if, by long experience,
you know what is pleasant and comfortable you will take a place in the
basement cafe. At the clean, bare table, in the shadow of the big,
bright, many-bottled bar, you will eat your _Risotta alla Milanese_,
your _coteletti di Vitelle_, your _asparagi_--it's probably the only
place in the city where they serve asparagus with grated
cheese--finally your _zambaione_,--a heavenly sort of hot "flip," very
foamy and seductive and strongly flavoured with Marsarla wine.
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