Five years ago I spent a three days in the Basilicata town called  of Matera, called  “la città subterranean” ("the underground city"), a slightly eerie place where many of hillside cave dwellings dating from the Paleolithic period are still occupied after 3,000 years. In 1993 the town was granted UNESCO World Heritage Site status as "the most outstanding, intact example of a troglodyte settlement in the Mediterranean region.” One certainly wouldn’t find any more extensive.
    Peering down from the heights, one may think those dwellings empty (many are, condemned by the government as unsafe), looking as if the Allies in World War II had recently bombed the city. Over centuries it was a invaded, by Lombards, Arabs, Normans, Aragon and others, controlled and doled out by rulers to other city states. The sight is not beautiful but breathtaking, which is the reason Italian director Piero Pasolini shot The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964), Mel Gibson The Passion of the Christ (2004), and Cary Joji Fukunaga the last James Bond movie, No Time to Die (2021; left). This last has created waves of tourism for the city. Today Matera is the fastest-growing city in Italy at a time when so many southern towns are losing population.
    This year, Matera was on my route to a wedding in Puglia, so my wife and I were eager to see the town again. What I found, to my astonishment, is that Matera is actually two, connected towns, the old cave section called the Sassi on the right bank of the Gravina River, and, opposite, a vibrant, sun-lit Baroque city of considerable wealth and a tourist sites all its own. In the Sassi, Matera Cathedral was built in the 13^th century in the Romanesque style, while many small churches were carved into the rocks. There is fine Museum of Sculpture and a Museum of National Art.
    On the other side of the river, the main street Via Lucana (left) winds through this remarkably modern and very open city––though it dates back to Roman times––with cars banned from its center, so that one can stroll on shiny, scrubbed streets past 19^th and 20^th century buildings and beautiful piazzas lined with boutiques and trattorias. The churches here are of several styles, including the Matera Cathedral called Basilica Pontificia Cattedrale di Maria Santissima della Bruna e Sant’Eustachio, dedicated to the city’s two saints. The Piazza Vittorio Veneto is the heart of the new city, with a beautiful fountain at its center atop recently discovered Roman cisterns. It is surrounded by historic palazzos, including the 18^th century Annunziata and the Church of San Domenico.    
    One can stay in one of Matera’s cave, including the Sextantio Le Grotte della Civita, and the Caveoso Hotel (below) on thepiazza of the same name, where we spent the night within hovering limestone walls. A new 10-room hotel, set in a 16^th century palace, is Il Palazotto just off the Via Fiorentini, which even has its own winery. Depending on the time of year these lodgings are usually between 90€ and 130€ a night.
         The Left bank city now teems with trattorias and gelaterias, and bakeries send out the sweet aromas of Basilicata breads.  Da_Mó on Via Bruno Bozzi is a new restaurant where Paolo and Michaela share chef’s duties to make a fine regional cuisine currently offering a four-course dinner at 39€ euros and six for 49€ . Seasonal dishes include  an ennobled pasta with breadcrumbs and cruschi peppers (once considered a poor man’s food), veal cooked in Aglianico wine with smoked potatoes and honey; and puff pastry with cream custard and black cherries. 
         Since we enjoyed Trattoria Paolangelo on Via Duni so much last time, we went back for lunch this time, finding the place as busy as ever, with sunlight glowing under brick arches. The prices haven’t changed in five years so you can still have a two-course €15 menu or a three-course menu at €22, with good wines by the carafe are available. We ate heartily, beginning with a big plate of ten  polpette meatballs. Have the, verdure vegetables dressed with olive oil and lemon; cavatelli ricotta pasta with Gorgonzola and walnuts; or gnocchi with red tomato and more Gorgonzola (above, left). Owner-chef Raphaele Paolangelo makes everything he serves.    There are also six salads available which is very unusual in Italy. As a main course we went with the grilled pork scented with sage.
         For dinner we loved Ristorante Francesca on the Vico Bruno Buozzi, set on two levels. The wine list is one of the best in the city, with plenty of Basilicata and Puglian bottlings at moderate prices. Here the antipasti is proudly displayed, full of vegetables, cheeses and meats. It was fava bean season so we had them mixed with ear-shaped orrecchiete.
         Finding two Materas connected was for us a revelation, not least because they so radically differ in their cultural backgrounds. What was once considered a “national disgrace” of abandoned caves has now become the focal point for a visit, but not to visit the other Matera is to miss one of the loveliest towns in Basilicata.

AU ZA'ATAR

1063 First Avenue
212-625-3982

    One glance at the photo above of the panoply of dishes served at Au Za'atar shows the exceptional richness of the menu at this East Side mid-town spot. Indeed, the spacious elegance of the restaurant inside mirrors the lavishness of the food, which proved to me that the cuisine of the Middle East––in this case Lebanon––is among the world’s grandest, along with French, Italian, Indian and Chinese.

         Au Za’atar  takes its name from an aromatic mixture of thyme and other herbs used widely throughout the Middle East, and although it is a blend of dried spices, it is imperative that it be made fresh and regularly. This freshness of herbs and seasonings is key to appreciating the restaurant Au Za’atar’s cooking.

         There are three distinct dining rooms, seating 181 people, one of which includes the seven-seat Bread Bar.  The South Room features a round Chef’s Table with a circular banquette on request. The beige, brown, avocado and blue  tones of the rooms are softly lighted and the sun pours in through French windows during the day, Pillows are abundant at the roomy banquettes. There is a good, shining  bar up front and in good weather al fresco dining, which during Covid provided 120 seats while the indoor dining was closed.

         This is Chef/Owner Tarik Fallous’s second Au Za’atar (the first,  much smaller, is in  the East Village), and since my last visit nearly five years ago, the menu has grown and the cooking refined, with all the spices coalescing to distinguish one dish from the next.

         You must, of course, begin with mezzes––there are mixed trays of them for $54, $66 and $89––like the delicious spicy hummus ($10), and the cauliflower called arnabeet mekle ($14). Refreshing at any time of year the tabouli salad ($19.50) of bulgur mixed with parsley, tomatoes, scallions, mint, fresh lemon juice and olive oil is excellent. Beets are oven-roasted with tangy goat’s  milk creamy chèvre ($17), and the falafel  ($11) of chickpeas, sweet onions, cumin and chopped parsley is a classic. 

Perfectly cooked pita bread comes quickly and regularly, but there are also flatbreads well worth ordering, like the  maouche ($14), filled with with thyme, sesame seeds, sumac, and olive oil.

Batata harra ($11.50) are sautéed spicy potato cubes with cilantro, garlic and red pepper flakes, while bemieh bzeit ($14) is a  sauté of baby okra in olive oil with tomatoes, garlic and cilantro that makes them so savory and special. Somewhere in the meal you should get the sumac-dusted fried potatoes ($9) in a perfect aïoli. The remarkable thing is that, using many of the same spices, these individual dishes taste so different yet are distinctly Lebanese, with somewhat more bite than, say, Turkish or Persian food.  I loved the hefty, thick lamb shank laban immo ($52), braised slowly and suffused with an Armagnac-prune sauce served over red skin mashed potatoes and sweet caramelized onions. Kibbi kabaniyeh ($44) is finely ground beef scented with mint and tossed with toasted pine nuts, served with wonderfully suffused vermicelli rice. Grape leaves are wrapped around and give texture to zucchini in a lemon-garlic broth with slices of lamb filet ($58).

Only the great spread of savory dishes we enjoyed prevented me from ordering the  “Original tableside Shawarma®️,” available with chicken, lamb or beef ($128-$148), which comes dramatically to the table as a thick shaft of meats to be carved off and served with za’atar-dusted French fries (right). A table of four next to us were only able to devour about half before taking the rest home.

Desserts are as lavish as all else, from the Lebanese booza gelato sprinkled with pistachio and molasses-based Jellab; ashta ($15.50) pudding of honey, pistachio and banana; and knafeh bil jebne ($16.50) of baked cheese topped with shredded, orange-suffused filo dough and a sprinkling of  pistachios.

         I was, again, amazed at the inclusiveness of the international  list, including 14 red wines from Lebanon, as well as a list of the “milk of Lions”––the liquor arak, with five bottles by the glass.      

Prices have risen in the past four years and are in some respects higher than at the downtown Au Za’atar.

This article could be twice as long as it is, had I the space to list many more of the dishes from mashawi stone ovens, casseroles, shorba soups, side dishes and desserts. One could return five or six times and still miss some of the delicacies at Au Za’atar. And I’m sure that as the seasons change, that task will become harder and harder and better and better.

Open from 10 AM till 2 AM daily.