All the dish: meatballs? Mac and cheese? From the city's meta-chefs? You must be almost home

Interview, Dec, 2003 by Brad Goldfarb

Depending on your particular household, the words home cooking can mean anything from meatloaf to Wiener schnitzel, something that many of New York City's hottest new canteens have wisely tuned in on. The following three restaurants may offer the lights, action, and (in one case) cameras that diners hope for when they step out in the city, but their owners are betting the kitchen that all anyone really wants is to find a little slice of home.

SCHILLER'S LIQUOR BAR 131 Rivington St., 212-260-4555

As the man behind such success stories as Odeon, Balthazar, and Pastis, it's easy to think of Keith McNally as the steak-frites king--the guy who raised the making and serving of bistro food to a local art form, and who created all those more Paris-than-Paris settings within which to enjoy it. At his latest, Schiller's Liquor Bar on the Lower East Side, McNally takes this recipe one step further, fashioning an environment that's in keeping with both the neighborhood's immigrant history and its current youthful elan--a group well represented here most any evening after eight o'clock. Like Pastis, which Schiller's most closely resembles, it's a spot that makes effective use of all those McNally calling cards (white subway tile, cloudy mirrors, a handsome back-lit bar), while pulling them together in a more offhand, less formulaic way. It's an approach evident in the menu as well, which functions as a kind of greatest hits from home kitchens around the globe. For starters, there's a terrific chopped liver (with a candied walnut compote) as well as a fine bread salad flecked with sliced fennel. Entree standouts include lamb curry over basmati rice, pork chops with sauteed onions, and eggplant parmesan. Specials range from stuffed cabbage (on Sundays) to meatloaf (Tuesdays), not to mention a variety of seductive regional sandwiches (from Welsh rarebit to a fried oyster po' boy) available daily. In keeping with the restaurant's comfort-food fixation, desserts are kept studiously down to earth, though it's Schiller's sticky toffee pudding that ultimately soars.

ROCCO'S ON 22ND 12 E. 22nd St., 212-353-0500

As if opening a restaurant wasn't challenge enough, Rocco DiSpirito made the unorthodox if celebrity-savvy decision to televise the experience, sharing all the headaches in a weekly one-hour reality show on NBC called The Restaurant. Though diners complained that satisfying the cameras, not the customers, seemed to be the focus, and critics complained that the show was about as imaginative as its name, NBC has renewed the program for another season. Meanwhile, the actual restaurant seems to have refocused its energy on what it initially had set out to do--serve the kind of Italian-American home-style cooking DiSpirito was weaned on as a kid. To achieve this, he installed his mother in the kitchen, and featured a number of her recipes on the menu. It's a homey touch at odds with the setting, one which (even without the cameras) suffers from the cold and cavernous feeling of a soundstage--beaded mural of the Bay of Naples notwithstanding. Still, if you like this kind of cooking--and it's hard not to--there's much to relish at Rocco's. Appetizer options range from a fine eggplant rollatini and spicy meatballs (Mama's own) to a host of appealing salads, like the Caprese with house-made mozzarella. Entrees include an irreproachable linguine with clam sauce, as well as hearty Italian classics like a robust rabbit cacciatore and a crispy baked chicken served with sauteed onions. Desserts offer few surprises save one: the excellent cannoli--further proof that there's nothing like having family in your kitchen.

MIX IN NEW YORK 68 W. 58th St., 212-583-0300

It's easy to overlook that the oddly named Mix in New York, the latest from that multistarred Frenchman Alain Ducasse, is at heart a restaurant offering interpretations of French and American home cooking. First there's the restaurant's sleek, loftlike design; then there's its lofty concept: creating a culinary exchange between the nations of France and the United States. Of course, where Ducasse goes, so goes the press, and as has widely been reported, meals here begin with grilled country bread served alongside little tubs of butter, grape jelly, and house-made peanut butter, and end with a choice of desserts including an outlandish-sounding chocolate pizza. In between all these gee-whiz moments, however, is plenty of solid, home-inspired cooking to make the case for this trans-Atlantic journey. Appetizers are presented in small glass containers reminiscent of an in-flight meal, though happily, none of what I sampled (glazed shrimp with sweet-and-sour eggplant, dried duck with corn and chorizo) bore a resemblance to anything I've encountered at 35,000 feet. Other starter standouts include a fine BLT (more salad than sandwich) and a wonderfully reimagined pastrami and baby pickles, while entrees feature a terrifically tender slow-cooked bison, a winning mac and cheese, and a pulled pork with barbecue sauce that redefines the genre. And as for that chocolate pizza--it's exactly as weird and wonderful as it sounds.