Teodora

There are more food issues in my family than an entire year of Gourmet Magazine. One relative is allergic to onions and peas, another to shrimp, and another can't eat anything spicy. The most challenging relative suffers from an extreme allergy to pepper ("No white pepper. No black pepper. No red pepper. No green pepper. I'll die," is the litany she recites at every restaurant we visit). But not only is this relative unable to eat pepper, she also has an ever-growing set of rules about things she absolutely will not consume. No warm or hot desserts. No fish (but canned tuna is OK). No broccoli rabe or greens more bitter than iceberg lettuce. American coffee, not cappuccino. You get the drift.

Fortunately, the folks at 10-year-old Teodora are veterans who treat all their clientele with grace. So when my relative sent back her filet mignon this past weekend ("This isn't rare!") they obliged and brought out another. ("Bloody rare! That's how I like it.")

Teodora is a cousin of Luciano, a seafood restaurant in Rome. It inspires passion - the walls of the women's bathroom are covered with lipstick kisses - and all the tables in the homey duplex are usually full. And there's a lot more than seafood on the menu, to the delight of my relatives. There's balsamic-glazed rack of lamb, and radicchio salad with bacon and eggs, and crisp fried artichokes, and homemade pasta hats stuffed with spinach and ricotta in butter sage sauce, and gnocchi in cheese fondue. For those of you who miss the San Gennaro parade (or for that matter, any other NYC parade), you can get your sausage and peppers in an inventive pasta dish made with strozzapreti (did you know that means "priest choker" in Italian?). I love whole fish, so I devoured the orata stuffed with garlic cloves and herbs.

With my relatives in tow, a warm dessert (apple tart, chocolate cake) was out of the question, so we split a tiramisu. Teodora's chocolate-chip-filled version was rather like a mascarpone mousse - not much ladyfinger in there, and no cocoa dusting - but still wonderful. My relatives were thrilled, and all was right with the world!

Teodora: 141 East 57th St., (212) 826-7101.