When was the last time you had some scungilli with your spaghetti? At Bareli's Restaurant‎, the spaghetti chittara mixes noodles with this oft-overlooked Italian staple—a whelk, or sea snail—alongside slow-braised calamari and shaved bottarga (pressed and dried fish eggs). It's a seafood plate that's sourced from Italian tradition, and it's just one of the standout offerings at the restaurant.

Bareli's Chef Robb Welch keeps the rulebook in one hand and improvises with the other, creating modern and classic entrees from milk-fed veal cutlets to fusilli and spinach carbonara. The menu's specials vary based on what's fresh at the fish market, the butcher shop, and the carrot charmer's underground lair, but the dining room's ambiance never wavers: sophisticated and warm. A fireplace crackles at one end of the room, and greenhouse windows let light stream through hanging fabric onto the white-clothed tables.