The Auger
A trattoria that knows precisely what year it is — 1973 — and refuses to apologise for it.
Specimen №072 · TrattoriaThe Auger has been open for almost two years and could just as easily have been open for twenty. The brown banquettes look broken in by decades of dinners that ran late. The menu is one page and prints in two colours. The owner, who we never spoke to, was visible in the open kitchen on each of our three visits, doing exactly the same thing: testing pasta water with a spoon.
What follows is not a discovery. The Auger is not hidden. Half of the people you'd recognise from the cover of New York have already eaten here. The point of the review is not that the restaurant exists but that it has stayed the restaurant it set out to be — eleven months in, and again now at month twenty-three, and presumably tomorrow.
The kitchen is doing serious, unfussy work. The room knows its own decibel limits. The service refills water before you notice it's empty. The bill is not small. Whether that bill is worth it — and we think it is, with caveats — is the subject of the next section.
What we ate, what to order.
6 platesAgnolotti del plin
The dish. Pinched tight, brown butter, sage, parmesan as accent. Order it twice.
Beef carpaccio, classic
Razor-sliced, mustard cream, capers, rocket. Familiar; rehearsed; correct.
Bistecca fiorentina (for 2)
Dressed simply, brought to the table whole. Carved tableside on request.
Shaved fennel salad
Arrived too cold to taste. Dressed correctly otherwise. Twice in a row.
Tiramisu, built to order
Assembled at the pass. Coffee a little stronger than tradition. A small win.
Verdicchio · the house carafe
Honest, weeknight wine. The list's quiet bargain — order before you read it.
Five axes, in plain prose.
Field Score · 8.1 / 10The pasta room is doing nuanced work. Agnolotti del plin pinched at proper tension — closed tight enough to look pinched on a sewing machine — with brown butter, sage, and the bare necessary parmesan. Pappardelle al ragù from a sugo that is clearly Saturday-built and has been simmering, by our estimate, since at least Sunday afternoon.
The lone weak link across three meals was a fennel salad served too cold to register flavour. The leaves were dressed correctly, the shaving was thin. The plate was just out of the fridge. A small thing; we noticed it twice.
Everything else — the carpaccio, the bistecca, the tiramisu, even the bread — does its job. The kitchen is not flashy. It is, with one exception, careful.
Brown in three confident shades. The banquettes are worn in by what looks like decades of dinners that ran late. The bar is small and busy. The bathroom is full of framed Polaroids.
Decibels touch 78 at peak — loud enough to mask first-date awkwardness, just under the line where you stop hearing your friend across the table. Light measures a warm 2700K; nothing flatters food faster.
One quiet complaint: tables for two are placed close enough that you will, briefly, become part of your neighbour's conversation. We did not mind. Your mileage may vary.
The water glass refills before you notice it's empty. The wine recommendations are honest — when we asked the server which of two bottles she preferred personally, she answered without hesitation, and her answer was the cheaper bottle.
Bills arrive only when asked. Tables are not turned. We were never made to feel that someone was waiting on our seat, even on the busiest of three visits.
$88 per person before tip is meaningful money for pasta that one could, with effort, approximate at home. We are not pretending otherwise.
The room, the time, and the conviction make up most of the difference. Most. Compared to similar trattorie within ten blocks, The Auger sits at the upper end of the price band without leading on portion size or marquee ingredients.
If value is your dominant axis — and we respect that — this is not your restaurant.
This is the score that pulled the average up. The Auger is not trying to be the restaurant of the moment. It is the restaurant of about eleven moments ago, on purpose, and intends to remain so.
The menu is one page. The owner is in the kitchen every service. There is no Instagram. The wine list is not curated by a consultant. The tiramisu is built to order.
You will know within ninety seconds of sitting down whether you like this kind of place. If you do, you will like it for as long as it stays open.
What it costs, transparently.
Actual receipts kept on fileAntipasti
Primi
Secondi
Dolce · Bevande
What you’re paying for, exactly.
Pasta in the city has stopped being cheap food. The Auger sits at the upper end of the trattoria price band — about 12% above the median for similar rooms in the West Village, and roughly on par with the closer Italian-American counterparts in Greenwich Village proper.
Reading the bill: the primi do the heavy lifting (~31% of the spend), the bistecca pulls another fifth, and the wine is fairly priced for the quality. The salad is the single line item we would remove on a future visit.
Who to bring, what to order, when to go.
Field-testedFour close friends.
Or one person you're trying to impress with restraint. Avoid solo unless you'll happily eat at the bar — the room rewards a small group.
Agnolotti, bistecca, tiramisu.
One antipasto to share (not the fennel). Two primi. The bistecca for two. Tiramisu. The Verdicchio. Espresso, no dessert wine. Done.
Tuesday or Wednesday, 18:00.
The room is quieter, the kitchen is fresher, and the back tables — the good ones — are easier to land. Avoid Saturday 19:30 unreservedly.
3 visits, recorded.
Every review is built on at least two meals. We pay our own bills, dine anonymously, and keep a log.
Where, when, how.
117 Carmine St, New York, NYCarmine Street, between Bedford and Bleecker.
A black door, an unmarked window, a small brass plate. You will walk past it the first time. Walk back.
The Auger, asked and answered.
6 questions · answeredThe questions people ask after they've read the review. Some bookings tips, some opinion, some logistics.
For an Italian-American trattoria in the West Village in 2026 — yes, with caveats. The room, the time, and the conviction make up most of the difference between The Auger and a $50/head competitor. If **Value is your dominant axis**, look elsewhere; if Conviction is, this is the meal. The bill scales unfavorably for parties of two; aim for four if you can.