In Neapolitan tailoring, sprezzatura is shorthand for cool, effortless style, where the shoulder of a softly padded $5,000 blazer is mischievously pleated; the breast pocket curved like a small boat; and the wearer looking as if he had ordered the second-cheapest Barolo with conviction.

At the upper end of dining, this studied nonchalance is refreshing. And @somma.world , housed in the former library of a midcentury-modern school, understands the appeal.

Last year, I (endearingly) took aim at the way Somma choreographed the midpoint between dinner and dark theater. A few of those elements still remain, but the fervent huddle of chefs behind those doors no longer startles; the room feels brighter; and the sermons feel more lived in. What holds today, more clearly now, is that the chef @iammirkofebbrile has turned Somma into one of the most dynamic restaurants in the city.

It’s also one of the rare tasting menus that feels more alive on a return visit, as I found in May. “Relaxed” more aptly described the tenor, though Febbrile’s food is still precise and deeply layered. Consider the humble corn husk broth, whose sweetness and nuttiness arrive first, followed by a wash of gently spicy Coratina olive oil that elevates the sip; the manicured asparagus, cooked to a rebellious al dente, paired with a shockingly clean distillation of sugar snap peas, here as ice cream; the deceptively complex pasta course — a full-bore expression of eggplant, whose skins are used with burnt honey and parmesan whey to anoint the water in which the pasta is cooked. Nonchalant is one way to describe its sauce, which is the custardy flesh of the eggplant, loosened with olive oil. Another is unreasonable.

So, too, the lamb: a 3-month-old Pyrenees breed wearing a salt-and-pepper skin as brittle as chicken skin, served simply with spring vegetables. One of the city’s great lamb dishes.

The only slight downer was an unnervingly sweet palate cleanser — Amalfi lemon blighted by Gariguette (!) strawberry — but that shouldn’t detract from the obvious: Somma may still be waiting on a benediction or two from a tire company, but it’s already cooking at that caliber.

📍Somma
🍽️ May ’26 Less