Otto Review

January 15, 2003 After attending an amusing performance of Adult Entertainment last night, we headed across the village to Otto (8th St. @ 5th Ave.) at SA's ahead-of-the-curve urging. The buzz on this place is huge: a new thin-crust pizza joint from Babbo's Mario Batali, but at 10:15pm we cruised in and were seated immediately. The food is great, and a full meal with wine ran us just $60 (Petrosino, poke your eyes out). Highlight was the most unapolagetic dish I've ever seen served in a Manhattan restaurant, a true icon for these Atkins Diet times. It's a pizza called the 'Otto Lardo,' and it's basically a thin crust topped only with pig fat. Unbelievably good. Might even use the word addictive. Memo to Below 14th readers: do not, I repeat do not, tell Pizza Hut about this.