A new pasta cookbook is available today from Missy Robbins, the chef at Misi and Lilia in Brooklyn. Both the chef and her restaurant are known fro for handmade pasta. Pasta: The Spirit and Craft of Italy’s Greatest Food, with Recipes explores 40 handmade pasta shapes.

Back in 2018 when Misi opened in the base of one of new towers rising on the Domino Sugar plant site in Williamsburg, The New Yorker reviewed Misi, concluding that Lilia was the better option, and Ryan Sutton at Eater wasn’t too impressed either. The New York Times though, looked beyond the pasta offerings.

Then of course there was the pandemic. The restaurants downplayed the threat of COVID back in early 2020. After that hiccup, the chef pivoted to the new normal by offering high-end takeout. The restaurant began offering cook-at-home pasta kits, as well as a selection of patnry foods.

By the summer, Lilia had reopened with outdoor dining. Luckily for the restaurant, traffic calming measures at the corner of Union Ave and North 10th Street had converted a larger portion of the former roadway into a pedestrian plaza several years ago, creating plenty of space for the tables. When indoor dining returned to New York City, Misi reopened with just a quarter of its original tables available.

Over the course of the first pandemic winter, Lilia installed personal, table sized yurts for outdoor diners to isolate themselves. There were plenty of empty yurts on a recent September weeknight and Misi was filled with indoor diners.

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