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"W hen I le CIA and did my internship at Babbo, I did it because that's what I had to do. You're constantly growing your resume but at the same time, you always need to be growing your knowledge. If you're not doing that, you're dead in the water. Most people see the indus- try as money, but it's not just about money. If you're not growing your knowledge, you're not really lev- eling up. All these places I've worked at were places I knew I needed to be. As I'm sitting here with two restaurants, I'm still thinking about the next steps of where I want to be—that hunger for wanting more." Felice has created two distinctive dining concepts for Crescendo. At the bar, he tapped seasoned beverage director Joshua Strauss for Italian-style cocktails to go with the room's menu: think Italian street food like stuffed arancini (fried rice balls) with gorgonzola dolce. When it comes to the dining room, he has curated a menu around large-scale entrées under "Per la Tavola" (meaning "for the table") which are preceded by equally shareable apps and house-made pastas which incorporate more of what Felice likes to call, "foodie food." One way for Felice to flex his high food IQ is with his premier starter, Gamberi Rossi (red prawn) Crudo. e idea sparked from the chef 's trips to Italy, where diners suck the brains from the prawn's head as a sort of delicacy. He wanted to bring that flavor home, but also knew he had to find a way to introduce it without asking us fussy New Jerseyans to suck out prawn brains. "When I created the dish, I thought, 'How many people in New Jersey are going to pick up this shrimp and suck the brains out?' So I ate at a few Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe and I remember this one served it as a crudo. It was one of the best things I've ever eaten. at dish inspired me to serve it as a crudo here, with shrimp head oil that's almost as red as the shrimp themselves. You get that super intense flavor from the head and the raw part of the tail is marinated in lemongrass, ginger, gin and mint. A lot of Michelin-starred restaurants in Italy almost do Italian food without boundaries. I wanted to take things like lemongrass that you wouldn't think about in Italian food, and give the dish a higher level of flavor that you normally don't get in New Jersey. e gin for instance, acts like a drying agent when you're eating this raw shrimp. en you have lemon gel and roasted garlic crema over the top with fresh mint, which is the kicker to freshen up the dish. It's a more foodie dish for sure," Felice explained. One of the few similarities that connects Osteria Crescendo with Viaggio, are Felice's house-made pastas. e Farfalle in meat sauce with lacinato kale and Parmigiano Reggiano has already become a local favorite. en there's the Paradiso Ravioli, which just might be the most picture-perfect pasta dish out there with its perfectly-cut frilly edges and vibrant yellow color from the farm-fresh eggs. Inside, it's made with six different cheeses imported from Italy. Outside, it's dressed in white sauce on a white plate (which gives the dish its color pop), and zig-zags of Calabrian chili oil reminiscent of red chili threads. V U E N J . C O M 108

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