There's this game cooks play when they get together. It doesn't have a name or any rules, but the crux of it is this: You're dying -- fatal disease, on death row, whatever. There's time for one last meal, anything under the sun. What's it going to be? No one wants to waste his last night on a tasting menu, wrapped up in a jacket and tie in some murmuring tomb of a fine-dining restaurant. You want something fun, something memorable, something incredible and comforting at the same time. And for us, that's Luca d'Italia, Frank Bonanno's amazing Italian dream restaurant where everything is good and nothing is forgettable. Start with an
insalata of house-cured meats, a little fresh mozz, some prosciutto, then move on to the pastas -- the crab gnocchi, in particular -- and meats, like the kitchen's extraordinary "rabbit three ways." A meal at Luca would send anyone to the great hereafter with a smile on his face and the smell of truffles on his breath.