by Silvia Killingsworth

For the past four years, while the cost of a high-end tasting menu shot up as fast as the city's pencil towers, the Milan native Gaia Bagnasacco has been preparing authentic Italian food at bargain prices not seen since the nineteen-nineties.

On an unremarkable graffiti- and scaffolding-covered stretch of East Houston Street, her eponymous basement-level B.Y.O.B. café is a true "hidden gem," straight out of "Let's Go: New York City." From the signs for free Wi-Fi to the red plastic water tumblers and the vitrine tables overflowing with magazines, the café feels like the communal space of a youth hostel. 

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Source: http://www.newyorker.com/