Best culinary renaissance

For a while there, the North End was getting a lot of flak. Naysayers lashed out with red-sauce this and tourist-trap that. But the yuppie housing offensive has finally had a good effect in the form of a restaurant revival to challenge that of the directionally opposed South End. Bricco was the first big player, and chef Bill Bradley keeps improving his details-details-details take on regional Italian cooking. Across the street, Mario Nocera has opened yet another restaurant, as good as his flagship Terramia. It's called Taranta, and it's the home of chef/owners Jose and Anna Duarte. The food may be the most daring in the area, with recipes dating back a thousand years from all over the south of Italy. Think bottarga, sea urchin, fish stew, and salty, rugged flavors.

Several blocks away at Prezza, chef Anthony Caturano is updating Italian cuisine with bold flavors and solid technique. There's even a boutique wine store called the Wine Bottega (owned by Paolo DeCidue of Trattoria a Scalinatella), where weekly tastings and an ever-changing inventory are reeling in grape nuts from all over the city. Best of all, there seems to be no end in sight for such tasteful expansion. Consider this tasty possibility: Barbara Lynch, the chef/owner of No. 9 Park, is hoping to secure a lease so she can reopen the European. The original Renaissance was scarcely more beautiful.

Bricco, 241 Hanover Street, Boston, (617) 248-6800; Taranta, 210 Hanover Street, Boston, (617) 720-0052; Prezza, 24 Fleet Street, Boston, (617) 227-1577.