There are many types of Italian restaurants in New Orleans, including down-home Creole-Italian joints, classic trattorias with Sicilian roots and rustic, Northern Italian-inspired eateries. At Altamura, there's an East Coast influence, as the elegant new restaurant from ManhattanJack duo Jack Petronella and chef Coleman Jernigan pays tribute to spots in New Jersey and Manhattan where Petronella ate as a child.

On weekend evenings, a piano player holds court on the restaurant's baby grand, and it's likely diners will hear a Frank Sinatra tune or two, which evokes an Empire state of mind. The restaurant is named for the hillside region in Puglia, Italy from which Petronella's grandparents emigrated. The menu features a heavy Northeastern accent, and it isn't your standard red sauce joint. Instead, the menu reflects the restaurant's elegant surroundings, a 19th-century mansion that also functions as a boutique hotel.