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Some restaurants are frequented by people intent on getting a good meal, others by those who just don"t want to dirty a pot at home. Bettola is the latter. A massive oven produces charred thin-crust pizzas with house-made mozzarella and basic toppings. Chewy farro and white beans marry well with chicory salad; tender ravioli are filled with curried lamb and raisins. Owner Sebastiano Cappitta (Acqua, Isola) is blazing a successful trail through the Upper West Side, but some carelessness marred a recent meal, such as a skimpy portion of shrimp with pappardelle (four shrimp, four noodles) and a fish stew that had a whiff of iodine. But if sitting outdoors with a refreshing coffee granita on a patch of fenced-in sidewalk doesn"t exactly transport you to Italy, it does feel mighty neighborly.

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