A friend of ours, while talking about getting together for a recent meal at Park Slope's al di la, told me that her mother had once accidentally referred to the restaurant as ‘La di Da' and had yet to live it down. It's a telling solecism, because nearly ten years after the restaurant opened its doors for the first time, it can be still legendarily hard to snag a table there–and this is Brooklyn. Thanks to lots of favorable press, al di la has become so popular that husband and wife team Anna Klinger and Emiliano Coppa still have to turn away prospective diners during almost every single service. And yet, the locals don't seem to mind much. Every time we go, we find ourselves wondering: For what other Brooklyn restaurant would diners cheerfully wait an hour, an hour-and-a-half, or more in order to eat a meal?
The wait derives largely from al di la's egalitarian no-reservations policy–whether you're a celebrity, a luminary, or even an old friend of Anna's, prepare yourself for a wait–either outside al di la's crowded Fifth Avenue doorway, or at the al di la wine bar around the corner (the two rooms connect via the very busy kitchen). And if waiting for a la-di-da table in the main dining room, with its brick walls and red-and-white circus print drapery gets to be too much, diners can opt to eat from the full menu in the wine bar itself. As an added bonus, eating in the wine bar offers access to a wine list that extends beyond the Italian-only selections of the main dining room.
But we are the sorts who like a table, and still, the wait is worth every minute. Almost everything we have ordered at al di la, over many visits, has been both remarkable and remarkably consistent. A few items even make you sit up straight and take notice: for instance, the swiss chard and ricotta malfatti (pictured left, $13), a crowd-pleaser that has been on the menu for years with good reason. These soft, slightly chewy gnudi are simply emerald mounds of cheesy, doughy pleasure, made all the more enjoyable by a light sauce of sage and brown butter. Truffle and ricotta tortelli (pictured on Flickr, $18) demand equal attention, with their sweet sheep's milk ricotta and strong but not overpowering hit of black truffle shavings. Rounding out our favorite pasta dishes is an gnocchi special made with a beef cheek ragu (pictured on Flickr, $15) so savory it seems purpose-built for a glass of hearty Sangiovese and a mopping-up with some of al di la's sturdy bread.
While favorites like the malfatti, the beet and ricotta ravioli, and the braised rabbit and polenta are deservedly year-round menu residents, certain specials also earn their more seasonal places on the restaurant's rota. Chief among these are the cichetti (pictured top, $14)–Venice's version of tapas–which can include anything from tender roasted octopus to a wonderful baccala with pickled onions and fried polenta wedges. The frequently changing side dishes are also a treat: on our most recent night, an order of unprepossessingly named ‘greens' (pictured above right, $5) yielded a hot pot of of savory, soft, creamy cranberry beans (borlotti beans) and nearly greaseless broccoli rabe.
Main dishes are nearly as good as the starters. A recent special of wild striped bass (pictured above, $26) shines brightly with a supple, moist texture and sides of nutty sautéed Jerusalem artichokes, green garlic and oyster mushrooms. A plate of calf's liver (pictured right, $15) is prepared in a traditional Venetian style with reduced red wine and balsamic vinegar, allowing the deep, ferric richness of the liver to play against a sweet and acidic background. And here too, fried triangles of creamy polenta make a very welcome re-appearance.
If there are any small disappointments at al di la, they come at the end of the meal, for the desserts, while quite good, are less original and exciting than the breathtaking pasta, ravioli and gnocchi. An apple galette dusted with with powdered sugar and crowned with vanilla ice cream is refreshing, but something we've seen many times before. 
A trio of gelatos is restorative, but with the only the most predictable flavors: vanilla, hazelnut, and chocolate. All perfectly lovely, just not quite as magical as anything the restaurant makes with cheese or basil.
Still, eating at al di la is almost always a great experience, with a consistency and quality of cooking matched by few other restaurants. al di la's seasonal variations on its Venetian and Northern Italian theme have held up so superbly–even evolving into more perfect versions of themselves over the course of a decade–that it is no surprise that half of Brooklyn seems to show up at the restaurant for every meal it serves. And if they do have to wait an hour or two once they arrive, a few bites of Anna's malfatti ought to make them forget all about it.
al di la Trattoria, 248 Fifth Avenue (at Carroll Street), Park Slope, Brooklyn, 718-783-4565.
