One of my absolute favorite pasta dishes is linguine with clams. As you may know, I am always on the prowl for a perfected linguine with clams, and in the City I can only cite two restaurants that serve my favorites: Celeste and Babbo. Well, here comes the third, at Caffe Falai. The linguine is so fresh that when it’s cooked it doesn’t have the hardness of dried pastas al dente. Instead, the fresh pasta has a springy quality (like fresh ramen) and soaks in the mouthwatering pesto sauce. The little clams are also fresh and clean – sandy clams are a major pet peeve of mine – and the rich flavor of clam juice a nice accompaniment to the pasta and pesto.