Late last year, the popular Northern Italian restaurant Via Emilia was forced to leave its long-time Park Avenue South location because its building was slated for demolition. The reason? Another condo development. Say what you want about the manic pace of apartment construction in the city these days but this was a real loss, a loss felt around the chowhounding world. Fortunately for the hungry among us, Via Emilia has found a way to rise from the rubble in style, moving into new digs about two blocks away on East 21st Street. Last week, Nosher, Chilena and I went to have a look at their modern new space and to see if the food remained as good as it always was.

Chilena’s first reaction was, “This doesn’t look like an Italian restaurant!” And she was right, the space is sleek, a little dark, and more downtown than a Gramercy/Flatiron address might imply. The walls have been painted in Necco-wafer colored stripes, Scandinavian-inspired pendant lights line the ceiling over banks of tables and, in the back, diner-style booths round out the ample new dining room. There’s nary a red-checkered tablecloth or chianti-bottle candlestick in sight. Of course, all of this makes sense; Via Emilia has long-specialized in Modenese cuisine of the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy and, if you’ve visited there recently, you’ll recognize that modern restaurant design is nothing new.

Via Emilia’s menu stays true to the region’s focus on fresh ingredients and delicate flavors. There’s a focus on pastas like ravioli, tortelloni and tagliatelli, as well as on hearty meats like veal, pork and lamb. Strangely absent however is any risotto dish, a staple of Northern Italian cuisine. The wine list makes up for any deficits in the menu, with a few surprisingly under-$30 options. There are several Lambruscos, that once-disfavored sparkling red wine (whose grape orginates in the Emilia-Romagna region), and from the bottles we saw being poured to other diners, we can confirm that it appears to be making a well-deserved comeback. Affordability doesn’t end at the wine list, however: appetizers are all $8 or less, and nothing on the menu is more than $16.50. Try finding food as good at these prices anywhere nearby and you’ll be searching for a long time.

We started our meal with two appetizers: a side dish of asparagus alla parmesana, and an order of the restaurant’s legendary gnocco fritto ($8). The latter dish was a delight and more than lived up to its reputation as one of Via Emilia’s biggest winners: four puffy pillows of fried dough accompanied a selection of cured meats– Prosciutto di Parma, mortadella, coppa and sorpressata dolce. The dough is tender and light, lacking the oily or heavy quality you might expect, and it pulls apart easily, all the better to use to pick up a slice of the meat. An all-prosciutto plate can be ordered for four dollars more, but we were happy with the variety platter. The asparagus ($8) was a much simpler dish, but prepared with as much care: six perfect green stems, sautéed with a little butter and dusted with shavings of ultra-nutty Parmigiano-Reggiano.

My main dish of spinach ravioli ($13) had an intense spinach flavor that came as much from the green pasta as the spinach and ricotta filling. Each raviolo was bathed in a light tomato sauce that kept its gustatory distance just enough to let the freshly-rolled pasta shine. Given the labor involved in making ravioli (as Via Emilia does in house each day), this dish follows the natural law of ravioli — each plate comes with about 25 percent fewer ravioli than you could hope for. Still, this pasta is worth the price of admission.

Nosher’s grilled bluefish ($16.50) offered a take on this humble, strong-tasting fish that elevated it to new heights. Resting on a colorful bed of root vegetables, his portion comprised at least 5 ounces of seafood. Nosher couldn’t stop talking about how surprisingly delicate it was, and even the wintery accompaniment of roasted root vegetables somehow seemed to fit, even in mid-August.

Chilena ordered the spaghetti neri con calamari ($13.50), a heaving mass of black squid ink pasta, mixed with loops of tender squid, chopped tomatoes, and generous shreds of torn basil leaves. Like the ravioli, the black pasta is made in-house (the only spaghetti that is), and is cooked just al dente, matching the texture of the calamari, and playing well off the cooler, firmer tomatoes. The pasta was also inky-tasting to just the right point– not enough to make your sinuses pulsate, but enough so that you know what you’re eating.

While none of us was in the mood for it, we know that the restaurant’s homemade lasagna is apparently a minor celebrity, as are the pumpkin tortelloni, a dish that will doubtless become much more popular when fall arrives in a few weeks’ time. There’s so much to recommend Via Emilia in fact, that it’s a shame that the service toward the end of our meal was so rushed. Ours was a late dinner– we asked for a table around ten o’clock. Still, that should be no excuse for our waiter to tell us that, if we wanted dessert or coffee, we needed to order up long before we were finished with our mains. Nor is a late arrival reason for the staff to begin carting bags of garbage past everyone’s table. If a kitchen wants to close down early, it should let the front of the house know in advance, so every diner can linger over his meal. Minor service issues aside, Via Emilia was otherwise a great experience, and an absoultely excellent value for such glorious food. All in all, we’d say that Via Emilia seems to be taking well to its new location; locals and everyone else in New York City should be happy it has found a new home.

Via Emilia, 47 East 21st Street, between Park Avenue South and Broadway, 212-505-3072. No reservations. Cash only.