Restaurant review, Oil Slick Hits Brooklyn Veggies at Bay Ridge's Casa Calamari.

Step inside Casa Calamari and be blinded by a red-and-green neon squid, sporting a floppy chef's hat and flailing 10 arms. With his crooked smile and pupils of different sizes, it's clear this dude is already fried. After turning away from the misshapen apparition, the second thing you'll notice is the glass shelf above the steam table, which runs the length of this boxy and informal Bay Ridge restaurant. The shelf flaunts a wealth of glistening vegetables. There's an orderly pile of thick asparagus—straight as soldiers at attention—and a helter-skelter stack of portobello mushroom caps. Dotted with cloves of garlic, broccoli rabe is often displayed, as are fat, crumb-spilling baked artichokes and grilled zucchini slices black-striped like prisoners in the movies. You'll see all sorts of salad fixings, too, including hothouse tomatoes, pristine leaves of romano marshaled for Caesar salads, pickled baby artichokes, and brined olives in several earthen shades.

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