Spaghetti & Coffee

The episode was written by executive producer Howard Korder, and directed by Alik Sakharov. This was Korder's seventh writing credit, and Sakharov's first directing credit.[1]

In its original American broadcast, "Spaghetti & Coffee" was seen by an estimated 2.62 million household viewers with a 1.0 in the 18-49 demographics. This means that 1 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode.[2] This was a 10% decrease in viewership from the previous episode, which was watched by 2.89 million household viewers with a 1.2 in the 18-49 demographics.[3]

"Spaghetti & Coffee" received generally positive reviews. Matt Fowler of IGN gave the episode a "great" 8 out of 10 and wrote, "This episode felt a bit shallow, but perhaps that's because Nucky was busy dipping his feet in the shallow end, hoping his hummingbird wouldn't fly too far away."[4]

Noel Murray of The A.V. Club gave the episode a "B" grade and wrote, "Unlike last week's tense 'Resolution,' I found 'Spaghetti & Coffee' more diffuse, with less narrative drive overall. Perhaps that's because the family troubles of Eli and Chalky are less interesting to me than faux-family troubles of Nucky and the Darmody clan."[5]

Alan Sepinwall of HitFix wrote, "So we have a lot of characters so far off in their own stories, all loosely connected by Nucky, and Nucky doing his best to stay out of sight. Makes for a lot of interesting individual pieces, but we'll have to see if they come together for a satisfying whole."[6] Seth Colter Walls of Vulture gave the episode a 4 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "It looks like Maybelle can't quite stomach this violence in the flesh. Chalky, after commanding the pianist to keep playing, stares his daughter down, asking: 'Am I interesting now?' It's enough to make the rest of the episode's various intrigues pale by comparison."[7]

Edward Davis of IndieWire gave the episode a "B–" grade and wrote, "While chess moves were made, specifically and most dramatically in Rosetti's powerplay in Tabor Heights, as usual, Boardwalk Empire is content to move at a patient gait. A wise move in the end, but 'Spaghetti & Coffee' is the type of slow-moving episode that you immediately jump to the next episode if you're watching on DVD."[8] Chris O'Hara of TV Fanatic gave the episode a 4 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "The walls seem to be closing in on Nucky and he seems to be searching for some distance from it all. The political issues, Gyp now interfering, not to mention the issue of Margaret giving away the land to her parish which has yet to come up, all will serve to make Nucky start asking for a little less starch in his collars I feel. Like the fish in the opening scene, Nucky's pond is shrinking and the water isn't getting any safer."[9]

Michael Noble of Den of Geek wrote, "This was a good episode, especially as it let the personal drama do most of the talking, and gave some much-needed space to a couple of the lesser-used characters. It was a real treat to see a little of the worlds of Eli and Chalky, not least because they showed how hard it can be to struggle against your time and circumstances."[10] Michelle Rafferty of Paste gave the episode a 8 out of 10 and wrote, "Meticulous serialization is a wonderful thing. So too, is the fragmented and free-form arc, if a show can put it together right, on both an episode and season level. Boardwalk has done an exceptional job with this in the past, and as long as it quickly brings Harrow back in, I think it'll be OK this year."[11]