Ponte Vecchio in Danvers on Route 1 has been a high end Italian restaurant for nearly a decade. Now, they have opened a casual restaurant next door which is both very good and a bargain. It is called the Trattoria and also includes a deli. While I am not known for being frugal when I go out to eat, I have always found PV to be rather expensive. And I have difficulty spending $ 20 an entree for pasta and related items. (if I'm going to spend a lot, at least give me high end items like rack of lamb, dover sole, tenderloin, etc.) Italian wines bear little relationship, quality to price and everytime I order a $40-50 bottle of wine I wind up rating it in the 80's (sometimes the low 80's). This almost never happens with California wines. You can go to any decent restaurant and a $ 40+ California wine will be a killer, usually a 90-95 rating by Parker or Wine Spectator. I think the wold's most prolific wine drinkers, the Italians, keep most of their good product over there, and ship the drek here. Of course, the same is said about the French who also ship a lot of over-priced wines to the U.S. Anyway, a $ 55 bottle of red wine at PV was rather disappointing so one of these days I'll learn my lesson. The wine list from both sides is shared and there are several reasonable choices by the glass. The food in the Trattoria side is very good, especially considering the low prices. Brick oven baked pizza was excellent, arugula salad with hearts of palm drizzled with a fine olive oil and caesar salads were both delicious. The squid was lightly breaded and a little chewey, but the flavor was there.. (The best way to make calamari is the way the Sole Proprietor in Worcester makes it, i.e., deep fry it first, then pan sautee it with hot peppers.) This casual side of Ponte Vecchio is really a tremendous bargain considering the quality of food and reasonable prices. It may also be the best pizza on the North Shore. Certainly a great place for a quick bite to eat on a weeknight. You get the much of the same quality from PV's formal side, at less than half the price. John Gallagher
Boston, MA