The owners (John & Judy Zarra & their son) decided to shift gears. One rumor I heard was that they had so much lunch business from the construction site across the street that they figured, what the heck, let's do dinners too! Dinner friday night was very nice. Not spectacualr, but very nice for the price. Not a lot of folks, maybe 6 tables. The owner came around to chat with folks, and they seemd to be doing some take-out trade. Reasonable wine list marked to about double the state store cost, which is pretty standard. Had Castello D'Albola 1997 (not riserva) Chianti - $26. The menu is basic Italian, some nice ideas, and vegetarian options are both part of the menu and seem like they'd be available as modifications, since they make a point of their meatless sauces. We had: Polenta (nice & creamy, molded) with marinara and spicy sausage - $11.00 A good melding of flavors & textures. The polenta was creamy, not that gelatinous stuff I sometimes end up with at home, but still held its shape. It complemented a red sauce that seemed long-simmered, with good body and spicy (not atomic) blobs of sausage. The sausage may have cooked in the sauce long enough that it didn't have that "tube" shape, so you wont have big (2-3 inch) pieces, but rather a blob that could be one or two bites. Had calamata olives added to the sauce. Cavatelli with spinach 9.95 The big slices of garlic were carmelized to perfection. We asked if Judy has done a long, slow process, but the son (greeting and waiting all the tables himself) said, no, she does it on high heat, and you gotta have excellent timing. Well, she does! Seems like she threw the garlic and red pepper flakes into hot oil and some butter, and stopped the burn by adding spinach. As soon as it's soft, bang! onto the pasta. A down-home and delicious italian dish. Salads were OK; iceberg lettuce, some tomato (ripe), marinated brown mushroom (cremini?) olives & pepperoncini - nothing nouvelle - but fresh and with a nice light, fresh dressing. We split a piece of sour cherry pie. The crust was very different, almost crackery rather than short or flakey. Not sweet, almost a bread overtone, but very nice. Expresso beverages are avialable (we were finishing our chianti). And, they are in the Entertainment Book, so grab your coupon and give 'em a try! For the price and the quality, we'll be back to see if they hold up under another examination. Christine Christine Berliner [email removed]
Pittsburgh, PA