| I must admit that my excitement about trying Boccavino (2220 Centre St. N.E.; phone 276-2030) quickly turned to disappointment when I walked through the doors of the new restaurant. Thankfully, its appearance belies its great food.
The location is the former Tinos pizzeria, which occupied the space for 27 years. When it became vacant, next-door neighbours Lina and Tom Castle of the adored and revered Lina’s Italian Market found it too tempting to pass up and bought it. However, despite a labour of love that entailed extensive renovations, the resulting lounge and grill is a vacuous room devoid of décor and atmosphere. Amid the romantic wall treatment and wrought iron lamp chandeliers, a single vase sits atop the mantle of the gas fireplace like a last minute decorating gesture. I was in the mood for delicious Italian cuisine, but the restaurant looked more like a place where you’d order chicken strips and beer while watching sports on one of the five flatscreens. (Boccavino is licensed and allows smoking.)
However, Boccavino features lunch and dinner menus with the finest of ingredients from the neighbouring market. The chef is Tunisian Sabrino Talbi, who’s previously cooked at La Dolce Vita, Il Giardino and Buon Giorno. The menu offers a great selection of traditional Italian fare that includes pasta dishes, seafood, veal, free-range chicken and red meat.
The most expensive item on the menu is the grilled Alberta lamb chops in white wine, olive oil and parsley ($24.95), but the majority of entrées range from $11.95 to $16.95, served with your choice of vegetables, potatoes or pasta, a bun, jalapeno peppers and roasted garlic. The portions are generous – even the salads need to be shared.
We started with the mixed green salad tossed in a house vinaigrette ($5.95). The insalata mista may be the most basic of Italian salads, but the abundance of fresh greens, tangy olives and light vinaigrette put us in a good mood and changed our premature opinions.
My lunch date ordered the 12-inch Boccavino pizza ($12.95), a perfect thin-crusted pizza baked in a wood-burning oven with lovely thin slices of capicollo and prosciutto, mushrooms and mozzarella cheese. I chose the daily special of linguine with clams in a white wine sauce ($7.95). Most restaurants get the tiny clams for this dish from a tin, but here I was served about a dozen large, fresh clams. Bravo! With full stomachs and a doggy bag of pizza slices, we had to skip out on the amaretto cheesecake.
You can enjoy sandwiches, salads, eight-inch pizzas, basic pasta dishes and pastries at the cute café in Lina’s Italian Market. But if you desire a hearty Italian meal with a glass of wine, or wish to discuss a little business while you eat, then Boccavino is the more appropriate setting. Hopefully, the owners will infuse the lounge with the warmth and personality that makes the place next door so special. |
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