Nuovo Ragazzo on a very crowded block
Cosa fa? cries Bon Vivant as he enters Scarpetta, the new restaurant in the Thompson Hotel at Wellington and Bathurst. “ Another Italian place?” Bon Vivant cannot believe it. Just returned from a spiritual overhaul at an Ashram in New Mexico, he had no idea how Italian restaurants were colonizing Toronto, not just the usual pasta and pizza taking over street corners, but mamma and nonna duelling for kitchens, Puglia and Naples fighting for space. The invasion becomes an imperial progress with Thompson parachuting in Scott Conant, a chef who has already established his brand in both New York and Miami. This is Toronto’s first imported star. I mean no disrespect to Conant, but we need another Italian joint like a blizzard in winter. I was kind of hoping for a cuisine we don’t have – namely Nuevo Latino, Miami’s Doug Rodriguez or Chicago’s Rick Bayless.
Scarpetta crouches at the end of the airport concourse that is the Thompson lobby , an intriguingly low-slung restaurant. This must be what a Silicon Valley boardroom looks like – cutely divided between business and play. Dark panelling is softened by clusters of oversized Edison lights and when you step into a circular banquette why you could be on a twirligig at the Ex — only difference, you don’t snap on a seatbelt and get whirled around until you see stars. What’s this? a dish suddenly appears from behind my shoulder – seamless service to the max.
Forget Mamma and Nonna. Scarpetta is Italy by Vogue, a showy and stylish fusion of mostly Italian foods presented with flair. Several of the dishes have already been acclaimed in the US – and with justification. We share four starters and give three of ‘em fist bumps, from the translucently fresh raw yellowtail, with pickled red onion $16 dotted with pink Hawaiian sea salt, to the absolutely amazing pureed cauliflower soup with poached oysters and crisp shallots $14 which arrives covered with a little Cardinal’s cap. In between I died and went to heaven eating OTT polenta as creamy as Joel Robuchon’s pureed potatoes and accompanied by mouldily fragrant truffled mushrooms. After this braised shortribs $14 seem so ordinary despite the presence of farro – the ancient wheat which fed the Roman legions - in the risotto.
Twenty-three bucks for a bowl of spaghetti with tomato and basil! You’ve got to be kidding! I know that spaghetti and tomato sauce is an historic coupling. After tomato sauce was invented in the 19th century, Italians, who ate pasta with their fingers, were obliged to turn to forks. Even so, is caviar nestled in the strands? No, and Vergogna!, a big mistake, the spaghetti is fresh-made. As the top Nonna Marcella Hazan advocates , spaghetti is one of the pastas best dried, made in a factory from hard durum wheat. And tonight I understand why. The fresh spaghetti is overly absorbent. The result – tomato stodge, pasta sticking to the fork’s tines.
Tastebuds revive with the arrival of a brilliant dish - crisp bacon wrapped round juicy halibut with smoked potatoes, morels and asparagus. $28. But Conant’s talent as a nifty mix’n’matcher flags with the veal tenderloin $33. The meat itself is pinkly irreproachable but the accompanying veal cheeks taste just like braised short ribs. Menus have got too cheeky – the cheek has had its moment and chefs should move on. I mean they’re not the greatest offal- I prefer the neglected kidney. Moist-roasted capretta $29? Now goat can be delicious, but it needs the kind of flavour surgery it gets when curried at Albert’s Real Jamaican Foods. Here it is cut up and served in a taste-challenged and gooey sauce. Even the excellent red varietal, a Tolaini Al Passo 2006 $55, chosen for us by a solicitous maitre d’, can’t rise above it.
The desserts are just fine, all $11. Nothing but the most expensive chocolate in the world, the Tuscan Amedei made from white translucent beans, will do for the chocolate cake matched with a piquant burnt orange- caramel gelato and espresso sauce. Coconut panna cotta is more modest, set off by guava soup and caramelized pineapple. An apple crostada, a sugar-glazed pastry casing, is stuffed with cured diced apples, accompanied by raspberry compote, mascarpone gelato.
And now comes the beauty part: Scarpetta is QUIET enough so we can actually have a conversation, about Snooki’s tanning problems if you really want to know. There is music but it’s unobtrusive, blended into the general buzz. Bravo!
**1/2 Scarpetta 550 Wellington St W, 416-601-3590 Wheelchair accessible.
Dinner for two, food plus tax $130
