In the recent surge of new restaurant openings in Portland, Italian cuisine has not been a strong contender. One exception is the highly regarded Piccolo, with its powerhouse menu of regional Italian cuisine inspired by the cooking of central and southern Italy that chefs and co-owners Damian Sansonetti and Ilma Lopez do so well. Otherwise, our city has glided past the great reign of red-sauce houses and trendy trattorias. That is until now, with the debut of Solo Italiano, in the cavernous space formerly occupied by Ebb and Flow. Here the menu presents Northern Italian cuisine, a broad label that can mean a lot of things.
The entry leads to the great central bar
It’s a mystery to me why Ebb and Flow just floated away. The food was fabulous, and I’ll certainly miss the grilled octopus and special breads baked in its massive brick oven. But the chef, William D’Auvray, left earlier this year and owner Angelo Ciocca, who also owns Nova Seafood, decided the place needed to be refreshed. Clearly, under its former guise it hadn’t attained a critical mass to be financially successful. Certainly not after the scathing review—unwarranted and unfair–in the Portland Press Herald that dealt the fatal, egregious blow to its survival.
The semi-circular bar has great style and a perfect setting for drinks and/or dinner
As a first generation Italian American, Ciocca’s native cuisine is close to his heart. To carry that out he brought in chef Paolo Laboa, a native of Genoa and a veteran chef with a multi-year reign at fine restaurants in America from California to New England.
After two visits—once with a group of friends and a dinner at the bar a few nights later—what impressed me most was the elegance and simplicity of Laboa’s cooking. The food was not a slam dunk of garlic, oregano, red sauce and melted cheese but rather a total lightness of being in every exciting dish.
Though it’s billed as Northern Italian cooking, I don’t quite see it that way at Solo Italiano. Typically, the cooking of the northern regions relies less on olive oil, tomato sauce and pasta and more on butter, polenta, meats and an abundance of rosemary and sage.
Still, however you classify it, the first dish I had was a supremely delicate carpaccio of halibut cheeks. It was presented on the plate in a splurge of color: pale green from the olive oil, red from the tomato confit and the pure whiteness of the wonderfully fresh fish. Three of us shared the dish and nearly fought over its last morsels.
Carpaccio of halibut cheeks
A more substantial first course was the Gonfietti Proscuitto e Burrata, lightly fried sage focaccia served with Prosciutto de Parma and burrata. Again the fusion of flavors was delightful with every element shining through. I did think, however, the focaccia needed more time in the oven to develop a deeper crust and flavor.
The focaccia; the rear dining room
Our group shared three main courses: swordfish with morels; basil potato gnocchi and lasagna. The swordfish was thinly sliced like scaloppini, so typically Italian, and accompanied by great swaths of morels sautéed in olive oil, white wine, garlic and parsley–an energetically simple dish.
Basil gnocchi; swordfish with morels and lasagna with shrimp
If the carpaccio was so far the star of the show, the gnocchi was just as spectacular. Bathed in a basil pesto, a light coating of tomato sauce and strands of melted mozzarella sticking to the dumplings like candy, the pasta was melt-in-your-mouth savoriness.
Another pasta course was a delicious little helping of lasagna. The fresh pasta sheets were set in a light tomato sauce, red wine and a creamy béchamel with shrimp. Devotees of lasagna will not be disappointed.
Dessert was a traditional house made cannoli, which turned out to be extraordinary: The well-flavored ricotta cream in the crackly crisp shell was altogether a luxurious pastry. Another sweet was the Genovese milk fritters, little squares with a buttery coating deep fried to encase the creamy filling.
Cannoli and Genovese milk fritters
A few nights later I returned to have dinner at the bar. This time I started with an impossibly splendid plate of salmon carpaccio, which had been cured in red beets. The visual effect was stunning. The bright red from the beets bleeding onto the salmon was a visual symphony. The flavors were further enriched with marjoram, a peppery olive oil and a brilliant touch of shaved pecorino over the fish. The saltiness of the shingles of cheese mixing with the sweetness of the cured fish was a study in umami contrasts.
Salmon cured with red beets
The pasta course was a traditional Sardinian dish called malloreddu, which was a house-made cavatelli with the redolence of a fine ragù bathing these soft morsels of pasta.
Lamb ragu over pasta
The dessert list is a simple one, but as I’ve discovered any of the four offerings are superb. This time I chose the panna cotta, a dish that appears on many menus without much distinction. Here, however, it was exquisite. Its textural integrity was the essence of creaminess, and the light caramel sauce that glided over the plate was sheer heaven.
Panna cotta
The interior of this huge dining space hasn’t changed that much. The circular bar is still a great focal point when you enter. And the three other dining rooms are more intimate than before.
There’s an interesting list of cocktail concoctions, which I have not tried. But wine offerings, many by the glass, are bottlings mostly from Northern Italy and not apt to be found elsewhere in town.
We should welcome Solo Italiano to our fold of Portland dining because it’s time has come. The cooking is quite sophisticated with a true lightness of being that completely embraces the eternity of fine dining.
Solo Italiano, 100 Commercial St., Portland, Maine; 207-780-0227 www.soloitalianorestaurant.com
Rating: a four star effort that will undoubtedly reign 5 stars
Ambiance: gracious and welcoming
Service: Attentive
Tables: Bar dining, high-tops in the bar room and table seating in several dining rooms with tables comfortably spaced apart
Parking: on street
$$$: Moderately expensive–first courses average $10 to $15 and main courses $15 to $30
