THE GUY WITH THE CAMERA TURNS, makes eye contact and looks away as though I’m any Joe, so to speak, off the street. This is a first: The magazine’s photographer and I are on duty in a restaurant at the same time but not by design. I’m working undercover. Call it one of those odd, urban coincidences. But no matter. As much as our shooter can’t hide from curious eyes in the room, he’s not disrupting the flow.
And this room has flow. Ristorante Bartolotta’s Downer Avenue location (many moons ago, it was Henry’s Pub & Grille), open since late June, has familiar features — the spatial configuration is different, but aesthetically, it’s a close relative of the original restaurant in Wauwatosa. There’s a full house tonight in the narrow dining room. A Bartolotta restaurant is people-watching paradise, and in the new East Side place, I’m not just talking about diners. Among the changes the Bartolotta Restaurant Group made to this space is an open kitchen; behind the stainless-steel counter, you see heads topped with white hats moving with alacrity. On the spectator side of the counter, his back to the dining room like a conductor to his audience, executive chef Juan Urbieta keeps the kitchen’s groove on. He never strays far from the small sheets of paper taped to the counter in front of him.
Joe B.’s decision to open a second Ristorante in this space came after his counter-service Pizzeria Piccola didn’t have a gangbusters beginning (it closed six months after opening). Mr. B. has said that with the younger sibling, he hopes to reclaim the North Shore clientele that had been the -staple of the Tosa restaurant’s early years. Downer Avenue has suffered from the nine-year vacancy of the old Coffee Trader/Henry’s space. Business of any kind, not to mention a good sit-down restaurant, is sorely needed. The second Ristorante has bottled and moved the charm and quality Italian food of the flagship to the East Side. I can say that with the confidence of two stellar meals.
Since Urbieta became the Tosa Ristorante’s executive chef three years ago, that restaurant has never been better. Here on the East Side, he’s keeping an omniscient eye over the kitchen, including chef di cucina Lynn Chisholm, a Lake Park Bistro alum.
The night I run headlong into our photographer, he stands — for hours, it seems — with his camera aimed at the kitchen. I’m envious of his bird’s-eye view. But I’ve got a pretty good one from my table, pushed against the pillow-lined banquette running along the south wall of the restaurant. The narrow space is bigger than the old Henry’s by several hundred square feet. The exposed brick walls are dotted with old framed photos (à la the Tosa location), lace curtains cover the windows and the place has a rustic recipe of wood floors, high ceilings and warm lighting.
The younger sibling resembles the older in another way: the menu, although it’s a bit smaller than Tosa’s. All of the Bartolotta hotties are here: fried calamari with marinara sauce ($8.25), handmade pappardelle with braised duck ragu ($20.95), roasted game hen with caramelized Brussels sprouts ($19.50) and the bowl of al dente richness itself, the risotto of the day. Downer’s carpaccio and chilled seafood salad appetizers were on the Tosa menu at one point. The handmade spaghetti with sautéed spiny lobster tail has the decadent mouth feel of a bona fide trademark dish ($28.95). Months back, Joe B. told me there might be more pasta and vegetarian choices on this menu, but anything can happen. And Bartolotta Restaurant Group General Manager John Wise says he’s noticing that diner tastes are differing from West to East sides.
Regardless of what they’re ordering with frequency, there’s little to carp about on any plate here. The crisp, firm calamari is a pretty sensational appetizer, but I like underdogs, too — for one, the gratin of baked Scamorza cheese and fresh tomato sauce ($7.95). Spoon it generously over the grilled crostini served with it, and you won’t be sorry. The smoky, mozzarella-like cheese melts into the soft, chewy, scored bread. Offering a much different taste, the carpaccio — wafer-thin sliced beef — is a delicate treat of nuanced flavors ($10.95). The buttery beef is simply seasoned with salt and pepper and topped with capers, peppery arugula, sharp shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano and drizzles of lemon vinaigrette.
Salads circumvent the notion of greens as the foremost component. In the best creations here, they’re relegated to a -minor role, if even present. In the insalata di mozzarella e pepperoni, it’s about the cheese — fresh, mild, soft mozzarella — and tangy, sweet, roasted red pepper ($7.50). Two slices of anchovy on the peppers tie up the sweet and salty into a nice bow. Another well-wrapped package is the tomato, Gorgonzola and red onion drizzled with balsamic vinegar and smooth extra-virgin -olive oil ($7.75). The package has to be pristine in every way, and it is — the tomato sweet and room temperature, the onions sweet, the Gorgonzola crumbly-creamy and a shade bitey.
I had a delightful feeling of rediscovery with this menu, especially with entrées. The wood-roasted salmon smudged with black olive tapenade is how I remember it: The filet’s crisp, crackly exterior protected the juicy, creamy innards ($20.95). The soft potato purée and rich sautéed spinach tasted like a savory dessert. My mom made her share of Cornish game hens when I was a kid, but they were never succulent, never particularly flavorful, as is the rosemary- and garlic-roasted Bartolotta version ($19.50). The restaurant’s take on steak, a New York strip, is not the deadweight plate of many restaurants. This marbled cut is surprisingly lean and served alongside a divine toss of arugula, shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano, olive oil and lemon ($26.95). And I do have a euphoria entrée. It’s the fresh pasta with lobster tail. I can’t help it. The chewy, firm pasta is tossed with a terrific amalgam of chervil, white wine and olive oil. It wouldn’t be complete without the snap of the rich, dense lobster tail meat.
Wise tells me that more people are ordering desserts at this location than in Tosa. More sweet teeth. My tooth is a ferocious one, but while I like the balance of mascarpone/espresso/Marsala wine filling to the ladyfingers in the tiramisu ($6.95), my dessert di momento is the vanilla bean panna cotta ($6.95), a light, jiggly milk custard super-infused with bean flavor.
After Pizzeria Piccola closed, many of us were waiting eagerly for Joe B.’s next move. It’s a good one — the right one for a neighborhood with a dearth of fine dining.
Ristorante Bartolotta
2625 N. Downer Ave.
962-7910
Hours: Mon-Thurs 5:30-9:30 p.m.; Fri-Sat 5-10 p.m.; Sun 5-8 p.m.
Prices: appetizers $6.50-$11.95; salads $5.95-$7.75; pasta $16.95-$28.95; entrées $19.50-$31.95; desserts $6.50-$6.95
Service: well-prepared and attentive — servers know the menu and are skilled at making suggestions
Dress: polished casual
Handicap access: valet; no steps
Nonsmoking
Credit cards: M V A DS D
Reservations: recommended
