Casa d’Italia and Bigi wine
Last night, before Winter Storm 2007© hit the Seattle area in earnest, the wife and I went out with a couple of our oldest friends for dinner at an Italian restaurant near the Ravenna and Roosevelt neighborhoods. The place is called Casa d’Italia and I had never been there before. After last night, I found myself wondering why I had been so stupid as to have missed this place for so long.
Casa d’Italia is the sort of restaurant you would expect to find on a side street in Venice, or in Little Italy in New York City. From the outside, it looks more like an Italian market than a restaurant. In fact, when I lived two blocks away from Casa d’Italia and I drove past it nearly every day, I never thought it actually had tables and chairs inside. That’s how good the camoflauge is at Casa d’Italia.
Once you enter the restaurant, you can see why they disguise it from the outside. The largest table seats about 3 people in moderate comfort, or 4 people who feel like getting cozy. Luckily, the 4 of us last night had no trouble with that so we enjoyed the seating arrangements. Most of the tables seat 2 at a time and there is certainly an element of romance in the atmosphere of this place. I think that romantic mood can be traced to the cook himself, who frequently sings along with the music being played. Italian cookbooks fill the bookcases that are sprinkled throughout the interior, and at least one prosciutto-style ham hock-shaped lamp hangs from the ceiling.
The menu leans heavily toward sub sandwiches, which is an oddity for a Seattle-based Italian restaurant. Any self-respecting New Yorker would be completely at home in Casa d’Italia, though, as the laminated menus, paper napkins, and owner-specific decor make you feel like you just stopped for dinner in any town on Long Island.
The menu continues onto a few chalkboards placed around the restaurant. The daily specials are impressive: Last night, they had about 8 different specials, all of which were quite different and interesting. I wound up trying the verro teresa, which was boar bacon and penne pasta in a light cream and tomato sauce. Damn good stuff, that boar bacon.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. The featured red wine by the glass was a Merlot-style wine from Bigi, a major Italian winery. It was nice, very typical of the style, with lots of rich, ripe red fruit and smooth tannins. It was quite tasty with the olive di sale (sp?) appetizer, which consisted of warm olives, roasted garlic cloves, a few kinds of cheese, fresh basil, and tons of olive oil. Absolutely delicious! We also tried the antipasto misto platter, which was also terrific. It had about 15 different kinds of vegetables, cheeses, and meats on it. It was easily one of the better antipasto misto plates I’ve ever had, and that includes the plates I had in Italy. Of course, the fresh bread that came with the meal was outstanding as well: fresh, crusty, and Tuscan in style, it paired nicely with the olive oils that saturated the appetizers.
My wife tried the penne with marinara sauce for dinner; she loved it. My friends had the albacore tuna with pasta and a penne dish that resembled mine, but without the boar. They loved their food as well. I have to admit that I stopped eating my entree at a certain point because there was a lot left, and because I caught a glimpse of the desserts earlier in the evening.
I tried the ricotta cheesecake, which had a hint of amaretto in the crust and which also looked more like a square slice of fluffy coffee cake. It was delicate and delicious, which is quite a feat for a slice of cheesecake. My wife had a plate of different Italian-style homemade cookies. I think they were gone in 14 seconds; I got to try a currant chocolate macaroon (I think), which was excellent. One of our friends had coconut sorbetto in a halved coconut shell. It looked wonderful as well.
Clearly, Casa d’Italia is a terrific restaurant in the style of an authentic European Italian or New York Italian place. They don’t have wood-fired pizza, or cheese-baked breadsticks, or an all-you-can-eat salad bar, so if you are into those sorts of things you’ll want to stick to The Olive Garden. Then again, at Casa d’Italia they won’t give you a beeper and tell you to come back in 90 minutes, and they won’t ask you “if you know how it works here” when you sit down. So if you want real Italian food served with a smile, I recommend Casa d’Italia, particularly if you are unfamiliar with the authentic style of a real Italian restaurant. Expect to hear some Sinatra at regular intervals throughout your meal.