First Taste
Ghostbusting Italian: Sabetta should break another restaurant location jinx
Sabetta Café and Wine Bar closed on Tuesday.
Riccardo Palazzo-Giorgio, owner and executive chef of Sabetta Café and Wine Bar
There's a lot of talk about jinxed restaurant locations around town. But lately, it seems like a good restaurant can negate the strongest of curses.
Look at Danton's Gulf Coast Seafood Kitchen thriving in Chelsea Market and Giacomo's in the former Pan y Agua/Palazzo's spot. In the space where Crostini and Café Zol have come and gone, restaurateur Riccardo and Donna Palazzo-Giorgio have opened Sabetta Cafe & Wine Bar, hoping to extend the good luck streak.
But with Italian food this good, maybe you make your own luck.
I'll admit that I never made it to Cafe Zol, so I'm not sure if the layout has changed much, but I love the ornate, oversized wood bar that appears on the right as you walk in the door. Aside from that, furnishings are tasteful but minimal: White linens, of course, and the standard faux-Tuscan texture on the walls along with a smattering of abstract art.
Sabetta's menu is organized in the traditional Italian manner, with antipasti, primi containing pastas and risotto and meat dishes under secondi. One innovation I like is to offer the primi items in two sizes, with a small option to encourage combining them with a secondi.
But this being Texas, even the smalls are quite large, making finishing a multi-course meal challenging but also creating some great deals.
We started with the house-made sausage and pancetta shrimp appetizers. The sausage was a thick, flavorful patty surrounded by sliced red and yellow peppers. The pancetta-wrapped shrimp was equally impressive, with the thin pancetta giving that unmistakable cured flavor without overtaking the dish the way bacon sometimes does. Served in a bowl of creamy polenta, it was another winner.
As soon as fall hits with a chill in the air I will be craving nothing but the amazing risotto I had as my primi course. With fennel and mushrooms, it had a beautifully rustic, earthy flavor without leaning too heavily on either ingredient. Though the texture was all smooth creaminess, something about the taste reminded me pleasantly of ratatouille. Plus, my enormous "small" serving, at $8, could easily have been an entire meal.
My friend's fontina-stuffed agnolotti wasn't quite as exciting, with tasty but under-seasoned tomato sauce and pasta that felt slightly under-cooked.
But when the secondi came, my friend's lamb chop erased any disappointment from her mind. "A lot of times when I order lamb, the flavor gets cooked out of it, so that I can barely distinguish it from beef or pork or any other chop," she raved. "But this really has that lamb flavor, and it is so good."
My entree was equally impressive, trying out the special of seared grouper filet served with the perfectly thin, crispy, skin over a bed of pureed potatoes.
Despite full stomachs, we couldn't resist ending with dessert. My tiramisu was delightfully fluffy and moist, with just the right amount of coffee flavor so as not to overwhelm the sweet elements. It was easily the best tiramisu I've had in town. My friend's chocolate torte was the only real slip of the night, overcooked so as to make all but the very center quite dry, though the halzenut gelato served with it was phenomenal.
Will Sabetta break the curse?
From what I tasted, it deserves to. Rich yet simple dishes, attentive service and good value alway win in my book.
The Paella Valenciana is one of the most popular dishes at Mi Luna.Photo by Dylan McEwan
No TVs to distract diners at Mi Luna.Photo by Dylan McEwan