Where to Eat Now: 7 Heartwarming Restaurants
From Laotian to Tatarstan Russian food, why these 5 newcomers & 2 longtimers are my picks of the month
Five are new-er, two are celebrating two or twenty years, from killer Laotian food or Italian comfort to Tatarstan Russian food. These seven are worth visiting. Last month’s standouts here. As always, I’ve personally vetted and visited each:
Cal-Italian, All-Day Neighborhood Joys: Mattina, Pacific Heights
Since 2007, SPQR is one of the nation’s great pasta restaurants once chef Matthew Accarrino came on board in 2009, employing Italian technique with inventive combinations. In April 2023, Accarrino and team opened the more casual, all-day, Cal-Italian Mattina, which I reviewed soon thereafter.
Recently returning, it warmed my heart to see all ages dining on a Wednesday night, while during the day, it’s about quality coffee, house pastries, biscuit or milk bread sandwiches, low and zero proof cocktails and dishes like Roman al taglio pizza, pasta pie loaded with meatballs and egg, or all manner of pasta and cicchetti.
Standout Dishes: Delaney Bennett has been there since the beginning, working her way to sous chef. Accarrino and Bennett hold steady at Mattina with handmade pastas, arancini, creative bruschettas and spiedini (Italian "skewers"), catering to the neighborhood with a Tuesday-Thursday three course dinner option for $45.
The arancini still shines, even better with that irresistible salsa rossa. A pork and pork sausage spiedini special showcases Accarrino’s deft hand with herbs, sweet and sour notes, as well as perfectly tender, juicy grilled meat.
Then there are the pastas. Accarrino is a competitive cyclist and racer and a pasta master. Bennett is honing the craft with Accarrino and it shows in seasonal joys like caramelle pasta filled with fluffy ricotta, teeming in three kinds of peppers (Jimmy Nardello‘s, padrons, piquillos), Anson Mills corn and shaved ricotta salata. But it’s rare canederli, a South Tirol/Trentino-Alto Adige meat-dotted dumpling, that wins my heart. I’m crazy about the beauty, wine and foods of Italy’s Germanic Tyrolean region and this dish exemplifies it. Accarrino takes the dumpling up a few notches with buttermilk and Wisconsin cheddar, laced with scraps of beef, lamb, pork and poultry from the kitchen in a brodo (broth) aromatic with wine.
Biscuit tiramisu is a dessert favorite and a worthy one. But a seasonal semifreddo wins me, showing off late summer strawberry glories, savory with lush olive oil and a biscuit crust.