SRV might be short for Serene Republic of Venice, but on a
busy Saturday evening at co-chefs Michael Lombardi and Kevin O’Donnell’s South
End venetian bacaro (a setting where
small plates termed cicchetti and Italian wines are intended to be shared), it is
anything but that. The popular wildly popular eatery, run by the well-respected
Coda Group, is bursting at the seams with customers, so much so that the
friendly hostess apologizes for a slight wait in spite of our reservation and
cordially invites us to the side windows where standing drink tables await
those unfortunate customers that have to…well, wait for their drinks. And while
impatiently waited for several minutes, a cordial server offers us something to
dull our pain in the form, well…cordials, of the meticulously executed,
distinctly Italian variety. My dining companion’s pleasant, but not-too-sweet
and citrusy cocktail, the 63 Fairbanks, consists of gin, aperol, and
elderflower, while my bourbon and amaro (a sweet, Italian after-dinner
aperitif) strikes the perfect balance between subtle sweetness and welcomed
potency, a creative Italian riff on the more conservative Manhattan. Said
hostess then whisks us away to our table, genuinely inquiring about the outcome
of my son’s basketball game (I had previously called ahead and asked if we
could move back our reservation on account of his suddenly rescheduled game earlier
that afternoon). It was a sincere gesture that most definitely did not go
unnoticed and set the tone for a phenomenal dining event.
Lombardi
and O’Donnell, who first crossed paths at Mario Batali’s esteemed New York
outpost Del Posto, clearly possess their mentor’s passion for authentic Italian
cuisine, striving and succeeding in re-creating a communal dining sensibility common
in the streets of Venice. I would encourage anyone to take advantage of the duo’s
Arsenale menu, which at $45 per person, is an absolute steal, comprised of six
small-to-midsized snacks, two larger, entrée-style courses, two hearty pasta
dishes, and dessert. This extensive prix fixe menu represents a term rarely
uttered from the mouths of customers seeking reasonably-priced fine-dining in
Boston: value.
One of
the rare misfires of the evening is the very first small bite, an underwhelming
Nantucket bay scallop crudo with a slightly off-putting flavor resulting from
accompanying fermented beet. A soft-boiled quail egg, however, is magical, causing
my dining companion’s taste buds to suddenly perk up and exclaim that this bar
bite – whose creamy, intensely rich flavor is punctuated by an innovative dash
of white anchovy, caper, and garlic pangrattato – rates amongst the finest she’s
ever consumed. My ricotta-stuffed red pepper – whose blanched exterior lends to
a welcomed crunchy textural contrast - nearly scales those heights, as well. It’s
simple in presentation, but like so many of SRV’s dishes, complex in technique
and execution while bold in flavor.
Equally satisfying bites follow,
including the polpette, a seemingly ho-hum, been-there-done-that pork and beef
meatball whose interior is surprisingly, wonderfully tender, not tough and dry
like so many other less successful versions, no doubt attributed to the
addictive tomato sauce in which the meatball swims. Another traditional Italian
standby, salumi misti, features nicely cured Italian meats paired with sweet, vinegary
marinated olives that nicely cut into the meat’s saltiness. And if I’m
quibbling here, the phenomenal Suca Baruca – an ingenious blend of squash,
granny apples for crunchy contrast, and wait for it… lardo, for pure umami
richness – would have been best served as a luscious punctuation mark to the
meal as a showstopper finale of a dessert, not as a precursor to the
forthcoming meat, fish, and pasta dishes.
But come those courses did, and
nary a high note did they miss, starting with tuna belly in Saor, the fresh fish
sliced into pieces and uniquely paired with picked cipollini (another ingenious
stroke of technique) and fennel grapes. A precisely cooked, well-seasoned,
enjoyably fatty chunk of lamb belly was equally enticing, served with carrot in
pinzimonio, quince, and a saffron yogurt that I admittedly forgot to utilize (and
that’s a compliment to the bold flavor profile of the dish).
Whooh! Have you caught your breath
yet? Fortunately, with the exception of a quickly corrected, small miscue of
the lamb belly a following the tuna a tad too hastily, the pacing throughout
the evening was thoughtfully deliberate and spot-on. A rotation of friendly,
polished, informed servers thoroughly addressed any dining concerns (such as ‘Can the Arsenale menu be split between a
couple where one person has a dairy allergy?,’ to which the response was a thankfully
resounding ‘Yes, we can!’). So it’s
onto the next chapter of Whirlwind
through Venice, with our protagonists discovering good fortune in sampling
Lombardi and O’Donnell’s piece de
resistance: a pair of hearty, grain-milled pastas made in-house, both of
which are spectacularly flavorful and unique, rivaling some of city’s best
pasta joints, including Central Square’s Giulia and Batali’s own recent, mammoth
Boston entry, Eataly. Thick strands of rigatoni are mixed with cauliflower and
mustard greens, creating a wealth of buttery, bitter goodness. I gravitate to
the meatier fazzoletti, akin to strozzapreti in texture and laced with spicy
sausage, swiss chard, and chickpea.
Given our whirlwind tour, I must
admit that the dolce (dessert) portion of the menu is a bit of a letdown, not
that Venetian eateries have ever been famous for their confections. While biscotti
misti (Venetian cookies) are playfully presented in a cookie jar, the cookies –
with the exception of chocolate coconut and merengue varieties – largely disappoint
given their blandness.
Fortunately, irrespective of this
minor misstep (and perhaps better crowd control mechanisms in place at the
front of the restaurant), there’s not a lot to dislike at SRV. With its glass
doors opening to an outdoor courtyard, crystal-cut pendants hung at different
heights, knotted rope dividers between rooms, and exposed brick walls with wine
racks, the restaurant has a festive, chic, casual, inviting vibe to it that,
like the menu itself, is a modern, fresh take on the traditional Venetian
bacaro. And then there is the open kitchen from which diners can view a team of
chefs feverishly working lock-in-step to seamlessly prepare delicious plates
that servers swiftly whisk away to their tables. Seamless, delicious, entirely
satisfying, and yes, ultimately a serene dining experience, SRV has masterfully
transported the culinary treasures of Venice into Boston’s South End.
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