Orto Trattoria
151 – C Second Ave., 613-244-6786, orto.ca
Open: Monday to Wednesday 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5:30 to 10 p.m., Thursday to Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and
5:30 to 11 p.m., closed Sunday
Prices: lunch items $10 to $16, appetizers at dinner $7 to $20, pastas $17 to $25, mains $24 to $32
Access: no steps to front door or washrooms
You can’t keep a good chef down. But you can strikingly change the food that he serves.
That’s my take after two dinners at Orto Trattoria, which opened in mid-October in the Glebe, where the Urban Pear had been until it closed in the spring of 2016.
It’s heartening to see any restaurant at all rise up in that narrow Second Avenue space, where much good food was served, especially in the 2000s under the Urban Pear’s original owners. But Orto’s arrival is particularly notable because it involves the return of veteran Ottawa chef Rene Rodriguez.
L to R: Razmon Poisson, sous-chef, Rene Rodriguez, Chef and Marie Ford, pastry chef at Orto Trattoria in the Glebe in Ottawa.. Photo by Jean Levac
One of this year’s bad-news stories on Ottawa’s culinary scene was the sudden closure in early March of Navarra, Rodriguez’s acclaimed restaurant on Murray Street. For nearly a decade there, Rodriguez served vibrant, personal dishes influenced by his Mexican roots. Furthermore, Rodriguez won the title of Top Chef Canada on the 2014 season of that Food Network Canada TV show, and this year, on the Food Network show Beat Bobby Flay, Rodriguez prevailed against that U.S. mega-star chef.
For Orto, which is owned by Ottawa businessman Pino Guerra, Rodriguez has even enlisted sous-chef Razmon Poisson and pastry chef Marie Ford, who were part of Navarra’s last kitchen crew.
However, Orto isn’t so much Son of Navarra — where Rodriguez whipped up complex flights of fancy such as braised lamb in mole sauce and sometimes garnished dishes with crispy fried mealworms — as it is a sleek temple for Southern Italian cuisine made with requisite respect for big flavours and fine ingredients. Visual flair and the odd technical tweak do update traditional and even homey items and help support the upward-leaning pricing here. But Rodriguez, who is cooking five nights a week at Orto, said in an interview that making simpler food in which each ingredient shines — essentially what trattorias do in Italy — is a different kind of challenge.
“I’ve always loved Italian cuisine,” said Rodriguez, who trained at trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Ottawa, and who worked at such restaurants as Ironwood Cafe, ARC the Hotel, the Black Cat Café and Social before he opened Navarra.
The best of Orto’s appetizers were both simple and simply delicious. Plump, toothsome, barely compressed meatballs ($11 for two, $20 for four) were stuffed with cotechino sausage and bolstered by a bright tomato sauce and fresh ricotta. Arancini (fried rice balls, $12 for three) were extra-crisp (perhaps a touch more than they needed to be), stuffed with mozzarella and joined by some refined accompaniments — basil gel, bits of pickled broccoli stem and guanciale (cured pork jowl).
Meatballs with fresh ricotta at Orto Trattoria
Arancini at Orto Trattoria
Fried eggplant at Orto Trattoria
White anchovy tarte flambée at Orto Trattoria
The only appetizer that let us down was a portion of poached octopus ($20) that, while nicely charred, could have been larger and more tender, while its chile-perked aioli could have been punchier.
Octopus appetizer at Orto Trattoria
Most of Orto’s pastas — usually available in smaller and larger portions — were textbook-correct and satisfying. Eggy rigatoni carbonara ($18/$23) was indulgent, but cream-free, and flecked with more of that crisped guanciale. Hearty lasagna cooked in a cast-iron pan ($25) brought to mind the straightforward pleasures of Orto’s meatballs. Pappardelle ($19/$25) with mushrooms, herb butter, bottarga and fried sage came together nicely. The standout, both for taste and looks, was Rodriguez’s pillowy ricotta gnudi ($17/$23) with gorgonzola, pear, spiced hazelnut and brown butter.
Rigatoni carbonara at Orto Trattoria
Lasagna at Orto
Mushroom pappardelle at Orto Trattoria
Ricotta gnudi with hazelnuts, pear, brown butter, gorgonzola at Orto Trattoria
We also tried three of the kitchen’s mains, which allowed Rodriguez and his team to stretch out more. Rosy slabs of grilled tuna “piccata” ($32) leapt off of a plate shared with Israeli couscous that was generously lemony and spicy. Chicken breast, rarely thrilling elsewhere, was dressed up nicely in Orto’s saltimbocca treatment ($29), wrapped in crisp prosciutto and offset by an intriguingly honeyed parsnip purée.
Tuna piccata at Orto Trattoria
Chicken saltimbocca at Orto Trattoria
At Navarra, Rodriguez frequently showcased pig cheeks, putting the overlooked delectable, for example, in burgers or carbonara. At Orto, the buttermilk-brined, confit pig cheek ($27) I had was good, but not great. I thought that for texture and flavour I’ve had better, while other items on the plate, including truffled peach purée and assorted baby vegetables, outshone the meat.
Buttermilk-brined confit pig cheek at Orto Trattoria
Pastry chef Ford’s breads and desserts were all commendable. Of the sweets, the spot-on lemon tart and dense and intense dark chocolate budino topped the tiramisu-based dessert and the hazelnut tart. It’s no coincidence that our preferences came with scoops of wow-worthy ice cream.
Tiramisu at Orto Trattoria
Hazelnut brown butter dessert at Orto Trattoria
Lemon tart at Orto Trattoria
While the food at Orto can be as minimalist and rustic, the renovation of its space is much fancier. Orto seats about 40, with long, comfy banquette and larger tables beside the windows and tables for two against the mirrored wall, basically flipping the Urban Pear’s setup. Tables, settings and many plates are black, but globular lights overhead sparkle. Dividers with frosted glass separate the entrance and small back-room bar from the dining area.
At the back of the room, a chunk of wall is given over to Orto’s all-Italian collection of wines, and our well-trained servers were opinionated and knowledgeable when they spoke of bottles and by-the-glass options.
After his Top Chef Canada win, Rodriguez spoke of wanting to open a tiny, authentic eatery dedicated to dishes from Oaxaca, the Mexican state where the Ottawa native spent much of his childhood. This week, he told me that goal has been put on ice and he’s more keen to see Orto land in next year’s list of Top 100 Canadian restaurants or enRoute magazine’s tally of 10 best new Canadian restaurants.
Rodriguez also has hopes of being on TV again and said he wants to audition in 2018 to be an Iron Chef challenger. But would he present himself as an Italian chef or a Mexican chef, I asked.
“I would definitely do Italian, yeah,” he responded, before allowing moment later: “Or who knows? Maybe I’d do Mexican again.”
phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum
Peter Hum’s restaurant reviews
