Del Piacere
416 Preston St., 613-422-4416,
delpiacere.ca
Open:
Monday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sunday 9:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Prices:
appetizers $8 to $20, mains (including pasta) $24 to $36, pizzas and calzones $14 to $19
Access:
two steps to front door
How do you feel about spelling errors on menus? Are they charming? Or do they warn that other aspects of a restaurant might be a little sloppy, too?
Pietro Amariello, chef-owner of Del Piacere on Preston Street, would have you interpret the imperfections on his menus as signs of his culinary authenticity.
“He says leave it like that, so that they know the chef is actually Italian,” says Sofia Iaboni, Del Piacere’s server.
Amariello, she says, cooked in Lucca, Italy for 30 years before he came to Ottawa in 2018. He worked at La Favorita, the veteran pizza and calzone eatery 100 metres up the street, but left to open Del Piacere in early October, pandemic be damned.
This month, I put my lexical prejudices aside and was rewarded with two very good dinners at Del Piacere. The generously portioned and unpretentious from-scratch cooking by Amariello, who is very much alone in his kitchen, lived up to his restaurant’s name, which roughly means “it is pleasing.”
Located where Stoneface Dolly’s had been, Del Piacere has an open kitchen that includes a wood-burning oven. We tried just one of Amariello’s 10 pizzas. (Gluten-free pizzas are also available, Iaboni says.) The tasty prosciutto and mushroom pizza ($15) that we took home was massive and thin of crust, true to the Neapolitan style Amariello promises.
Del Piacere also serves five calzones, but we were more interested in trying the appetizers, pastas and mains in the restaurant’s bright, basic dining room where a radio station provided dinner music.
Three shareable appetizer platters hit the right notes. Plump shrimps and strikingly tender squid rings had been deftly fried for the plate of fritto misto ($16). The deep-frying was equally on the mark for the plate of fried artichoke, zucchini and batons of polenta ($14), served with ranch dressing. The simply sauteed mix of squid, mussels, scallops, shrimp and vegetables in a garlic lemon sauce ($18) would be a good choice for those who eschew deep-fried treats.
The two exceptional pastas we had at Del Piacere, which are served as hefty mains rather than smaller first courses, were the most impressive dishes we sampled.
Spaghetti carbonara ($24) had the ring of truth, with its house-made al dente noodles bathed in egg-y goodness. The serving was also big enough to provide a next-day lunch.
The pasta of the day was a bowl of ravioli stuffed with gorgonzola and artichoke in a tomato and cream sauce ($22). The ravioli were thin, toothsome and nicely filled, and the sauce was straightforward and zesty.
With more protein-heavy main courses, we had only small regrets that the starch and vegetables on those plates were not as good as the meat and fish. But otherwise, a hefty, breaded bone-in veal chop ($34), a chunk of medium-rare beef tenderloin with green peppercorn sauce ($36) and a big portion of sole ($33) won us over, even if the more pedestrian saffron risotto that came with the fish and veal chop could have been improved upon.
The restaurant’s three pieces of veal scaloppine with mushrooms and marsala sauce ($32), was fine, but seemed like a better choice for smaller appetites. Its accompanying “zucchini pie” was a small tart that was heavy on the bread and light on the zucchini, while its mashed potatoes were more homey than luxurious.
But if that veal dish left room for dessert, that was a good thing.
Amariello’s big bowl of classically satisfying tiramisu, a bargain at $7, is likely to induce sighs of contentment. I was just as happy with a big slice of chocolate ricotta crostata ($7), which emerged from Del Piacere’s dessert showcase. The chef also makes cookies ($6) known as “brutti ma buoni,” or “ugly but tasty,” which were like lumpy biscotti, flecked with nuts and raisins.
Iaboni, who is upbeat and enthusiastic about her boss’s food, is Del Piacere’s only server. Her personal touch is one reason to visit the restaurant. But if pandemic concerns trump your desire for dining out, Del Piacere makes food to go, for pickup and through three of the big delivery services. Iaboni says older people on the residential streets of Little Italy are ordering Amariello’s food.
Del Piacere’s website also says Amariello can cook whatever you would like of him, given 48 hours’ notice.
“Do you have a favorite dish you miss? Something mamma used to make?” the website asks. I don’t, but I do have enough curiosity about the food in Amariello’s native Tuscany, as well as sufficient confidence in his cooking, that I might make a special request in the future.