The house passes out complimentary glasses of wine with dinner. But it would be wrong to dismiss it as just a spaghetti, lasagna and manicotti place. Octopus salad is often on the menu. A lobster ravioli is sauted with snow peas, asparagus, shrimp, crab meat and shiitake mushrooms in a wine-cream sauce. Tender grilled veal can come served with caramelized red onions, portabello mushrooms, crab, shrimp and polenta.
Stuffed rigatoni makes use of sun-dried tomatoes, roasted peppers and artichokes.
We went for the specials on two visits, having begun with a stunning appetizer billed simply as sauted spinach and a serviceable pasta fagiola soup. Florentine draped with chicken, shrimp, spinach and mushrooms in a sauce heady with Marsala, and the gnocchi Cremonese. The gnocchi was sauted with chicken, mushrooms and excellent ham, and served under a rich blanket of Gorgonzola-wine cream sauce. The house rule that no reservations are taken for fewer than five people means that walk-in trade is served no matter what. But even then, the entre specials scored high marks.