Enjoy
true Italian at cozy Luciano's
By Johnathan L. Wright, Outpost contributor
Click here for another review of Luciano's
At Luciano's, less truly is more. Unlike some upscale
restaurants, its menu is not a collision of pretentious
ingredients, bizarre sauces or other culinary distractions.
What Luciano's offers is Italian dishes prepared simply and
confidently and served with deftness and charm.
The plain brick exterior serves as an indication of
the simple yet true to style menu inside Luciano's
on South Virginia Street.
Photo by
Johnathan
L. Wright
The restaurant's brick storefront space is cozy--about 15 tables--without being cloying. Ivy meanders along the walls and ceiling, poking here and there at the wine racks at the back of the room. Drawings of costumed figures from Italian street theater hang on the walls, inviting comparison to the pack of blue and purple-haired teens slouching by outside the front windows.
Our party was seated promptly on a recent Saturday evening, a good sign, and a basket of toasted foccacia soon arrived. The bread was fragrant with rosemary, moist without being oily, and, best of all, warm. Why is it that so many restaurants can't seem to serve warm bread?
It was tempting to eat basket after basket of foccacia, but we exercised a little self-control and ordered first courses.
Antipasto misto ($8.50)--a selection of cold appetizers--is a familiar dish. The tang of marinated artichokes and red peppers balanced the mellowness of the mozzarella and fontina cheeses. And we adored the tiny, zesty mushrooms whose name in Italian means "nails."
Fried calamari ($7.50) is another familiar first course. The squid pieces had just the right chewiness, but the tomato dipping sauce needed more spice.
The insalata di mele ($6.50) sassily mixed greens and lightly sweet apple slices with a Gorgonzola dressing that was creamy and substantial without being overpowering. Even the simple minestrone soup ($3.50) made a forceful statement: it was so packed with beans and vegetables it was almost a stew.
But as good as the first courses were, owner-chef Luciano Pilisi really displayed his skills with the main courses. Tender but firm round ravioli became succulent pillows when Pilisi stuffed them with spinach and ricotta cheese and covered them in a mushroom cream sauce ($12.95). In less sure hands, this dish can be soggy and over-rich, but not here.
The poached salmon fillet ($14.95) was excellently prepared--flaky without being dry--and was served with a delicate white wine butter sauce that enhanced the fish's natural flavor. These dishes were two of the nine or 10 specials Pilisi offers each dinner seating, even weeknights.
Beef lasagna ($11.95) from the regular menu was hearty but never greasy. Linguine with clams in white wine sauce ($14.95) was loaded with shellfish, but I still found this classic dish to be a bit bland. Veal parmigiana ($16.95), a mainstay of Italian red-sauce cooking, received careful attention: the meat was tender, not too thickly breaded and was accompanied by just the right amounts of tomato sauce and cheese.
Luciano's wine list is a small selection of American and Italian red and white wines, with many bottles priced below $30. One good value is the well-known Ferrari-Carano chardonnay ($31). Wanting to try something unfamiliar, we agreed upon the verdicchio Fazi-Battagli ($22), a smooth but firm white wine popular in Italy.
Like the specials, the restaurant's dessert selections can change each night. We skipped the spumoni ($5) and the tiramisú ($5), a dish that seems to have a choke hold on Italian restaurant menus. Instead, we shared the chocolate decadence, a rich, dense layering of cake and fudge mousse set off by a dusting of powdered sugar ($5). Pilisi wisely refrained from smothering the dessert in raspberry sauce, an over-used culinary technique that many chefs can't resist.
Dinner at Luciano's included some of the most accomplished service I have ever encountered in Nevada. Questions about food were expertly answered. Wine glasses were refilled at just the right time. I left my seat, and my napkin was refolded while I was away. Near the end of the meal, I raised my eyebrows, and our server was immediately at table, inquiring what could be done to improve what was already an outstanding dining experience.
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719 S. Virginia St., Reno. Telephone: (775) 322-7373. |
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Rating: * *
* out of 4. |
Posted
Dec. 1, 1999
Copyright 1999
Nevada Outpost
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