Veteran chef cooks again
Domenic Bevilacqua returns at Babbo’s in Manotick,
All’s well that ends well — especially, I found, when my recent weekend dinner at Babbo’s Cucina in Manotick came to a close.
A fine slab of tiramisu, fluffy, cleanly layered and distinguished by singing flavours, had put a smile on the face of everyone at my table who sampled it. Having had a few so-so and even sub-par, leaden versions of the rich Italian dessert in the past year, I was especially pleased to have my faith restored in the classic confection.
What’s more, other dishes at Babbo’s had pleased us earlier, including properly cooked pasta and unpretentious but well-prepared veal and chicken dishes that hit the spot.
The restaurant, which opened in early July in the corner of Manotick Mews where Paesano’s had been, seems to be taking solid steps forward, biting off what it can chew as it gains experience.
Its main players are not new to the restaurant game. Babbo’s owner is Angelo Perseo, who previously owned Paesani’s on Preston Street and who cooks in his new business’s kitchen. Its head chef is Domenic Bevilacqua, former owner of the long-standing Italian restaurant Cabotto’s in Kanata, whom Perseo lured out of retirement.
They’ve decided, it appears, to keep the restaurant’s offerings fairly classic and narrow.
For one thing, Babbo’s is an Italian restaurant with no pizza — which is fine with me.
Also, although the dark, 68-seater restaurant’s bar is a prominent part of its floor plan, and while wine bottles are part of its decor, Babbo’s wine and beer lists are modest, limited to a dozen bottles of the former and some very standard bottles of the latter, plus just two brews on tap.
There’s just one gluten-free pasta on the menu, although Perseo told me in an interview that other mains can be cooked to order without flour.
While the slogan displayed on the Babbo’s website reads “homemade like it’s supposed to be!” the restaurant’s food is not there yet.
Some of the restaurant’s desserts are brought in, we learned, although the excellent tiramisu was Bevilacqua’s handiwork, and a slice of amaretto cheesecake, almost as good, if a little crumbly, was also made in house.
Alas, the pasta machine that came with the restaurant broke earlier this summer, and Babbo’s for now relies on goods from Parma Ravioli, Perseo said.
Homemade or not, the pastas that we tried were cooked al dente and nicely sauced.
Best were butternut squash agnolotti ($19), complemented by brown butter and a judicious amount of truffle oil, adorned with scattered bits of sage and prosciutto.
In Pappardelle Babbo ($19), the wide, toothsome pasta was the star, but with welcome cameos by slices of sausage, cherry tomatoes and mild, made-in-house ricotta.
A child’s serving of spaghetti ($8.95) came with a reasonably robust tomato sauce and, best of all, a lean, mammoth meatball.
Among the appetizers, the Caesar salad ($10) and smoked salmon crostini ($12) were comforting and straightforward. The fried calamari ($12) were just a little bit oilier and chewier than I would have liked, but our table had no problems polishing them off.
Babbo’s batted two-for-three with the main courses we sampled.
Veal stuffed with prosciutto, shrimp and goat cheese in a brandy mushroom cream sauce ($24) came together very nicely, bundling a balance of many flavours. More simple was a grilled chicken breast ($21) bolstered by a bright salsa verde. Both dishes came with rustic, platefilling assortments of vegetables.
However, the Zuppa Di Pesce seafood soup ($26) flopped. While generously loaded with seafood, the dish fizzled because its tomato broth was much too winey, to the point that you could smell the booze coming off of some bites. Furthermore, the bowl’s mussels didn’t taste great — perhaps they were overcooked.
The bottom line: Perseo told me during our telephone chat that Bevilacqua is a stickler for consistency in the kitchen. I’d say that all of the dishes except for the seafood soup main sufficiently bore him out, making Babbo’s a worthy addition to Manotick’s restaurant scene.
That’s especially true if you have a thing for tiramisu.