A FINE PLACE TO DINE OUT
Aperitivo still hits the spot
It’s hard to know which superlative best describes Aperitivo, one restaurant among many in the massive Kanata Centrum shopping complex.
Here are a few choices: best restaurant in the mall, best restaurant in Kanata, best glutenfree restaurant in Ottawa.
After two meals at Aperitivo this month, I think all three could apply. Still, with their qualifications, they don’t quite do justice to the restaurant, which may well be underestimated by Ottawa foodies at large because it’s not part of the downtown / Hintonburg / Wellington West dining scene. Aperitivo is five years old. I reviewed it quite positively in December 2012 and recently thought a followup was due.
But more impressive than its longevity, which the restaurant will mark with a party this Sunday, is the stability among its ranks. While staff turnover at restaurants in Ottawa’s core can be a near-constant churn, Aperitivo’s manager and co-owner Erica Fillipoff, chef Steven MacDonald, sous-chef Luca DeMarinis and several cooks have been there since day one.
“It’s a rare thing,” MacDonald, 41, told me this week.
Asked for an explanation, he offered that his team is less hierarchical and its cooks have a lot of freedom to stretch out.
“I rely on staff to come up with menu items and experiment,” he said. “They feel a sense of themselves in the restaurant.”
The cooking team’s good vibes are in full view at Aperitivo, as its kitchen is small and open.
The restaurant, which years before had been a coffee shop, is quirkily wedge-shaped, seating almost 30 in a cosy space while 10 more can sit at the attractive bar beside the kitchen. The dining area is sandwiched between the bar and a just-for-show fireplace between orange and white accent walls. For longer stays, the grey banquettes are more comfortable than the chairs.
Another constant since Aperitivo opened is its all-day menu’s focus on smaller, shareable, seasonal plates that often reflect influences from the slew of countries that border on the Mediterranean Sea.
Like many Ottawa restaurants with higher aspirations, Aperitivo buys from local producers such as Acorn Creek Garden Farm and Mariposa Farm.
For pre- and post-movie nibblers, there are cheeses, charcuterie ( both made-in-house and brought-in) and preserved seafood (octopus, squid, sardines and mussels) from northwestern Spain. The latter offerings speak to Aperitivo’s au courant foodie cred, and they did tempt us. But we’ve passed on those imports in favour of kitchen creations, and have been consistently pleased by the craft, imagination and big flavours on display.
Indeed, my fellow diners and I each time enjoyed the range of dishes we’ve sampled, but also disagreed on our favourites — that can only be a good sign.
There are appealing choices here for vegetarians, and two of my preferred dishes were meatfree (all $10).
While too many mediocre beet salads over the years have left me blasé about them, Aperitivo’s rendition — which paired beets with oranges, goat cheese and lamb’s lettuce on a bed of thick roasted carrot and fennel vinaigrette — was not only a beaut to look at, but was also packed with equally vivid flavours. Roasted local heirloom carrots were elevated by a spice rub that included espresso and a bracing, concentrated green onion pesto.
Sweet and comforting were slices of acorn squash, roasted with honey and served with lots of double-smoked bacon, dollops of blue cheese and spiced walnuts. Grilled leeks needed a little more oomph or char to stand up to the punchy, mouth-warming Romesco sauce that came with them.
Seafood choices here were solid and refined. We eagerly scooped up nicely textured scallop ceviche ($18) with house-made tortillas, and found the dish skewed just a little sweet, although a hint of habañero heat mingled with the mango purée in the preparation.
Squid ink paella ($26), studded with toothsome shrimp and rings of calamari and bolstered by the brightness of roasted red pepper, cherry tomatoes and saffron aioli, was the super-savoury dish that I most want to try again at Aperitivo. More casual, but still quite enjoyable, were juicy tilapia tacos (two for $12) with a mild fermented slaw and a big smear of rich jalapeño cream.
MacDonald told me the tacos are Aperitivo’s top sellers.
Delectable duck breast ($24), cooked to a perfect pink, came with accompaniments — curried apricots, harissa-perked chard and almonds — that nodded in the direction of Morocco. So did mild “kefta” meatballs of beef and lamb ($18), which benefited from a mellow garlic sauce and especially from a zippy blend of herbs and cucumber on the side.
Farinata ($14), a chickpeaflour pancake, is usually served unadorned in the south of France and northern Italy. But Aperitivo’s more complex, made-to-order version — created by DeMarinis, MacDonald said — came crisp and fully loaded, topped with fresh, fluffy ricotta, thinly sliced ventricina salami and an intriguing pepper-based sauce that brought sweetness and heat to the craveable dish.
Whether small, medium or large, desserts won us over.
A lemony ice cream sandwich ($5) was split four ways for us to share. We then dove into a superior and less dense cheesecake in a jar ($12), topped with bits of meringue. The standout mealender was a sweet-and-savoury dark chocolate and whey caramel tart ($12) by cook Alanna Segger. Its crust, ganache and caramel were irresistible by themselves, and roasted grapes, more of that ricotta and olive oil put the dish over the top.
I’ve twice been served by Fillipoff, whose pleasantness and detailed knowledge about Aperitivo’s food and interesting, non-LCBO wines (which Fillipoff chose for the restaurant) added to our enjoyment of our meals.
Her commitment and pride in the restaurant became especially clear last month when she became a co-owner of Aperitivo, after she and partner Riley Gilchrist bought out previous owner Sean McCoy.
Returning to my initial question, I now think it’s more meaningful to consider Aperitivo not as the best restaurant in a certain category, but as one of the very good and even special restaurants in Ottawa at large.
I see that the city’s Gold Medal Plates competition — the latest edition is Nov. 9 — has never tapped MacDonald and his crew to compete against downtown counterparts. That’s an omission worth rectifying, I’d suggest.