Pizza Nova goes upscale with new Ristorante
Nova Ristorante ★★ (out of 4)
Address: 2272 Lawrence Ave. E. (at Kennedy Ave.), 416-751-1200, novaristorante.ca Chef: Luciano Schipano
Hours: Sunday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. to midnight. Saturday, 10 a.m. to midnight. Reservations: Yes Wheelchair access: Yes Price: Dinner for two with wine, tax and tip: $65
We’ve all sung along to the bouncy tarantella that has been Pizza Nova’s radio commercial since 1987.
Jingles stick, as the movie Inside Out knows. In the brain of an 11-year-old girl, tiny workers keep retrieving and playing an annoying song for fictitious Triple Dent Gum. It’ll make you smile.
Pizza commercials are especially indelible. My children knew the phone number for Pizza Pizza before they knew their own. Forty years on, who can forget those rainy days in Pizzaville?
Nowadays, Pizza Nova is selling more than “a friendly ciao!” It is selling a new full-service Italian restaurant experience at its Nova Ristorante in Scarborough. The rebirth Second-generation CEO Domenic Primucci, whose father Sam co-founded the nearly 140-location chain in 1963, reopened the original dining room as Nova Ristorante last December.
With a contemporary look and new menu items from executive chef Luciano Schipano, the update may surprise those who think of Pizza Nova as only a delivery chain.
“I understand that. They don’t know our roots,” says Primucci, referring to the eight family restaurants Pizza Nova ran in the ’80s.
“Scarborough will attract more higher-end restaurants. People don’t always want to go downtown to eat.” The vibe Casual and stylish, Nova Ristorante shares a front door with the adjoining pizza counter.
A $300,000 renovation led to blackboard maps of Italy (the Primuccis come from Basilicata) and moody photos of the same gondolas and Coliseum on Pizza Nova’s cardboard delivery boxes.
Black paper covers the tables. Servers wear shirts and ties with a pop of red. For unknown reasons, the background music toggles between Metallica and Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. Decent Eating at Nova Ristorante is about managing expectations.
Is the Manhattan ($7) really “perfect,” as the menu claims? No, but the two-cherry cocktail is a fair balance of Maker’s Mark bourbon, Martini & Rossi vermouth and Angostura bitters. A modest wine list offers Fontana di Papa at $6 for six ounces.
I’ve had worse mussels elsewhere ($11.95). I’ve also had better, since these are steamed in what looks and tastes like thinned out pizza sauce.
The namesake penne ($13.95) comes from the cucina povera tradition. Al dente pasta is lavished with olive oil and garlic, with a modicum of broccoli and crunchy white onions several stages short of the intended caramelization. Still, the crunch from fried bread crumbs is a nice touch.
Chicken à la Nova ($18.50) is a throwback to the days of heavy cream sauces. But this version is better than most. The boneless chicken breast is juicy. The vegetables — skin-on potatoes, baby carrots and fried peppers — retain a suitable crispness. The salt is manageable.
Where Nova gets interesting is with grilled cuttlefish ($18), a pleasant summer dish with oiled potatoes and wrinkled green beans.
Desserts are good, be they fried strips of dough drizzled with Nutella ($8.75), crisp cannoli ($6.25) filled with ricotta laced with more orange zest than coins in the Trevi Fountain, and subtle gelato ($7) made on site with fruity olive oil. Forgettable You can, of course, order pizza in the dining room but what’s the point when you can get delivery?
Further, there’s no point getting an overdressed summer salad ($14) with yellowing arugula and a fundamental quarrel between sun-dried tomatoes and watermelon. Lasagna ($14.50) is eminently forgettable, as are fatty lamb skewers ($17). Timing Getting food to the table at the correct temperature is a crucial problem here. The lamb is lukewarm. Gelato is already melting on its plate.
Even more problematic is the pacing. The bread basket arrives with the appetizers, not before. The mains come out while the appetizers are still on the table. All this when the dining room is less than half-full.
Primucci says he isn’t planning a new radio commercial for Nova Ristorante.
This sounds about right to me: The restaurant is a tolerable update but nothing to sing about. apataki@thestar.ca, Twitter @amypataki