SLICE OF TUSCANY
Enthusiastic crowds turn out for Umberto Menghi’s reopening of popular establishment at new location
Umberto Menghi welcomes crowds of diners back to his new Giardino with fresh flavours and some old favourites.
Giardino 1328 Hornby St. | 604-669-2422 Info: umberto.com/giardino
Open: Monday to Saturday from 5:30 p.m.
“Beautiful evening,” said the man in chef whites leaning on the wall outside the new Giardino Restaurant in downtown Vancouver as we arrived for a late dinner.
It seems Umberto Menghi still has time to pause and enjoy the twilight, despite opening (or reopening) the third jewel in his restaurant crown at the end of June (he also owns Il Caminetto and Trattoria di Umberto in Whistler).
Giardino is one of the hottest tickets in town, and has been packed every night since its opening at the end of June, just down the road from the original Il Giardino (it closed in June 2013 to make way for condos).
“It’s been extremely busy. Everyone has come back home, I guess. They feel part of it. We can’t catch our breath,” Menghi said. “I think people missed something. (The restaurant) was like a second home to them. People had their first date there, then they get married and have children and their children come there, too. God, I feel old!”
He might be 69, but Menghi is as passionate about his restaurants as ever.
“I like to think we are professional at working with people,” he said, “that we are sensitive to their needs. ‘No’ doesn’t exist, all that exists is: ‘How can we help you? Let me see. Let’s try. I’ll see what I can do.’
“It’s a bit (of) an old-fashioned service, but a real service to people. You can call it a passion, a love of what we do. If we screw up, it’s: ‘How can we fix this? How can we make you happy?’
“I want people to leave happy. Let’s admit when we screw up and celebrate when we get things right.”
Giardino does a lot of things right. The new Giardino is a bit like a magic trick, bigger than it looks from its sleek, polished outside. Don’t let the streetside tables (which seat 20) fool you: there’s a much bigger giardino — the Italian word for garden — that seats 80 in behind the 180 seats inside.
With its terracotta colours and hand-painted murals, it’s Italian farmhouse chic meets family dining room (we had the pleasure of eating with both Bill Clinton and Luciano Pavarotti one night as we ate at a table with portraits of both with Menghi hanging above).
Menghi promised Tuscan decor and is proud of the way it connects the Vancouver eatery to his roots.
“I grew up on a farm, so I am always attached to the soil of Tuscany. My parents always said that it doesn’t matter where you go, what pair of shoes you buy, you will always have a little bit of soil under your shoes. You take it with you, that sense of belonging …
“I was inspired by the granary, where families put the grain to dry and keep whatever they had produced, so that family and friends always had food. I was born in 1946, after the (Second World War), and (that time) was all about raising food and raising families.
“(Giardino) brings it all back to the people today, who have an abundance of things in life — they arrive in their beautiful cars, dressed in the latest fashions … we bring them back to the simple things somehow: friends and family and food.
“The colours are warm, like Tuscany or Italy in general. The feeling of belonging and feeling comfy is important to me. I want everybody to feel at home.”
Menghi has retained many of the staff from the old restaurant.
“I brought in the DNA of the old Giardino, basically,” he said. “I think it turned out good, I feel good about it. I am very pleased with how it has been received — and I am very tired!”
Regulars will recognize some of the dishes on the menu.
“We brought in base dishes we knew were very popular with the clientele that is coming back, then we topped it up with dishes that I considered fresher — when I say fresher I mean more reflective of the season of summertime,” Menghi said. “It is quite strong on carpaccio seafoods and meat, and we added glutenfree dishes. These are dishes that are not new to me, but are new to the restaurant.
“There is more food available now than ever before. In the two years I was closed, a lot of things changed in the market. There is so much available now, and it is so close by, you don’t have to travel anymore.
“There are lots of small farmers now who have a lot of passion … and they go out of their way to sell it. Anything they produce they bring to the door of the restaurant now.”
The menu is big on seafood and summer flavours, but pasta and meat lovers will also feel right at home.
The lobster bisque ($17.95) was rich and satisfying, filling its generous bowl and served with focaccia bread and the most divine dipping olive oil. The small slices of bread vanished all too soon, leaving my dining companion and I both fighting the urge to simply drink the remaining fruity oil.
A lobster salad special ($29.95) had the delicate meat contrasted with crunchy cornichons and tangy green olives on its loose leaf lolla rosa base. Appropriately enough it was the champagne vinaigrette that made the dish sparkle.
The calamari ($20.95) was meltingly tender with a slight crisp interspersed with crunchy tentacles, but needs more of its fresh lemon wedges to brighten the dish.
The gluten- free gnocchi ($22.95) was simplicity personified, the light dumplings coated in roasted cherry tomato sauce redolent with fragrant basil, and unsullied by other flavours. Freshly ground black pepper and Parmesan was all it needed at the table.
The fettuccine ($26.95) had a light cream sauce and was served with prosciutto chunks and fresh, bright green peas.
The osso bucco ($42.95) had shanks braised to fork tenderness and its saffron risotto side dish could have easily stood alone. (A note here about the generosity of serving size at Giardino: they are sizable. That osso bucco could have served two!)
Chicken roasted Tuscan style with sage ($36.95) was moist and unbelievably flavourful. Its accompanying potato purée was silken and the rosemary garlic jus caused more pining for that great bread.
You will regret not exploring the dessert menu (all $14.95) so loosen the belt a notch or two and dive in.
Almond cannoli is a masterpiece in the Sicilian style, with its smooth ricotta lemon cream and nutty crunchy exterior. The pair of wafers were so distractingly good that we never noticed the accompanying blood orange sorbet until it started to melt (and it was perfumed and delicious).
The Amaretto Crema Caramello, recommended by our personable waiter, exceeded its hype: the almond-infused custard was accompanied by a chocolate hazelnutty bombolone and bathed in caramel.
“It tastes like Christmas, only better,” my companion said.
The espresso ($2.25) is worth staying up half the night for, too.
Service is relaxed and attentive, despite the crowds, and the wine list offers a good selection of international as well as Italian wines, some by the glass, and it is a treat to watch the sommelier climb a little wooden ladder to retrieve a prestigious bottle when it is ordered. Any plans to open for lunch? “Not yet … I want to do it right and solid. We have been overwhelmed by people coming in for dinner,” Menghi said.
“I want to finish training and hire more staff. We might be able to do it by the end of the summer, but definitely by the fall.”