PLAYFUL PASTA
Italian eatery delivers ‘straightforward food you want to eat with your family’
Handmade pasta is the star of the show at Savio Volpe, a foxhole-style Italian spot at Kingsway and Fraser.
At first, we have to find the door. Where, oh where, is it? Huh! It’s right in front of us, only it’s so tall, it would make LeBron James feel short. The door and vertical steel handle stretch up about 12 feet. Anyone but a giraffe would need stilts to reach the brass door knocker waaay up high. Very funny.
I wondered if I’d have the muscle to get in. I push the handle and, voila! Smooth as a breeze, we’re in.
Osteria Savio Volpe (“wise fox”) is in that pocket of great little restaurants at Kingsway and Fraser — the taste-surround nexus of good food. One of the Savio Volpe owners, Craig Stanghetta, has been designing cool restaurant spaces for some time. With his theatre background, he sees all the world, or at least his world of restaurants, as a stage. It is a wonderful space — light, modern, playful, spacious. If one were so vain to care, rooms, like clothes, can help a diner look really good. This room flatters.
It’s Stanghetta’s first restaurant, but partners Paul Grunberg and Mark Perrier, the chef, are known entities in the industry. Grunberg is co-owner of the consistently wonderful L’Abattoir in Gastown.
I didn’t cut them much slack and pounced quickly after the restaurant opened in November, pretty sure they’d have the place in good working order. They’ve been slammed harder than they expected, but are under control.
Perrier worked as head chef at Cin Cin, a sous chef at Cibo, apprenticed under David Hawksworth at West and at the two-Michelin-star Le Gavroche in London. For the past couple of years, gearing down to be a dad, he worked at Two Rivers Meats and learned a thing or two about butchering.
Savio Volpe is, Grunberg emphasizes, an osteria. “It’s straightforward food you want to eat with your family on Sunday or Monday. It’s family inspired, has lots of flavour and is thoughtful but not clever.”
And what’s Italian without a hit of pasta every day in every way? There’s a half-dozen fresh pasta dishes every day. Tortiglioni (like rigatoni with a spiral torque) with short rib braciola (sliced thin) and thick tomato sauce is the signature pasta. I tried the cappelletti with a pumpkin and sweet potato filling and loved it.
The wood fire oven with a spit takes centre stage in the kitchen and Perrier is eager to add more protein to the spit-roast program. Thus far, he does leg of lamb (marinated in garlic, red wine), half chicken (rosemary, grilled lemon), Calabrese sausage and a whole grilled sea bream.
Slices of spit-roasted lamb with salsa verde and light natural juices hit the right notes. Once the kitchen’s running full steam, they’ll add proteins such as rabbit and suckling pig to the spit. Perrier’s dying to add offcuts like chicken hearts on skewers. He already offers tripe with pancetta in tomato sauce, which is going over really well with people of European descent.
A small list of cured dishes represents the closest thing to starters. A refined white anchovy with lemon sliced carpacciothin, avocado and pickled chili wasn’t exactly family-style Monday night food but no complaint here. It was bright and fresh and lovely.
The team dispenses with the tendency to mention the pedigree of ingredients on the menu. It’s assumed you know. It’s nice to know we’ve come that far. There are five steak cuts (dry- aged beef from Cache Creek) including a 42-ouncer to share or to oink out on all on one’s own.
Garlic bread alla americana ($6) reminds Grunberg of the garlic bread from Safeway his family had.
“It came in tin foil, we’d rip it open and to me, it exudes family,” he says.
Once again, a nostalgic nod to a food memory from childhood.
Unfortunately, it didn’t translate in the same way to me. It was mediocre garlic bread.
The gelato trio was suggested for dessert. They are upfront about crediting Beta 5 as the maker and why not? They do an amazing job. The cannoli needed something to lift and brighten the ricotta-based filling, which was bland — bits of candied orange peel? Grappa? Let the Sicilians tut-tut.
Dishes are $16 to $18 for pastas, and $9 (the tripe) to $42 for meat and fish. Wines are all from Italy and our server was helpful in negotiating the Italian terrain. There are some local beers and two cocktails — a Negroni and Aperol spritz.
“This is East Van. We don’t want to sell $14 Manhattans,” Grunberg says.
Stay tuned for more Grunberg offsprings.
“I want to make sure this restaurant is successful” before opening another, he says. “But you can’t live scared.”