Still impeccable, still reliable, still a treat
Osteria is perfect for a celebration dinner
Lino Pertusini’s Santa Fe restaurants share many wonderful qualities: the food is always excellent, the service always impeccable and the atmosphere a perfect balance between Pertusini’s more formal European inclinations and Santa Fe’s relaxed ways.
Thus, we’ve enjoyed his newer “pizzeria,” a deceptively named outpost of rustic Italy on Guadalupe Street. We hadn’t been to his more upscale flagship, Osteria d’Assisi, in quite some time, but a recent visit reconfirmed our convictions.
We opted for lunch, although that meant forgoing the excellent music that is a feature of both Pertusini restaurants. Noting that Osteria offers a lunch special of soup or salad plus half a very generous sandwich or its signature pasta for $12, we nevertheless decided to put the kitchen through its paces with a Euro-style, threecourse midday meal.
My guest, of course, went straight for the calamari ($12) as her appetizer. I was torn between the soup of the day, a creamy wild mushroom concoction I knew to be excellent, and the carpaccio ($14). The latter won the toss and proved equally good. Razor-thin slices of raw beef were garnished with pickle-y capers and a generous shaving of parmesan cheese. Despite its rich ingredients, this dish sits lightly on the stomach, leaving plenty of room for an entree.
The fish offering (which changes daily) was trout garnished with puttanesca sauce ($16). Again I was torn, tempted to choose a blander entree, such as veal-stuffed ravioli in a light cream sauce, a menu standard.
The trout won out. It was perfectly cooked in parchment, and generously slathered in a light tomato sauce laced with lots of garlic and studded with black olives and capers. Delicate trout and in-your-face puttanesca are an unlikely combination, in my book, but one that grew on me over the course of the meal.
My guest chose chicken parmeggiano ($15), an Italian favorite. She enjoyed the combination of tender chicken breast and melted mozzarella cheese, served with that light tomato sauce that seems to be the Osteria go-to flavoring.
Desserts ($8.50) at Osteria change frequently but, on the day we dined, the choice included a luscious lemon meringue tart, and a sublime combination of pistachio, vanilla and chocolate … what? It wasn’t ice cream (far richer). Semi-freddo, I decided, a very cold not-ice cream and not-pudding parfait that stopped both of us in our tracks with one bite.
Osteria’s dinner menu is not so different from its lunch offerings, although the choices are more extensive and the presentations more elaborate. Both menus enticed us for return visits. Raw oysters as an appetizer? Avocado stuffed with shrimp salad? On the dinner menu, we were intrigued by venison with spice rub and a splash of balsamic vinegar. That newly discovered fish and tomato combo at dinner is represented by cioppino, with a variety of shellfish and sea bass with that same freshtomato puttanesca. Plus, a dinner visit would include a piano serenade.
We appreciated Osteria’s generously sized, semi-circular booths, upholstered in light brocade, and the crisply starched napery. For finer weather, there is a very nice patio. The service, as noted, has always been impeccable. In short, because it is so reliably excellent, Osteria is the perfect place for a business lunch or a celebratory dinner.