Good choices: Escargot; eggplant Romano; rappe; chicken Oscar; chicken marsala; haddock Francese; marscapone with basil; mussels diablo.
Credit cards: All major cards accepted.
Access: Street-level entry, all facilities on one level.
CASA VECCHIA
8 Hampstead Road, Salem, N.H.
(603) 893-6553
Restaurant reviewed 12/15/97 by Bob MacDonald
A more suspicious mind would see a conspiracy. Or maybe it's just a weird new trend. Restaurant commits a faux pas. Management apologizes with a free round of drinks, dessert, appetizer, or what have you. Patron leaves thinking, "What a nice place." It's happened three times in a row now.
The most recent was at Casa Vecchia, where the host planted us in the lounge to wait for a table and somehow forgot about us. When we finally reminded him, the manager, who was helping out at the bar, deducted the price of our drinks. Not that we really minded, because once we were seated, it was worth the wait.
Our seating was followed by a pleasant suprise that makes us wonder if Italian restaurants have reacted to the diner in "Big Night" who demanded pasta with her risotto. Whatever the case, Casa Vecchia started us off with two starches: the traditional basket of bread and a less traditional small serving of warm potato salad. It's a comforting way to begin a meal.
Moving on to the menu appetizers, stuffed mushroom caps ($4.95) were filled with savory crabmeat, and rappe ($4.95), described as a wild green, was sauteed in just the right combination of garlic and olive oil complemented by black olives.
Escargot is something we have come to accept as always being a bit rubbery, but Casa Vecchia's version, lumache alla Riviera ($5.95), were tender as well as delicious. Eggplant romano ($4.95) is also highly recommended. Stuffed with ricotta, provolone, and mozzarella cheeses, the slices were sauteed perfectly so that they were not soggy but, in fact, crisp enough to hold up in the marinara sauce in which they were served.
Moving on in Casa Vecchia's five-page menu, it's hard to know where to begin. The owners previously operated restaurants in Methuen and Tewksbury, so they know how to do a lot of things well, from tripe to Buffalo wings.
Veal cacciatore ($10.95) was lightly sauteed and swam in a rich sauce, containing, as the menu noted, a touch of vermouth - just the right touch.
In the homemade pasta section (there's also regular pasta) we sampled mascarpone with fresh basil ($8.95), the cheese we usually associate with dessert wrapped in basil dough and served with a basilly wine sauce, presenting two flavors that were both sweet yet distinct.
Haddock francese ($9.95) echoed the crispness of the eggplant appetizer, the egg-battered exterior sealing the filet so that it didn't become soggy in the sweet sauce of garlic, shallots, tomatoes, black olives, and mushrooms. Also in the seafood department, mussels fra diablo ($9.95) was a large enough portion to resemble a mussel bed. The mussels absorbed some of the heat of the sauce, which tasted much spicier on the pasta below.
Chicken marsala ($8.95) was equally ample and cut-with-a-fork tender. The meat was surrounded by a gravylike sauce, not as sweet as we're used to and too salty, but we'd recommend it anyway, assuming the saltiness was just an aberration. Chicken Oscar ($10.95) was another worthy variation of a dish normally associated with veal.
Tiramisu cast an absentee ballot for dessert. It apparently was good enough that they had run out of it. A distinctly New York-style cheesecake was a good substitute.
Tips & hits
