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Type: Italian
Prices: Appetizers, salads, $8.95-$10.95; pasta, $10.95-12.95; entrees, $16.95-$21.95; desserts, $4.95.
Good choices: Grilled squid; stuffed calamari; vegetable antipasti; marinated anchovies; grilled lobster; linguine with clams; baked swordfish; zuppe di pesce; fruit sorbets.
Sound level: Conversation possible.
Hours: Mon.- Thurs. 4:30-11 p.m., Fri. 4:30-midnight, Sat. 3 p.m.-midnight, Sun. 3-10 p.m.
Reservations accepted. No smoking
Credit cards: All major credit cards.
Access: Fully accessible.
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TUTTO MARE
63 Salem Street, Boston
(North End)
(617) 557-6064
Restaurant reviewed 10/15/98 by Alison Arnett
The North End is our quick ticket to Italy. Despite the gentrification of the once almost completely Italian enclave, and setting aside the unsightly intrusion of the Big Dig along the edges, one can still wander the narrow streets, smell the scents of garlic, peer at olive oil and pasta in the salumerias, and dream of Italy.
Naturally, we want a seafood place like ones along the Mediterranean and Adriatic -- only very fresh seafood, simply prepared and authentic.
Tutto Mare, one of the Trattoria Il Panino restaurants, could be that place. Sometimes it is.
Outside the restaurant, a park bench invites passersby. There's a chalkboard listing the specials of the day, and the room looks just right -- little marble-topped tables, a completely open kitchen staffed by young cooks, and waiters who speak in heavy Italian accents.
Although the menu is handed out in the way of most restaurants, that's not really what one goes by. A large chalkboard along one wall lists fish and shellfish available that evening and its price, in the manner of a retail fish store. The descriptions are merely ``whole red snapper,'' or swordfish, or linguine with clams. No flowery descriptions here.
The wine list is only one page and lists only whites, although red wine can be ordered by the glass.
The formula relies on freshness and simplicity, common in seaside restaurants in Italy, but not common here. It works beautifully, I thought, upon tasting grilled squid, the whole mollusk laid out on the plate, garnished with greens. Smoky, just tender, incredibly clean on the palate, the squid was delicious, as far as possible from the tough creatures tricked up into fried rings, or buried in pasta.
Frank DePasquale, owner of the Il Panino restaurants, comes from the Amalfi coast of Italy. He said in a phone interview that he hopes to reflect the restaurants that he went to as a youth. To further that, he said, the restaurant uses only organic vegetables and dairy products as well as fresh seafood, and will add fruit juice tonics and a wine list made up of 90 percent organic wines. ``That's the only way I could be truly authentic,'' DePasquale said.
A plate of linguine with clams illustrates his points perfectly, the pasta expertly prepared and the clams retaining the brine of the sea. There's nothing extraneous, and it's touched only with a little garlic and olive oil. A grilled lobster, a wonderful $9.95 bargain during fall's bounty, is garnished with only lemon, cut in half for easy eating. The flesh couldn't be sweeter or more succulent.
Tutto Mare's chef is Victor Paeone, assisted by a woman whom DePasquale identifies only as Mamma Rita. She's in charge of the pasta and some seafood dishes.
When the dish is sparkling, like the firm and deeply flavored swordfish, flanked by florets of broccoli and cauliflower, one can imagine being on the Amalfi coast. A plate of marinated imported anchovies, vinegary and sharp, is wonderful, the tiny, cold fish embellished with a salad of mesclun greens dressed with simple vinaigrette.
But not everything seems to go smoothly here.
A whole red snapper looks to be a good bet one evening on the specials list, and after we order, I see one of the cooks carry a glistening fish into the kitchen. However, when the plate arrives, the fish has been so inexpertly filleted that it resembles fish hash. The snapper has great taste; the presentation doesn't.
Zuppe di pesce is abundant with fish and shellfish, all very good, from swordfish and bass to mussels and clams. There are a few shrimp, and a generous portion of lobster tail in the shell. A big slice of bread has been marvelously toasted over the grill, perfect to sop up the tomatoey broth. But the odd thing is that there's almost no broth in the bottom of the big oval casserole. A zuppe with almost no zuppe.
Pasta fagioli with mussels is another curious dish. A large bowl brims with short tubular pasta and white beans that have cooked into a thick sauce. But there's a scarcity of mussels, and this couldn't be because of the cost. (Offering an excess of lobster, and pinching pennies on the mussels, would definitely be pound-foolish). The dish is also bland, a little like eating plain, boiled pasta.
Risotto with seafood has plenty of both, and it is beautifully spiced with a little hot pepper. But the Arborio rice is just on the crunchy side of al dente.
The inconsistencies in the main courses are startling, considering that the meal had begun with a masterful stuffed squid, full of bits of shrimp, seafood, herbs, and bread crumbs soaked in squid ink. A spicy, dark tomato sauce gilded the squid, and olives and parsley embellished it. It was wonderful, save for the fact the table knives weren't up to the task of cutting the squid.
The vegetable antipasti, displayed in the front of the room, though, lived up to its looks. One evening, the platter contained sauteed escarole; zucchini with mint, broccoli rabe, and lots of roasted peppers, plus some olives and a pillow of mozzarella. Another evening the antipasti was pleasantly garlic-infused throughout, the zucchini, peppers and mushrooms all spiked with it.
The service at Tutto Mare matches the surroundings, friendly and casual. On the first visit, we rejected a bottle of wine, a rarity in my travels, but it was a touch vinegary. After tasting it, the young waiter assured us it was fine, then took it back to the kitchen for the chef to taste. It's fine, the waiter reported the chef said, but he offered another while giving us a little talk on what chardonnay should taste like and having others in the kitchen sample it.
After that, the whole staff hovered to give us extra service, asking again and again if everything was all right. We were bemused, but reassured, by the staff's reaction, a smooth ending to a prickly issue.
We ended with orange and lime sorbets, frozen in the fruit's shells, tangy and bracing. In the future, DePasquale says, the restaurant will offer fresh fruit, as is done in Italy, as well as the fruit and vegetable beverages with names like body cleanser (carrots, cucumbers and beets) and bladder tonic (apples and cranberries). Those, plus the organic wines and other organic products, will fit into the soon-to-be new name -- Tutto Mare Organics.
But I'll go back for the seafood.
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