Eat The Menu: Viva Italia

For a decade, i.e. — restaurant shorthand for Italian Eatery — served as a beloved venue for a sizeable chunk of South Minneapolis. Then you-know-what struck, and onsite dining died.

Today, the good news is that the clever people-pleasers behind Travail have reopened its doors, swept off the patio, and filled the ample floorspace with neighbors and destination diners alike, thanks to a right-sized menu spotlighting classic Italian favorites gently filtered through a new, creative lens.

The generous patio was full-full-full when we arrived, while the indoor seating environment lent an all-weather, calm-yet-upbeat aura. Lots of credit goes to a well-trained corps of servers, duded out in glad-to-see-ya smiles and Hawaiian shirts. (Well, we’re not far from the sandy beaches of Lake Nokomis.)

My companion sipped a crisp Piedmontese white wine from the café’s all-Italian list, while I imbibed a smooth blend of cedar-finished Bourbon stirred with blood orange and bitters, $14, as we turned our attention to the menu.

From the spot-on list of shareable starters ($14-21), I insisted on a plateful of arancini, which I’d learned to love last month in Sicily. There, those cheesy rice sculptures were the size of tennis balls; these, golf balls — an easier-to-manage deviation, and delicious, especially when dragged through a dish of creamy cheese sauce. Or succumb to the house ricotta, mussels in Limoncello butter or variations of raw seafood.

Salads beckoned next ($14), but we sped straight on to the real reason for our visit, the roll call of house-made pastas ($17-24), sized for sharing. I’m ready to believe you can’t go wrong with any of them — which only makes deciding all the harder. Burly bucatini or wide ribbons of pappardelle? Simple pomodoro and cheese on spaghetti, or gnocchi fancied up with Genovese pesto, pine nuts and aged ricotta?

Thanks to the tutelage of our in-the-know waiter, we chose the mushroom cappelletti and fought to lick the plate. The noodle cook had mastered the fine line between limp and chewy, delivering strands of perfect, Goldilocks-quality firmness/tenderness.

They’re washed in a whiskey-shoyu sauce which I’d feared would overwhelm us with salt, but nay, swore our waiter, who’d staked his life on the promise I wouldn’t notice. And I didn’t. Blended with crème fraîche and Parm-like Grana Padano cheese, it simply and easily warmed our souls. The promised mushrooms, big and earthy, completed the presentation, proving that, as the man said, less is more. Same with the lumache number, starring bouncy shrimp in a Madeira and sausage-y ’nduja cream.

On to the mains (six proteins, $25-35). We shared an order of short rib, tender and ready to flake simply by verbal command (okay, almost). It shared its rich, intensely meaty flavor with a dose of sweet-sour agrodolce, all spilling onto a scoop of root veggies and a shower of pine nuts. Comfort food supreme. (And that’s what basic Italian cooking is, in a nutshell.) Or choose a pork chop, chicken, NY strip or fish. And maybe dither over a list of sides, which seemed like overkill, given the swell plate presentations.

Of course, there’s a dessert menu lurking in the shadows ($7-15). The usual tiramisu or chocolate torte, a lemon tart, and my choice — tonight, or anytime I spy it on a list of sweets — affogato. It’s a dollop of vanilla ice cream in a cuplet of espresso — and here, overkill, alas. The scoop was as huge as a tennis ball, where a golf ball is the norm, and for a good (balancing) reason. But what kind of food grumbler am I, whining over Too Much Ice Cream?

So, scratch that and simply act on the good news: the restaurant i.e. is back in business, under new, and terrific, management. Benvenuto, amici!

Italian Eatery
4774 Cedar Ave. S
(612) 201-8397
italianeaterymsp.com