Zavino

It was an eyesore. Among Capagiro, El Vez, Doggie Style, Bindi, Vintage, upscale stores, and the rest of the gentrification in the Mid-Town Village; the check-cashing store at the corner of 13th and Samson was an eyesore. Finally, the store was boarded up and a new restaurant is taking its place.


After months of constructions, Zavino seemed to be ready for business…soon. Friends and Family night was held, then nothing happened. There was sometimes one or two people milling around inside the restaurant, but it never opened its door. Seemed like chef Steve Gonzalez’s wine bar / pizzeria was missing one key ingredient for his restaurant: the liquor license. So being tired of waiting around for the PLCB, the door was thrown opened for business as a byo. The restaurant was even giving away wine and beer to every dinner as a good will gesture while its liquor license was swimming its way through the bureaucratic red tape.

If you have anthropophobic or claustrophobic, this restaurant is not for you. The space is very small. It is made even smaller with a counter dividing the room lengthwise with one side being the bar/pizzas making area with the oven/ the cured meat slicer station; with the other side being the dinning room with tables packed tightly.

The phone call finally came to tell us the table was ready while we were spend the time waiting at Time a few doors down with a few beers. We squeezed through the dinning room and were brought to the communal table. Usually, there is some ample room between seats at communal tables due to its nature, but the seating were pretty tight at this one. It reminded me of those in Hong Kong which aim is to pack as many in as possible. The couple that was brought to the table after us refused to take their seats. Guess they needed their personal space and some privacy.

Calamari


Snappy yet tender, the calamari was served swimming in a [good for dipping] fish base stock loaded with herbs and topped with celery leaves.

We weren’t expecting much from the complimentary wine and beer, however, we were surprised that they weren’t Coors Lite or some box wine. Tourist Tree chose the Troegs Rugged Trail while I took a glass of very decent Spanish red.

Gnocchi with Pork Shoulder Regu


The gnocchi was pillow soft and had just the right elasticity. The pork shoulder regu was simply awesome. I could easily just eat that by itself. The sauce was a bit salty but I did like the slight anchovy hint that it was carrying.

 
 
 
 
 
 

Sopressata


Every pizza maker has his own version of the sopressata pie. We liked this one. Thinly sliced sporessata spread out on red sauce mingling with pieces of mozzarella, with olives, pickled red onion and pecorino, sprinkled over it.

We couldn’t help but was comparing this pie with other sopressata we had lately (Stella, Pizzeria Bianco); but there’s no comparison. Every place was different with its own characteristics. This particular one had a crispy bottom with a uniform pattern of brunt spots yet a doughy dough with good elasticity and the right amount of chewiness. The pie was further accented by a few big burnt bobbles along the edge which gave it some personalities. The meat was very nice with a bit of sweetness. I liked the thinly sliced pickled onion pieces which gave the pizza a unique character but I am not sure about olive.

Kennett.

This is basically a mushroom pizza with oyster, cremini and shitake mushrooms, roasted onions, mozzarella, and béchamel sauce (Kennet as of Kennet Sqaure, the mushroom capital of the US; got it?).

I loved the béchamel sauce on this pie. Its creamy consistency and the presence of the mushrooms was like eating a cream of mushroom soup with pizza bread for dipping, except there weren’t that much mushroom in this soup. The crust reminded snappy and did not sag after a time period but the pie could definitely use more mushrooms on it to make it spectacular.

We are loving the sudden proliferation of Neo-Neapolitan pizza restaurants in the city. As much as a pizzeria (and a wine bar), Zavino also has outstanding non-pizza dishes. I could easily just have those as a meal even though they are on the smaller side. And speaking of small, have I mentioned that this place is really small. It’s so small that Tourist Tree’s chair got kicked every time somebody walked past her.

Post script: Zavino has seen gotten its liquor license. It is serving a variety of moderately priced wines.