The last time I reviewed Solo Italiano was back in May when it first opened, and I was very impressed and wrote at the time that the food had an incredible lightness of being, each dish displaying fine subtleties of preparation and flavor. Yet until then all of the other restaurants that operated prior to Solo’s tenancy at 100 Commercial St failed as if felled by the Curse of Tutankhamen, dying inexplicably even when they were critically acclaimed. But Solo Italiano’s co-owner and chef, Paolo Laboa (along with star Portland fish purveyor Angelo Ciocca), who hails from Genoa and has cooked on both coasts in America for over 10 years, is firmly in command of his kitchen, creating Italian fare–mostly locally sourced–that is literally an unleashing of culinary finery. And after my two recent dinners last week I was left with this impression: Solo Italiano has the qualities of style and cuisine like the white-clothed dining citadels in Rome, where haute Italian fare is at its finest.
The three dining area: rear dining room, the great circular bar area and the side dining room facing the crudo station are intimate and comfortable
If there were only one dish to try—or multiple picks from the list– it’s the crudo: carpaccio elevated to exalted territory. Consider the Carpaccio di Tonno, as thinly wrought as fine linen, the raw tuna is beet red, exploding with the flavors of orange zest, ground Sichuan pepper, lemon oil and topped with a deeply intense beet sorbet that hugs and kisses each morsel as it melts around perfect Bluefin tuna. Few dishes are revelations. This has it in spades. It was so good I ordered another dish from the list: This time it was day-boat scallops sliced wafer thin, hit with cream, Calabrian chili, chives and nasturtium leaves looking like the luminosity of a pointillism painting.
Clockwise: crudo trio: tuna with beet puree; day-boat scallops and fluke with basil oil
Dining at the bar on a Friday night—in a packed house that always seemed impossible to fill because the space is so big—I enjoyed a well-made Negroni followed by the knowledgeable waiter’s suggestion of a soave to go with my pasta course.
A well-made Negroni and a fine Soave
The pasta was an extraordinary creation that was a twist on carbonara: Tajarin alla Carbonara di Mare, an egg yolk pasta with shrimp, guanciale, pepper, leeks and ceremoniously topped with Maine sea urchin emulsion and grated Pecorino. The emulsion is as thick as a silken custard and the taste is out of this world, the seventh sense, umami personified. All the pastas are hand rolled in house and even if you’re on a low-carbohydrate diet, break the fast and live for a moment in carb nirvana.
Pasta with shrimp and sea-urchin emulsion
Still, carbs be damned and it was well worth having dessert: two of the most perfectly crisp-shelled cannoli filled with a luscious ricotta cream and dollops of jam.
Cannoli
The next day I raved so about my meal to friends and said we must go. We managed to get in on a Saturday night that was again jam packed with diners.
The four of us shared a starter of Tagliere del Contadino e Gnocco Fritto, an Italian farm board: gorgonzola dolce, petit jesu, soppresatta, coppa picante, mortadella tartufo, capicola, coppa di testa and crostini Toscana and mostarda. Translation: house cured meats that will make you ignore that artisanal roll of salami that you once bought and paid too much for. While we shared the platter, after each bite our respective forks were ready for battle to get those last morsels of cured meats dipped into the mostarda.
Cured meats board
Various specials were suggested by our waiter including these two: a torta (cappon magro) –an elaborate Genovese pairing of vegetables and fish. Here it was a cakelike base topped with a vegetable puree (potatoes, rutabagas, celery root and more) surrounded by a medley of seafood and shellfish including mussels and halibut. It was an astonishing accomplishment and again our respective forks made a beeline for every bit as it was passed around the table. That was followed by two styles of tuna tartare: the fish on toast points and then a miraculous dish of tuna tartare filling the hollowed of baked bone marrow. OMG, this was food for the gods.
Clockwise: vegetable torta, cappon magro and two versions of tuna tartare
It seemed anticlimactic to order main courses, but who could stop now? There was a wonderfully rich osso bucco, made with humanely raised veal shank braised Genovese style with chianti, tomato and locally foraged porcini mushrooms served atop a rich puree of local potatoes. I thought the meat needed more salt, a minor blip but still thoroughly delicious. Then there was a rib-eye steak for two, a half-kilo slab of grass-fed beef rubbed with sage, topped with housemade green peppercorn steak sauce served with roasted Stonecipher Farm heirloom carrots and parsley; the third dish was Spaghetti alla Veraci–manilla clams, heirloom tomato, pinot grigio, parsley and garlic, a classic dish.
Sliced rib-eye platter for 2
One of my friends sprung for an impressive bottle of Montepluciano, which was dense and elegant to accompany the incredible main courses at the table.
Classic pasta with clams and a rich osso bucco over potato puree
We agreed unanimously that we had just experienced extraordinary dining, one of the finest in Portland. The service was flawless, the restaurant space elegant but contemporary, and its vast space is finally mitigated with its three dining areas packed with patrons voraciously enjoying an astonishingly good meal.
Solo Italiano, 100 Commercial St., Portland, ME 207-780-0227 www.soloitalianorestaurant.com
Rating: Extraordinary for elegantly prepared Genovese cuisine
Ambiance: Elegant yet contemporary
Service: Very good
Tables: Large, well spaced in three separate areas of the restaurant
Parking: On street but difficult to find in the Old Port; best bet is garage parking or Uber
$$$: Expensive but well worth it
