Tom spent too much time in the hospital after Hurricane Ida, and a lot of nurses and other staff came and went through the rooms. Most of the doctors knew him, but the nurses were too young. Two in particular were very excited to learn who he was, and had some questions about food. “I love to eat!” a lovely skinny young one said. Her lithe figure made her statement less credible. She was very excited when I took pen to paper to scribble a list.
The list was heavy on Italian. Maybe because it’s our favorite, I am declaring Italian everyone’s favorite food. That is arguable, of course, but I don’t think it too arguable.
North shore restaurants comprised the list, but I have been thinking of doing an Italian list of favorites for a while.
The list focuses on goodness of restaurant, with special groupings of commonality to follow.
Del Porto in Covington has long been Tom’s favorite. It is fantastic northern Italian gourmet food (meaning roasted meats and fish and vegetables like broccoli rabe, not meatballs and spaghetti) in a gourmet but hip environment. Here is the best Happy Hour deal in town, and if you are into antipasti platters, the definitive of those. This is the home of the hummus upgrade, white bean hummus flanked by caper berries and crusty focaccia. A signature item here, and deservedly so. What to get? Anything and everything.
Across the lake in the almost-invisible location of the former Napoli in Metairie is Ristorante Filippo. Phillip Gagliano comes from Sicilian Italian cooks (brother Frank has Frank’s in the French Market) who have taught him well. The food here is spectacularly delicious. His Oysters Oreganata topped our oyster roundup, but this is a can’t miss place. Phil’s passion for food and pride in his heritage are paramount on every plate. If the crabmeat salad is a special, get it.
Marcello's started on St. Charles in 2014, and post-COVID, found a home coincidentally right down the street from Del Porto in Covington. The menu here is much abbreviated, but you can still get a great meal. The meatballs and spaghetti are a $19 bowl of bliss. Marcello’s red sauce has always been superior, and my only complaint is that they can be stingy with it. Here is another terrific Happy Hour. The Pollo Arrostito with mushroom risotto is a favorite, as well as the Crabmeat Contessa app, and they do Melanzana anything well. The Marcello’s “thing” is that you can select a bottle of wine yourself by perusing the aisles. In Covington, this idea doesn’t present as well as the original St. Charles location, but the price deals are as good.
The Sicilian family connections in local Italian restaurants is very strong. The DiPietro’s came to New Orleans in the early 20th century, and the family has operated several great Italian places. Four DiPietro siblings are responsible for a lot of delicious Italian fare here. Starting with Renata’s in the 1960s, and still operating the wildly popular Irene’s in the French Quarter, and Metairie favorite Fausto’s, the DiPietro brand is a good one. Renata left town after closing Renata’s but the other two are still going strong.
Irene’s started in 1992 in a tiny space in the building where Tom’s dad worked as a bookkeeper. That wistful connection made Irene’s an instant favorite for Tom, but the food alone would have done it. There were lines to get into Irene’s, who cooked the way her grandmother and mother cooked back in Sicily. Irene’s has delicious simple food but also gourmet dishes. The current menu is smallish, featuring basics like lasagna to more elevated fare like cioppino and escargots. Duck and lamb are offered along with chicken. She has a terrific Sicilian baked oysters dish. This is a cult restaurant, and it is easy to see why. Irene’s moved a few years ago out of the deep Quarter into the space formerly occupied by WNOE radio. It is much larger, with soaring ceilings and a lovely courtyard. Same divine food. Over in Metairie, Irene’s brothers Fausto and Rolando have Fausto’s, a charming and much smaller space near Dorignac’s serving the same delicious family food they all grew up with. The menu here is much larger, with a lot of veal dishes and fish dishes along with all the pasta regulars. Don’t miss the delectable arancini, which is the size of a softball, and sits in a large puddle of delicious red sauce.
More Sicilian family connections can be seen in other restaurants in town. Glamorous Avo on Magazine has connections to Lama’s St. Roch. Self-described as a fresh perspective on his family’s recipes, Nick Lama has channeled his humble Sicilian roots into a delicious menu hybrid of roasted meats and pasta dishes. His toasted homemade focaccia comes with a distinctive presentation in small brown paper bags. A very Uptown vibe.
Impastato’s in Metairie, Sal & Judy’s in Lacombe, and Impastato’s Cellars are all branches from the same family tree in Palermo, Sicily. Sal Impastato opened Sal & Judy’s in Lacombe first. The runaway success of that buoyed Joe Impastato to open in Metairie, and Joe’s daughter Mika and wife Mika operate the Cellars in Madisonville. This is a temple of seafood primarily, covered in rich creamy lemon butter sauces. Crab claws, crabmeat au gratin, shrimp, fish, and always-available soft shell crabs all get the Impastato treatment: Mushrooms and artichokes swimming in the sauce over some seafood. Good veal dishes too. A basket of delectable braided and seeded mini Italian loaves comes to every table.
The family connections at Vincent’s in Metairie are not generational. Vincent Catalanotto opened in Metairie in 1988 as the Corsican Brothers. He did all the cooking himself, with no formal training. Pure passion and raw talent made his little place one of the most popular Italian restaurants in town, and a Metairie hotspot. It remains so today, and the Vincent’s brand now includes an Uptown outpost in the old Compagno’s, run by his son, also Vincent. Another can’t-miss place. A signature item - the corn and crab bisque in a toasted boule bowl.
Out in Harahan in an old Popeye’s is another terrific Sicilian-inspired restaurant serving pasta and some of the very best Neapolitan-style pizza in town. Oak Oven Cafe was started by three Jesuit chums about six years ago, each taking a role in the restaurant. The chef, Adam Supernau, spent a few months in Cagliari, Sicily at a two-star Michelin. That level of polish and sophistication is reflected throughout the menu here. The restaurant has changed hands since then, but the menu remains solid.
Tony Mandina’s is a little gem on the Westbank. Now in its third generation, Kolette Mandina runs this little corner of deliciousness with her daughter Lindsey, having taken it over from her father, the restaurant’s namesake. All the regulars are here, lasagna, bruciolone, featuring the thick red sauce so good it is sold in grocery stores. The Mandina’s have family in Salaparuta, Sicily, where they return each year and bring back olive oil made at the villa as well as wine. Everything here is good, from the veal dishes to eggplant and pastas. The star on the menu is an appetizer, Eggplant Dominic Jude.
In old Mandeville in a quirky building, Nuvolari’s has been serving really delicious Italian food since the late 1980s. Owner Paul Murphy has an uncanny knack for finding chefs to cook truly superb food, and he offers it at a great price. He’s also an oenophile, with interesting wines to accompany stellar food. Each entree comes with a small but really good soup or salad. Eat your way around this large menu.
Bosco’s on the north shore started in a tiny space on Hwy 59 in Mandeville in 2002. A longshot for survival, word grew quickly about the delicious food being turned out by owner Tony Bosco, and soon the expanded into a much larger space, and then again, adding a pizzeria. Here is the best muffaletta in the whole metro area, a great Italian salad, and a crabmeat special served on artichoke bottoms in a superb lemon cream sauce. We have never had anything here we didn’t love.
If Irene’s is the cult Italian restaurant in New Orleans, Leonardo’s Trattoria is the north shore version. Leonardo is from Italy, and from Day One his legion of fans have waited in lines for a table at this tiny hotspot. In Italy or anywhere else, success is a combination of factors, and Leonardo has the formula: offer really good food in large portions at a great price. The pizza is a weird hybrid of Neapolitan and New York styles, and is rather ordinary. Stick with the pastas, which are all really good. We love the aglio olio, which is presented more beautifully here than anywhere we have seen it. The lasagna is also atypically presented, and equally good. It took a while for us to understand the fanaticism, but we get it now.
These last two are at the bottom of the list because they are icons. Pascal’s Manale has been around over a hundred years serving delicious Italian food New Orleans-style. The restaurant boasts a renowned oyster bar helmed by Thomas, a shucker of substantial renown himself. This large menu has perhaps the best example of the Sicilian influence on our local cuisine. It’s as much a neighborhood restaurant as Italian, offering an array of seafood dishes, veal, a great steak, and the signature original and much-copied BBQ shrimp. A real New Orleans vibe.
Mosca’s is almost mythical, sitting on a lonely highway on the Westbank in Waggaman. Probably everyone heading out to experience Mosca’s likely passes it up before U-turning back to the nondescript white clapboard house. Inside looks much like outside, someone’s old house turned restaurant. But this mecca of fabled Italian deliciousness, this temple to garlic, is known less for its raffish vibe and more for piles of pasta dripping in olive oil infused with garlic and Italian herbs. Oysters Mosca, covered in garlic, breadcrumbs, olive oil and herbs, is a legend, but there is more. Chicken A La Grande, usually referred to as Garlic chicken, is another house favorite. Served as a platter for family-style dining, It’s a small but delectable menu and very worth the trip, no matter how many U-turns are required.
NOTE: We haven’t tried San Lorenzo, the new hip Tuscan Italian place in the Hotel St. Vincent. The Menu is eclectic, but they do have a Bistecca Fiorentina on the menu, and that’s not something seen much in towns of our size outside Tuscany.
