Friday, July 9. The Old Italian House. The Marys returned from Washington in the middle of the radio show. I was astonished to learn that they'd split the trip into two days. "You were right," Mary Ann said, flabbergasting me further. "Going all the way in one day was a disaster, even with three drivers. It was horrible. I'll never do that again." I'll remind her of that the next time she proposes such a plan.
Our family reunion dinner was at a new restaurant, the Old Italian House in Covington. They took over the strip-mall space originally built out as the first-ever location of Semolina, a long time ago. The space has had a couple of short-lived if good restaurants since then. The location has a problem: although it's a very busy intersection, the restaurant can't easily be seen from the street unless you happen to be looking in exactly the rieght direction.
But we ordered with gusto and high hopes. First course: pizza. Pepperoni, to make Mary Leigh happy. With all the pepperoni on one half of the pie, to satisfy my likes. The sauce and cheese were decent, but the crust was underbaked and flaccid.
I overheard the chef-owner saying that he was an alumnus of Copeland's, and that he was thinking of opening other locations of the Old Italian House. That explained a lot about the menu, which is a bit gimmicky. The very first item on the card: Italian eggrolls. Which, the menu predicts, will "put us on the map." Well, yes, I do recall even after thirty years a restaurant that was half Chinese and half Italian (the Marco Polo, where Kim Son is now). But it didn't last long.
Here were standard fried eggroll wrappers stuffed with Italian sausage and mozzarella, served with red sauce. In a wax-paper-lined basket--a table presentation that's spreading rapidly, despite the fact that nobody I've ever spoken with likes it. (I sure don't.) Okay, a good bar snack. But that's about it.
Another original idea here is placing things like chicken parmigiana atop a pile of macaroni and cheese. "Chicken Cheezy," they call it. Shades of Rocky and Carlo's! Even the same long, skinny macaroni they use down in Da Parish! The waitress persuaded Mary Ann that this was a great dish. But that's MA's kind of food. "Lots of people like dishes like this!" she protested, thinking that she was reading my mind.
My entree was terribly disappointing. It was a quartet of manicotti, made with pasta crepes and a ricotta cheese filling of absolutely no distinction whatsoever. The red sauce was too thick, cooked too long, and had the texture and color (if not the flavor) of ketchup. It reminded me once again why I greatly prefer tomato sauces made from whole tomatoes, cooked briefly with herbs and olive oil. To get a second opinion, I had our Red Sauce Editor (Mary Leigh) try it. She felt the same way I did. This stuff must be somebody's family recipe. I didn't have the advantage of growing up with it. The only thing I liked about this was the puffy breadstick that stretched across the plate, looking like a smile.
Mary Leigh--eating lightly as always--contented herself with the pepperoni side of the pizza and half of my salad. It was a big Italian job with artichokes and tomatoes, and good enough.
The dish of the night was the dessert, an off-menu special of which the chef is justifiably proud. It combined bananas, beignets, and a sweet red sauce made with reduced Cabernet Sauvignon wine. I thought this was as good as it looked, and that was very.
The prices are low, and the staff is engaging. But this place is still in its new-restaurant phase, and needs to age a bit and refine its recipes. The Italian restaurant community on the North Shore is getting competitive--many more good ones than just five years ago. Clever menu copy is not going to work long-term.
Old Italian House. Covington: 100 Tyler Square. 985-892-5300. Italian.
