When Safta’s table opened I went immediately, and invited my sister to join me. We were to meet there and I arrived first. When I drove up and looked in the windows, I saw chairs on top of tables. This was surprising because I knew they had opened, and I knew their hours. How could they be closed? The note on the door said they had sold out. Besides the disappointment I was bummed that I promised my sister an interesting meal. She’s very easy going, but I still felt that I had to come up with something for her.
Suddenly I remembered that Rizzuto’s was nearby and a caller had mentioned a good Happy Hour there. I didn’t want to go through the mental energy to find something else, and to drive into town. I offered the Rizzuto’s Happy Hour.
It was a gorgeous spring day and I definitely wanted to sit out on their patio, which was added after the place opened not long after the closure of Tony Angello’s, a longtime neighborhood institution.
Usually, Happy Hours are only offered in the bar of a restaurant, and if the bar is dark that will nix the idea for me. In this case the Happy Hour is in the dark bar, but also on the patio. But the patio is apparently not often used, because there was a film on the table of outdoor substances like pollen and dust that implied no one ever sits there. It took a while for someone to come to the table, and even longer for it to be cleaned and set.
My annoyance at this was immediately assuaged by the appearance of Santino, one of my favorite waiters from the old Andrea’s. I have thought about him in particular after the closure of Andrea’s, since he was there from the beginning. I was glad to see he landed somewhere secure. And I was just generally very happy to see him.
As usual with a good Happy Hour, I went crazy ordering. We had chargrilled oysters, Eggplant Valentina, sliders, their housecut fries, Frito Misto, and a meatball from the regular appetizer menu.
I remembered the meatball and the chargrilled oysters and the housecut fries from previous visits, all of which are excellent and made a lasting impression. I did not remember that Rizzuto’s had one of my favorite Italian menu items, Frito Misto. And I don’t pay enough attention to anything eggplant to have any recollection of the Eggplant Valentina.
The meatball was extraordinary, at least in my recollection. It has been maybe four years since we were last at Rizzuto’s and I remember a luscious meatball napped with an intensely flavorful red sauce with a consistency that was equally memorable. It was served over a large dollop of ricotta, and the richness of this dish made eating anything else unnecessary. Of course we did anyway.
I have also said that Rizzuto’s has some of the best chargrilled oysters out there, because they have the flavor of a stuffed artichoke. The garlic and Parmesan is so redolent of the best stuffed artichokes in my experience, I am always thrilled to experience these bivalves. On this Happy Hour menu. A portion of three constituted an order.
The housecut fries were exactly as I remember them. They were excellent the last time I had them, and they were excellent on this visit. These were hot and golden brown, and maybe a tad less greaseless than I remember. I still appreciate the effort of doing housecut fries, which is more than 99% of other restaurants are doing.
The Frito Misto was everything I wanted, and more. It was so much more it was actually large enough to be a meal in itself. Large shrimp and large pieces of catfish and cauliflower were fried to perfection, and came with a nice aioli for dipping. This and some housecut fries would have been as much as a seafood platter. My goodness!
The little Wagyu sliders were also very good. The steaks at Rizzuto’s are quite fine in terms of quality and execution, so I expected nothing less from the sliders. They had a slice of cheese and red tomato, and were slightly overdone because I stupidly ordered them that way.
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Snce I am not an eggplant fan generally speaking, I don’t have much to say about the Valentina, which got high marks from my sister, and appeared to be a very nice version of eggplant parm. How could it not be with this sublime red sauce and ricotta between layers?
All of the things I just mentioned were priced between $6 and $9. And that is a heckuva deal for food of this quality. Neither of us are drinkers, but there were tables of ladies enjoying the drinks at Happy Hour. There are plenty worse ideas about how to spend a lovely spring afternoon.
