Wednesday, January 13. First Look At Il Giardino Trattoria. I stayed home to catch up on my writing. I am getting behinder and behinder. When the radio show ended, I was good and hungry, having had nothing but two slices of toast all day. I prevailed on the Marys to join me for dinner at Il Giardino Trattoria in Mandeville. People have been talking about it--favorably, without exception. But it's in a star-crossed location, one that has hosted as many restaurants as the number of years since its strip mall was built.
One of those departed brethren helped me persuade Mary Leigh to try this new place. For a year or two this was the Star Café. II found it pretty ordinary, but Mary Leigh was crazy about Star's hamburgers and their fresh-cut, fresh-fried potato chips topped with blue cheese. Its closing upset her more than any other restaurant loss. When the place reopened with the same name, her heart leapt. But the new menu was Cuban. And the one after it was something else she didn't like.
But now--well, Italian food is an easy sell. We were impressed from the moment we entered. The new owners turned the unambiguously strip-mall space into a sophisticated, comfortable dining room, covering the wall of windows with heavy curtains, upholstering a row of banquettes richly, and surrounding the tables with Italian leather chairs.
The menu is primarily Northern Italian--the kind we never saw in New Orleans until Andrea's and its ilk began appearing twenty-five years ago. Il Giardino serves a few things I'd never heard of, in fact. One of these had a name so intriguing I had to try it: "provoletta mafiosa." This was a slab of provolone cheese grilled to a light brown crust, then surrounded with a sloshy sauce whose flavor was somewhere between that of a broth and a vinaigrette. I liked it, but it made me regret that I didn't change the rest of my order, which I allowed to become overwhelmed with cheese.
Mary Ann commenced her repast with minestrone, nicely presented in a miniature black iron kettle, with fresh basil floating on top. This was perfect cold-weather eating and as good as it looked. She continued along this healthy road with a fillet of salmon, flooded with a creamy tomato sauce underneath and some grilled shrimp above. She was less enthusiastic about the flavor of this, but thrilled by how it figured into her new eating regimen.
I chose cannelloni, and I didn't read the menu well enough, or else I would have noticed that it was a spinach cannelloni, covered and stuffed with quite a bit of cheese. And I would have ordered something else. I had a choice between red sauce and Alfredo sauce; I requested both, and what came out was more beautiful than good. It was way, way too rich for an entree. Especially after an appetizer that was ninety-five percent cheese.
The critical diner, however, was Mary Leigh. I could have given her order without checking with her: pasta pomodoro. Red sauce. She said she thought it was very good, although not quite as good as Bosco's, which sets her standard for this very basic and much-loved dish.
I insisted on being allowed to have a cannoli for dessert. It was hand-made and reasonably good. Not the equal of Angelo Brocato's, but that's a high bar. Cannoli come in an order of two, but I asked to be sent only one, lest I eat both.
Everything about Il Giardino--including the service, carried out by guys with distinctly Italian style--was better than I expected. And large parts of the menu remain to be explored. So I have another place to take the Marys when we are home together.
Il Giardino Trattoria. Mandeville: 2186 Florida St 985-624-3969. Italian.
