Metro Vancouver's love of Italian food grows fonder
Isetta, Nox, Carlino, Acquafarina, Fiorino, and Impostori are among the newer and notable restaurants focusing on the culinary arts of Italy
Isetta Cafe Bistro.
Isetta Cafe Bistro.
VANCOUVER CLEARLY CAN’T get enough Italian food. For proof, look no further than the fact that several restaurants have opened recently serving la cucina Italiana or fare heavily influenced by it. Other ventures have revamped or expanded their Italian-centric offerings of late. Each is completely different from the next in their take on this slice of the Mediterranean diet. Here’s a glance at a handful.
Isetta Cafe Bistro.
Isetta Cafe Bistro.
Isetta Café Bistro
What a gem—and exactly what this long-underutilized spot on West Vancouver’s Marine Drive needed. The 1962 mid-century modern building had previously acted as an uninspiring convenience store that sold jumbo muffins from Costco (and before that was home to a post office, pharmacy, and auto-service centre) until GM and partner Thomas Eleizegui came along. He used to run Vancouver’s beloved Musette Caffé, which closed in February 2020. Prior to Musette’s shuttering, the owner of the West Vancouver property where Isetta has taken up residence had been in touch with Eleizegui to see if he would be interested in opening up shop there, but the timing wasn’t right. Once the pandemic hit in full force, Eleizegui, having pretty much lost everything, reached out to the fellow in turn, and Isetta (pictured at top) came into vision.
The name comes from the Isetta micro-car, a 1950s collaboration between BMW and an Italian motorcycle and appliance manufacturer. The property’s owner is German; Eleizegui, who was born in the Philippines, grew up in Italy with his Manilan father and mom, a native of Tarquinia. German-made, Italian-engineered? A winning combo. Oh, and the proprietor happens to own a red Isetta, along with numerous collector and luxury cars, like a 1951 911 Porsche, a VW Beetle 1951, a Morgan, a Lotus, and a Hot Rod, all of which are on view right next door to the café bistro.
Inside, the open, airy Isetta has the feel of a magazine-worthy living room, complete with a long communal table and so much warm wood; there are north- and south-facing patios surrounded by planter boxes. The place has been packed since the start, and not just with cyclists making their way along twisty-turny Marine Drive. Under the direction of chef Ryan Mills (formerly of Hawksworth and Toronto’s Canoe), the menu is seasonal and simple. Think heirloom-tomato and burrata salad, pesto orecchiette (made with arugula rather than basil), bucatini pomodoro, and spaghetti carbonara. It’s not meant to be all-Italian, however, with other dishes including Croque Monsieur, poutine, steak frites, and the “Morning After” egg muffin, complete with hashbrown right inside.
Nemesis Coffee, which uses only directly traded beans, is Isetta’s coffee partner, and assistant manager Dohon Chow, with some 20-plus years working in the coffee industry, is head barista. The team makes the most stunning latte art this side of the Atlantic.
Sam Fabbro, Nox.
Nox
Years in the making, Nox is the latest from Alejandro Diaz and chef Sam Fabbro, the team behind New Westminster’s highly respected el Santo, a modern Mexican restaurant. Their contemporary-Italian restaurant is in the new And-Co work space building in Coal Harbour and is named after the Italian goddess of night. This is a sleek and sexy dining spot with brown leather seating and wood accents surrounded by dark-as-Vancouver-rain-cloud greys; the intimate space at the back has big north-facing windows, perfect for date night.
Nox.
Fabbro grew up in Delta cooking alongside his Italian grandmother, who taught him how to make the gnocchi that he’s proud to have on the menu. With red wine-braised pork shoulder and preserved pear, the house-made dumplings are topped simply with parmesan and basil. Among the ristorante’s other well-executed dishes are bison tartare with red-wine-and-juniper reduction, egg yolk, and sunchoke chips; and grilled albacore tuna with white beans and oregano pistou. The roast-parsnip-and-smoked-apple salad, piled high like a haystack and dressed with balsamic-maple vinaigrette, is worth a stop in its own right.
Acquafarina.
Acquafarina.
Chances are you heard about the upscale West Georgia Street spot earlier this year when social media freaked out about the high-end restaurant’s trial ban on cellphones. There’s no such thing as bad press: the move got a ton of media traction, and even though many customers loved the rule—which had people actually talking over their meals, kids paying attention to things other than their screens, and mindful eating becoming a thing—the team now allows people to snap away silly. Mind you, the room is stunning, with a larger-than-life wooden Pinochio marionette dangling above in the entryway, Murano-glass chandeliers, pro graffiti art in the stairwell, not one but two enormous red Malagutti pizza ovens (used for lunch service and soon heading outdoors to the plaza), and a two-storey tall wine cellar that holds some 5,000 bottles. The Juliet balcony that opens up within the space would be a great spot for an oenophile to propose.
Serial restaurateur Fabrizio Foz designed Acquafarina himself; he has opened close to 30 restaurants around the world to date, including Vancouver’s Per Se Social Corner. Recently joining the team is culinary director Jefferson Alvarez (Canoe, Cacao, Arzak in Spain, and Philadelphia’s Morimoto). Alvarez is known for his modernist approach to food, with dishes here including oxtail bison lasagna with fior di latte crisp and espuma di Parmigiano; torched Carabinero prawns with lemony salmoriglio and herb oil; and scallop crudo with caviar, green apple, and crème fraiche. Jamon Iberico de Bellota shows up in charcuterie and in a twist on a Caesar salad with romaine hearts and seaweed aioli. Each month, the restaurant releases a tasting menu that features the most popular dishes from the previous four weeks. The front of house staff members are long-time pros, with wine and bar programs directed by Leagh Barkley and Barry Jackson respectively. Olivier Bureau (formerly of Bearfoot Bistro and Tableau Bistro) is director of operations, and the white-gloved servers have decades of experience.
Carlino. Photo by Mark Yammine
Carlino
The latest from the Kitchen Table Group (Ask For Luigi, Pourhouse, Pizzeria Farina, Di Beppe, Farina A Legna, and others), the northern-Italian resto is an example of a pivot that wasn’t pandemic-induced. The company’s previous dining room in the Shangri-La Hotel, Miantiao, with its focus on Italian-Chinese dishes, wasn’t flying, so six months in, the team transformed the place into its new incarnation, without skipping a beat—not even shutting down even for a day—complete with a renovated bar overseen by superstar Giancarlo Bosco. Try La Dolce Vita, with E18hteen Gin, lemon juice, hibiscus-infused limoncello, and Prosecco. (With a strip of fuchsia sparkle going down the glass, it’s Carlino’s most Instagrammed drink—but it’s more than a looker.)
Carlino. Photo by Mark Yammine
The menu by chef Mark Perrier (Osteria Savio Volpe, Pepino’s Spaghetti House, London’s Michelin-ranked Le Gavroche, Cibo Trattoria, and CinCin Ristorante, among others) is inspired by the Friuli region of Italy, though it also features food influenced by Venice, Lombardy, and Trentino. It takes its name from Kitchen Table cofounder Nick Rossi’s grandfather. Many ingredients are sourced from small, local growers and from the group’s own family farm in Abbotsford, home to black copper Maran hens and lamb. Having mastered butchery at Two Rivers Speciality Meats, Perrier uses pork snout and skin in musetto e brovade, the sauce made of fermented-turnip sauerkraut. Halibut is baked with braised leeks and Meyer lemon in parchment paper that winds up so crispy it has fooled diners into thinking it's phyllo pastry. Not ideal for Instagram in the best possible way, risotto is deeply flavourful and ever-changing, whether studded with morels or frutti di mare. Freshly made in-house ricotta is drizzled with wildflower honey and comes with thick Italian loaf studded with raisins, the pane special enough for a holiday meal. Cjarsons is a traditional filled pasta from Friuli made with potatoes, similar to gnocchi; its stuffing changes, from wild greens and ricotta to beetroot with poppy seed butter. Perrier’s standout francobolli is a type of pasta that takes its name from the Italian word for postage stamp, the little squares stuffed with veal osso buco and topped with crispy bone marrow breadcrumbs for texture and umami. Affable wine director David Steele, formerly of Market by Jean Georges, might recommend labels such as Luna sul Poggio Gavi (Cortese), Noah Rossonoah Coste della Sesia, or De Forville Piemonte Chardonnay.
C|Prime Modern Italian Steak & Wine. Photo by Nora Hamade
C|Prime Modern Italian Steak & Wine
Situated in Century Plaza Hotel (in the space formerly home to Beyond Restaurant and Bar and Roy’s Steakhouse), this undersung dining room isn’t new but reopened post-pandemic with Behshad Zolnasr in the role of executive chef. His background includes an early start at Earl’s Tin Palace, studies at Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts, and roles at Michelin-starred spots such as Mamma Angelina in Rome, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London and Jean-Georges in New York City, among other places; before all that, it was time spent with this grandmother watching cooking shows that sparked the desire to pursue a career in food.
Behshad Zolnasr, C|Prime Modern Italian Steak & Wine. Photo by Nora Hamade
At C|Prime, Zolnasr and the team make fresh pasta daily by hand, and it was the Dungeness-crab tortellini that justifiably landed him the role; the golf-ball-sized, hat-shaped dumplings are served with a dreamy, creamy crab sauce. Just as much thought goes into the vegetarian-friendly doppio ravioli, with summer peas, basil, and ricotta in a brown-butter sauce with freshly shaved truffle for extra indulgence. Prime cuts like Southern Alberta’s Benchmark Angus and Beretta Farms’ organic filet are dry-aged in house for a minimum of 35 days (and, compared to other steakhouses, are value-priced). Pastry chef Diana Von Kalnassy bakes several types of bread daily, including focaccia, olive bread, grissini with sesame or thyme; the slices come with different types of butter, maybe purple carrot or sundried tomato. The restaurant has one of the best wine cellars in the province, earning WineSpectator awards of excellence and other prestigious nods. Ask about free parking.
Fiorino Italian Street Food. Photo by Josh Neufeld Photography
Fiorino Italian Street Food
After Giovanni (Gio) Mascagni moved to Vancouver from his native Florence via Kelowna, the bush pilot found himself craving sandwiches made with a flatbread called schiacciata, a ubiquitous Italian street food. He couldn’t find anything like it in his newly adopted home, so he set out to make it himself. He travelled back to Firenze for a six-month internship with Dario Della Lunga of Chicco di Grano bakery in Mercato di Sant’Ambrogio, then returned and realized his longtime dream of opening his own restaurant. (Fiorino is on East Georgia Street in Chinatown.) The team makes the bread from scratch each morning for Fiorino’s bulging, big-mouth sandos like Preferita (18-month prosciutto di Parma, mushroom spread, arugula, and fontina cheese); Blue (bresaola, gorgonzola spread, cherry tomato, lettuce, and fig jam); and Vegana (roasted zucchini, caponata frisée, tomato, onion, and aged balsamic).
Fiorino Italian Street Food. Photo by Josh Neufeld Photography
Fiorino Italian Street Food. Photo by Josh Neufeld Photography
Other items Mascagni found himself longing for show up on the menu, like coccoli e prosciutto. Wildly popular in Florence, the dish of deep-fried dough comes with hard-to-find whipped stracchino cheese and 18-month prosciutto di Parma. Bistecca alla Fiorentina is a porterhouse steak from Abbotsford’s 63 Acres Beef that’s dry-aged for 45 days and serves up to four people. Panzanella, a Tuscan vegetable salad with ricotta and bread crumbs, gets a seasonal burst of strawberries; casarecce al pesto has a walnut- based sauce and dried tomatoes over gluten-free short pasta. A retired Tuscan-born baker makes Fiorino’s traditional tiramisu. The wine list is 100-percent Italian, with a focus on smaller producers and lesser-known varietals, such as Passerina, a staple in Florence, fresh and fun.
If you like Negronis, you’ll love the variety here, with seven versions on offer: Viola, Rosato, Bianco, Premium, Caffe, Manhattan, and Sbagliato. Offering a 24-seat streetside patio with white-tableclothed picnic tables and some sidewalk seating, the restaurant serves aperitivo (happy hour) with cicchetti (snacks), drinks, and wine at $1 per ounce for house red or white.
Impostori.
Impostori
Neither renowned local chef Andrey Durban (La Buca, Sardine Can, and Courtnay’s Il Falconeca, among others) nor wine expert Gordon Ritchie are Italian, but they’re offering their take on one of the world’s most popular cuisines in this new trattoria and negroni bar at 3121 Granville Street. As the pair puts it, they want to celebrate “the art of Italian food and wine from an outsider’s point of view.” The menu is tight, with just four options for each section, save for the Bistecca alla Fiorentina, the grilled bone-in ribeye steak with, arugula, parmesan, and onion rings served for two. Antipasti include tomato and watermelon salad with sheep feta, Castelveltrano olives, sweet peppers, and Persian cucumbers; and millefoglie of wild mushroom. Picolli primi dishes range from risotto al funghi to linguine frutti di mare, while secondi items on offer are a daily fish, osso buco Milanese, grilled rack of lamb with sausage, and roast chicken. This impostor is a charmer: you just might have a staff member sing while you’re there.
Casa Mia.
Casa Mia.
Casa Mia
The three-in-one café, restaurant, and market in West Vancouver is open for breakfast, brunch, lunch, and dinner and is headed by Maela Lovisetto (of Italian bakery-caffè Sciué), with Alessandro Vianello as consulting chef. The patio space at the Marine Drive corner unit is massive; look for the dark-orange umbrellas. (Free parking underneath.). Our picks off the menu: braised beef and pork meatballs in tomato sauce with Parmigiano Reggiano and olive oil; classic vitello tonnato (shaved veal, tuna aioli, and capers, with bread); cacio e pepe bucatini, with Pecorino Romano; and the cheeseless brick-oven puttanesca pizza with whole white anchovies, red onion, olives, capers, lemon zest, and parsley. Plus: panna cotta has character, consisting of chocolate custard, caramelized white chocolate, and raspberry conserva; the aged balsamic negroni is a standout sipper.
Robba da Matti/Passaparola Burrata Bar.
Robba da Matti
The newly opened Kitsilano location is Robba da Matti’s fourth (it also has outposts Yaletown, Gastown, and the West End). On the upper level of the two-storey Kits space (formerly home to Cacao) is Passaparola, the city’s only burrata bar.
Nonna’s Cucina.
Nonna's Cucina
Joe Fazio revved up this food truck in Port Moody last year; recently, it has been stationed at Canteen Village in the up-and-coming North Van neighbourhood of Lynn Creek. The team also opened the doors to a bricks-and-mortar location at 2166 East Hastings Street earlier this year. You can’t go wrong with gnocchi like nonna used to make, with ricotta cheese, 00 flour, and pistachio-arugula pesto; rigatoni with Italian sausage and fennel ragu; or any of the piled-high panini. Sometimes, if you’re really, really lucky, they’ll be serving up porchetta, the salt-rubbed pork belly and loin stuffed with salsa verde, the skin all crispy from the slow cooking process, served on a house-made ciabatta bun.
Aperitivo Food Truck.
Aperitivo Food Truck
Kelly and Yasmin McKenzie (of Green Coast Coffee, Melt City, Mom’s Grilled Cheese food trucks) roll again, this time with the city’s first mobile bar and café. The pair’s 1962 Chevy Grumman Stepvan used to be a bread delivery truck in the 1960s and ’70s that was restored in 2015. The couple then took off the roof to raise the ceiling eight inches (so they could hire people taller than 5’10”) and installed a solar powered, lithium battery. The crew’s Italian espresso machine runs on gas fire and lever—no need for a loud, environmentally offensive generator here. The team uses organic, fair-trade beans from Agro Roasters for its hot and cold espresso-based drinks. Also on the beverage menu are lemonade and fruit-nectar spritzers, while at some licensed events where permitted, they serve beer, wine, and cocktails like Aperol Spritz, Negroni, and espresso martinis. To snack on are charcuterie boards, olives, chips and dips, and Italian pastries and cookies.
Motoretta Gelato.
Gelato master Salvatore Boccarossa has found a new home in this spot in the Fairmont Pacific Rim formerly home to Bella Gelateria, where he grew his frozen-dessert fame. A graduate of Carpigiani Gelato University and co-winner of the gelato Grand Title of North America Champions, he has on the menu flavours like Sicilian pistachio, Stracciatella, matcha, and Piedmont hazelnut. There are seasonal and dairy-free options, too, plus lemon and moka-espresso granita.
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