{"id":821,"date":"2010-12-12T14:53:37","date_gmt":"2010-12-12T19:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/?p=821"},"modified":"2012-05-01T10:19:40","modified_gmt":"2012-05-01T15:19:40","slug":"enoteca-sociale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/?p=821","title":{"rendered":"Enoteca Sociale"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ontario buffalo mozzarella with anchovies and pickled eggplant, a primo antipasto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His recently concluded decade as owner-chef of Silver Spoon in Roncesvalles taught us to expect big, honest flavours from Rocco Agostino. The phenomenal success of Pizzeria Libretto where he is chef and co-owner proved he has his finger on the syncopated pulse of popular taste. Now Enoteca Sociale (same ownership team as Libretto) brings everything together. No pizza this time, but hearty, simple Italian food and once again nightly line-ups at the door. My wife and I showed up there last Thursday and were greeted with the news that we\u2019d have to wait an hour for a table. The charming hostess suggested we cross the road to Brockton General, have a drink at the bar there and she would phone us when a table was ready. I don\u2019t own a cell phone, of course; neither does my wife. \u201cNever mind,\u201d smiled the hostess. \u201cI\u2019ll call Pam [Pam Thomson and Brie Read are co-owners of Brockton General] and she can let you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

So a happy upshot all round, really. Good that Enoteca is SO busy, good that it is so well staffed, and good that we got to pay an unexpected visit to the always delightful Brockton G, which was itself pretty full. We sat at the bar and talked to Pam and Brie and Pam cured the hiccups that had afflicted me for 30 hours by offering a shot glass of chef Guy Rawlings\u2019s house-made cider vinegar. I don\u2019t know if my spasmous diaphragm was paralyzed by the acidity or seduced by the vinegar\u2019s wonderful flavour, but it did the trick. Then the call came and we hurried back across the road and resumed our evening at Enoteca Sociale.<\/p>\n

The place was certainly buzzing. We sat at the narrow wooden bar \u2013 a good vantage point for wine-lovers who can check out the long, impressive list of Italian and Canadian vini (80 wines under $80 is the boast). Some of the tables beside us were high-tops which made us feel less exposed on our tall stools, more part of the room. The d\u00e9cor is consciously casual \u2013 tiled floor, dark wooden tables, whitewashed brick walls \u2013 hard surfaces that amplify the sound of merry diners to such a degree that noise begins to be a problem. A friend of ours, a former audiologist and speech therapist, has a theory that the\u00a0iPod generations who now spend their lives in a full-time ambience of music have already damaged their hearing and therefore speak more loudly. I totally buy that. It\u2019s also true that only the most sophisticated restaurant designers pause to think about noise. At Nota Bene, for example, acoustics engineers were consulted and the dining room ended up with camouflaged acoustic panels on the ceiling and padding on the undersides of the tables to deaden sound bouncing up off the hardwood floor\u2026 I know \u2013 probably not within the budget of most restaurateurs. At Enoteca, those who are sensitive to cacophony might wish to book the small room in the basement. It has a fine view into the humidity-controlled cave where Agostino ages his collection of cherished cheeses.<\/p>\n

Those cheeses (Italian and Canadian, all sourced through Cheese Boutique) occupy half the menu \u2013 a fine show of respect, with 31 available on the night of our visit. Prices reflect the care taken: one cheese for $7, three for $18, five for $29 \u2013 though the menu doesn\u2019t specify how large portions are. For a moment we thought about forgetting dinner and just making a night of cheese and wine but wisdom prevailed.<\/p>\n

Agostino describes the food at the Enoteca as \u201cinspired by classic Roman cuisine and Nonna\u2019s cooking.\u201d At this time of year, it\u2019s also thoroughly tuned into fall and early-winter textures and flavours. Pickles are part of the season in Italy and they are here too in a dish of thickly sliced Ontario buffalo mozzarella, firmish and tasting of cream, strewn with capers, black olives, a couple of slices of red chili pepper, flecks of pickled onions, coarsely chopped chunks of pickled eggplant and cured anchovy fillets. The mild, sweet cheese was just enough to withstand the barrage of salty and sour but only after bread showed up to restore the balance.<\/p>\n

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Baccala cakes - fabulous texture but oh so salty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Baccala cakes are fabulous fish cakes studded with chunks of potato and salt cod in a crisp golden crust. The kitchen sets them over a stiff, pungently garlic-driven a\u00efoli, scatters fried chickpeas around them, then strews everything with slightly wilty arugula that lacks the energy to make much of a contribution. But salting is a problem with the dish. You can still taste the flavour of salt in the cod \u2013 which is lovely \u2013 but someone has then flung a mighty pinch of sea salt at the cakes as they came out of the pan, and the same sensibility has salted the a\u00efoli and the chickpeas. Too much seasoning actually starts to mask the flavours it should be enhancing and an otherwise super dish is marred.<\/p>\n

Spaghetti cacio e pepe is a delightfully simple dish of perfectly textured spaghetti with finely grated pecorino cheese and freshly ground black pepper. It sounds so easy but all three ingredients have to be brilliantly judged to make magic happen. This time Agostino hits it out of the park.<\/p>\n

Some secondi get a little more complicated. I don\u2019t often see goat outside a Caribbean or south Asian restaurant. Here, they treat it like porchetta, deboning the animal and stuffing it with a loose farce of pork n\u2019dua<\/em>, the internal parts of a pig that usually get little attention. The goat\u2019s texture is as fine as young veal, its sweet flavour again over-seasoned and dominated by a garlicky green gremolata spread on top of each slice. Around it are soft chunks of roasted squash, some kale and a light meaty jus.<\/p>\n

Creemore farmed Ontario ranibow trout is treated beautifully, a fillet pan-fried until the skin crisps but the flesh stays moist, set over firm brussels sprouts and creamy mashed squash. We shared one of the vegetable side dishes between the two mains, a heap of soft roasted purple beets with some bitter greens, a sweet-tangy balsamic reduction and a splodge of stracciatella on top (not the soup called stracciatella, but the cheese made of torn-up mozarella and cream that is sometimes used to stuff burrata and has the tetxture of rich, creamy cottage cheese).<\/p>\n

After that, the thought of more formaggi seemed less attractive so we ordered a dessert, unaware we were about to taste one of the most delicious puds in the city. It\u2019s just a vanilla panna cotta but the texture is simply ambrosial \u2013 soft yet not at all runny, wobbly, creamy, too insubstantial to stand up for itself if it weren\u2019t\u00a0relaxing in a ramekin\u2026 Crumbled on top are crushed smoked pecans that fall into the panna cotta every time the spoon enters that smooth, snow-white embrace. Wonderful stuff.<\/p>\n

Anitpasti $8-$12; pasta $12-$15; secondi $15-$18. Panna Cotta $8. Enoteca Sociale is open daily from 5:00pm (public holidays excepted). Some tables can be reserved.<\/p>\n

1288 Dundas Street West (at Coolmine Road). 416 534 1200. www.sociale.ca<\/a><\/p>\n

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These pies are from chef Rocco Agostino\u2019s Pizzeria Libretto on Ossington. Is it the best pizza in the GTA? Or is Terroni\u2019s better? Or is Via Allegro\u2019s the ultimate version? For me, it\u2019s between those three. But what do you think?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

His recently concluded decade as owner-chef of Silver Spoon in Roncesvalles taught us to expect big, honest flavours from Rocco Agostino. The phenomenal success of Pizzeria Libretto where he is chef and co-owner proved he has his finger on the syncopated pulse of popular taste. Now Enoteca Sociale (same ownership team as Libretto) brings everything […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,19,95],"tags":[247,245,248,246],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=821"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2067,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821\/revisions\/2067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}