Restaurant Highlight: Piccolo Italian cuisine in Santa Monica and Venice
As out of doors dining reopens and local dining establishments begin the road to recovery the Day by day Press is highlighting one particular exceptional eatery a 7 days.
This 7 days the highlight is on Piccolo: a new Italian neighborhood eatery concentrated on handmade pastas and superior-high quality meat and fish dishes that engage in with spice, texture, and sweet and savory flavors.
The story behind Piccolo
Whilst numerous restaurateurs struggled, lower back again provider, or closed doors in the course of the pandemic, Chef Antonio Mure miraculously launched two Piccolo dining establishments this year — 1 in Sunset Park and a next place on Abbot Kinney.
His top secret? An timeless enthusiasm for hosting diners, expertise navigating turbulent occasions, and his “atomic infinite energy”.
“The most crucial component in a cafe is a passionate like,” explained Mure. “The sound of individuals laughing, eyeglasses tinkling, pots and pans clanging — that’s anything I love in my ears. It drives me nuts, it is just outstanding.”
So significantly in his vocation Mure has opened 11 eating places, like Michelin starred La Botte, which operated for nine several years in Downtown Santa Monica. This year Mure has returned to his roots, by redeveloping his primary restaurant Piccolo, which he opened in Venice in 2004.
Both of those Piccolo destinations are operate by Mure and his lover Tony Black, who are the staff at the rear of Barrique on Primary Avenue. The up-to-date Piccolo menu blends a selection of fresh new farmers industry produce and leading top quality Italian elements into taste packed pasta parcels, gradual cooked match meats, and fragrant fish dishes.
On launching and surviving during the pandemic
Relatives, neighborhood, and neighborhood are at the heart of Black and Mure’s cafe philosophy.
In the course of the initially 60 times of the pandemic, they ran Barrique as a four person household group with the support of Black’s brother and Mure’s daughter. It was a challenging changeover and a important move to maintain the lights on and make certain furloughed employees would have a restaurant to return to.
“Every one working day the Chef and I, his daughter and my brother were washing dishes, mopping the ground, prepping the food items, cooking the food, and even carrying out our personal browsing,” explained Black.
This tenacity permitted them to stay afloat and carry on serving area residents, who in change offered devoted patronage.
“The men and women who arrived to support us have been neighborhood members who experienced developed extremely close to us,” mentioned Black. “That’s essentially what we’re striving to duplicate with Piccolo: that thought of owning a very little community location that can genuinely accommodate the neighborhood.”
Piccolo Santa Monica has been in the will work due to the fact December 2019, but its allow and renovation system was noticeably set back again by the pandemic. Conversely, the Venice location was a pandemic induced opportunity, as the workforce snapped up a primary spot in a not long ago vacated Abbot Kinney cafe space.
What to buy correct now
Owner and Executive Chef Antonio Mure has carefully cultivated the menu to include dishes and models from all above Italy, drawing inspiration from his Sicilian roots, his family in Parma, and his time working in the Dolomites. He is aided by Chef de Delicacies Victorino Balbino, who has been by his aspect given that the authentic Piccolo opened in 2004.
Mure assures diners that each and every dish is divine, but endorses setting up out with the jamon serrano, which is served with poached pear, sweetened with canella vanilla, and complemented by a creamy burrata.
For pasta fans Mure advises ordering the crimson beet and poppy seed ravioli or the potato and fig tortelloni.
“We provide the tortelloni in a bed of Parmesan fondue, so it is a cream that is decreased and caramelized, which provides a little bit of sweetness though the Parmesan cheese offers remarkable taste,” stated Mure. “When you chunk it you have the crunchiness of the fig seeds with a minimal brown butter fried sage on leading.”
For a contact of sweetness Mure details diners towards the 3 layered tronchetto chocolate mousse or the creme custard.
“My creme custard is specific because they reduce the product to build a thickness like a gentle cheese, so you have this attractive French vanilla bean flavor and smooth cheese regularity topped with crispy pistachio nuts,” claimed Mure.
Piccolo Santa Monica is open for supper seven days a week at 2127 Lincoln Blvd and Piccolo Venice is open Tuesday by way of Saturday at 1616 Abbot Kinney Blvd. Both equally places have options to develop into lunch and brunch possibilities quickly.
