World travelers will understand. In New York, Rome, Paris and other great cities, you see little, nondescript restaurant storefronts. They don't look like much.
Once inside, there's a cramped, dim walkway where you have to hug the wall as wait staff rushes by. A hostess greets you and ushers you past the kitchen and suddenly, the space expands into a large, open-air courtyard garden with tables, lush plants and a relaxing, sweet atmosphere. "Ah," you say, "this is it."
Which is what you'll say at Della Santina's Trattoria. It could be in Greenwich Village, Rome's Piazza Navona or even the 2nd arrondissement in Paris. But save your airfare, because you're in the town of Sonoma, just a few steps off the historic square.
This outdoor patio is a dream. You reach the back half of the area through an archway of juniper and sit at tables under an arbor covered with the long, arching, thornless stems of a lady banks rose and the twisty trunks of an old wisteria. A fountain plays the music of splashing water. Boxwood hedges direct traffic, and medieval-looking low balustrades support beautiful Italian terra cotta planters filled with the lively colors of fibrous-rooted begonias. The entire patio is paved with rustic red bricks. At night, soft lights whisper romance, and heaters can be fired up if there's a chill in the air. It's been there since 1990, and all in all, although it's not upper-crusty, it is one of the nicest places to have a bite and a glass of wine in the Wine Country.
So nice, in fact, that the restaurant was forgiven for putting this reviewer on hold for 12 minutes when calling for a reservation and even though, when we showed up, there was no record of the reservation. Still, the party was seated, and we happily oohed and ahhed over the ambiance, despite the dried marinara sauce that blotched the back of one of the menus.
Crusty Italian bread arrived, and the high quality of the olive oil in a small cruet - fruity, pungent and slightly bitter - surprised the olive oil aficionados in the group.
More surprises awaited on the wine list, which is heavy with fine bottles of Italian wine. An example is the Bussola TB Valpolicella from Italy's Veneto region for $45. Tomasso Bussola arguably makes the best Valpolicella and amarone in the Veneto. This Valpolicella could easily be mistaken for a first-class amarone. Amarone is made from grape clusters laid out on trays in barns open to the cold winds that sweep down the from Alps from harvest to New Year's, when the partially dried grapes are finally crushed. The drying concentrates the sugars and acids and produces unique wines of immense power. Valpolicella is the regional wine made the usual way, by crushing fresh grapes. But Bussola makes his using the ripasso method, where the young Valpolicella is re-fermented on the unpressed skins of amarone grapes after the amarone has finished fermenting.
Service at Della Santina's is exceptional: swift, careful, attentive but not obtrusive.
Of course, one goes for the food. There's a regular menu, but then a separate menu of daily specials, and here, caveat emptor. The specials menu lists no prices, so ask before you buy because you may find certain prices on the steep side. For example, Penne con Funghi ($18.95 ***) was a very delicious special, but after all was just tube-shaped penne pasta with shiitake, oyster and common button mushrooms cooked in a light wine reduction sauce. By contrast, pasta dishes on the regular menu run from $11.95 to $15.95.
Italians have a way with light broths, which was exemplified by the Tortellini in Brodo ($6.95 **?). The clear chicken broth, almost like a consomm? held a small number of fresh herb-stuffed tortellini. With this soup, the more delicate the broth, the better.
Burrata ($17.95 ***?) is on the menu - a rarity among Italian restaurants around here, but heartily welcomed. Burrata means "buttery" in Italian, and the name is apt for this fresh mozzarella cheese ball formed into a pouch when still hot from its manufacture in hot whey. The pouch is filled with scraps and ends of mozzarella, then filled with rich cream and the ball is closed. Inside the ball, the cheese partially dissolves into the cream, making a thick, buttery-tasting filling. Here the ball is surrounded with slices of garden-fresh tomatoes and given a mound of vinegar-marinated shredded cabbage, the sour vinegar cutting the creamy fattiness. The ball is then sliced open into several wedges and the creamy center flows out across the outer shell.
The common Italian appetizer of Prosciutto con Melone ($7.95 ***?) was another triumph. The thin slices of prosciutto were accompanied by perfectly sweet, ripe orange muskmelon, several slices of tree-ripened peaches, limp slices of roasted, skinned red sweet pepper and a few olives. If there is a season in heaven, it must be this one.
There was trouble in paradise, however, with the Spaghettini al Pomodoro e Basilico ($11.95 *?). The pasta was woefully overcooked and mushy, not al dente. One expects fresh tomatoes and basil in this dish, and there they were, but mixed with a cooked marinara sauce that stepped all over the delicate flavors of the fresh produce. Either the cooked sauce or the fresh veggies would have been better alone than mixed together.
Two of three entrees shared a similar problem: roasted red potatoes, cauliflower and broccoli were handled like an afterthought. They came with Arista al Forno Ripieno ($17.95 **), a workmanlike version of thin slices of tender pork loin au jus with fresh herbs, and Sogliola Dorata ($20.95 **), a nice piece of petrale sole that had been battered and fried to a golden brown but then set on a plate with a lemon-butter sauce that soaked into the crispy breading and made it unpleasantly soggy. Why not bake it or poach it instead of breading it if the breading turns to mush on the plate? The third entree was Osso Buco ($20.95 ***), ordinarily made with veal shank but here done the Tuscan way with excellent braised pork shank served with a soft polenta.
For dessert, a Torta di Limone ($8**), a lemon tart with lemon custard filling and a hard shell crust was good, if just adequate. And then we had Delizia ($8 ***?), sponge cake soaked with rum, filled with Italian cream and served with cr?e anglaise. It was a marvelous end to a lovely experience.
To sum up: Al fresco dining in a beautiful setting and good Italian food including some real highlights (like burrata) make this a destination restaurant.
Jeff Cox writes a weekly restaurant review column for the Sonoma Living section. You can reach him at jeffcox@sonic.net.
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