Italian Barrel chef Samantha Castagnetti isn’t afraid of a challenge.
Still, when the landlord for her fine dining restaurant suggested she take over the ill-fated space next door at 91 French Market Place, she hesitated.
“I didn’t want to open another establishment,” Castagnetti says. “The Barrel is already a lot, and I knew that nothing had ever worked in that place.”
For 16 years, she watched businesses come and go each year. The last tenant was the aptly named Jinx Bar & Grille. It didn’t last a year.
"The place was dirty, always bad reviews,” she says. “Customers just walked by.”
But Castagnetti’s landlord said he’d work with her on the rent and ensure everything was in working order. And after all, “I remembered that when I took over the Barracks Café, it had been a lot of different restaurants too. So, I agreed,” she says.
The result is The Little Italian Barrel, which opened in April. Castagnetti transformed the space, which is now open, airy and sparkling clean. She can take care of 40 customers at a scattering of tables and at the long bar.
For the menu, she went back to her roots.
“When I opened the (Italian) Barrel, it wasn’t a fine dining restaurant,” she says. “For the first four months, I served small tapas, sandwiches, salads, the kind of food served at a tartineria in Italy. The customers came in and wanted to eat more than that, so I switched to white tablecloth fine dining. Then, you know how people are, they asked for sandwiches. Now, they can have them.”
At the new casual spot, Castagnetti uses the same products she imports for the original Barrel: the same veal meatballs, same imported prosciutto, same fresh mozzarella and aged Parmesan. She serves a plate of air-fried bresaola with organic arugula and shaved parmigiano, 24-month aged prosciutto with cantaloupe, and shaved beef tenderloin carpaccio.
Knots of fried pizza dough nest atop more thinly sliced prosciutto. A generous platter of imported cheeses and meats arrives with Italian crackers and a drizzle of honey.
Five salad options include a classic caprese with imported Fior di Latte mozzarella and the Chef Samantha’s Salad, a riff on a Nicoise with tuna, mozzarella, black olives and corn.
Panini are pressed sandwiches on house-made focaccia or ciabatta, the latter available in either a half or whole size. The addictive meatballs are topped with melted Asiago cheese, and there is a fried chicken cutlet with mixed greens. The tirolo combines melted brie, speck prosciutto and mushroom sauce. Prices range from $6 for bruschetta to $24 for the Italian charcuterie.
The bar prices are just as approachable. Signature cocktails, like the negroni Spagliato made with prosecco, are $8-10. A Peroni is $5, and wines that also fill the list next door are $7-$10 by the glass and under $30 by the bottle.
'I can't imagine being hungry, and it's not their fault that they're hungry,' delivery driver Teri Wright says. 'So you do what you can.'
Castagnetti comes by her Italian pedigree honestly as the daughter of an Olympic swimming coach from Verona and a La Scala ballerina. She grew up in Verona but came to New Orleans every year to see her Calabrian-born grandmother, who owned Galleria Veronese, a gallery at 619 Royal St.
“My mother was a gifted dancer when she was as young as 6 years old,” Castagnetti says. “My grandmother took her to audition at La Scala in Milan, and she got in.”
The chef’s mother went to boarding school while working her way to prima ballerina. Along the way she fell for 16-year-old Alberto Castagnetti, who’d come with his friends by train to see ballets — and wait for the ballerinas to some out afterward.
Samantha Castagnetti lived in Italy until she was 30 and moved to New Orleans two decades ago. She lost both her dad and her grandmother in 2009. “At least they saw me in my first year at the Barrel,” she says. Her mother Patricia Peyton is a realtor in Metairie.
“Cooking all started with my family, on both my dad and mom’s side,” she says. “I didn’t go to culinary school — just learned along the way.”
Castagnetti knows she’s getting into a slow time of year. But with the economy of scale that comes with two places, she can hang on and look forward to fall and football. Saints’ fans in the French Quarter won’t be treated to typical bar fare.
“I’ll make Italian snacks for people to try during the game,” she says.
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