CLEVELAND, Ohio – New York City is one of my favorite places for food, and no visit is complete without a jaunt down Restaurant Row along W. 46th Street and surrounding areas. Each restaurant has its menu mounted outside. Often there are a few steps into a cozy dining room, where you have to shimmy your way to get to your table, where service is swift and dishes exquisitely prepared.
Osteria di Valerio e Al could easily be dropped into Manhattan. But I'm glad it's here.
A vertical lit sign guides diners to a doorway with chipped paint. The 18-year-old restaurant on W. St. Clair Avenue sits next to the bright blue awning touting the misspelled "Fay's Phychic."
A tasteful black and white theme forms Osteria's décor. It's moderately dark, a bit loud (but we could hear ourselves) and only a couple of windows face the street. Various diners - couples, larger parties and, on one of our visits, a communal group with 10 folks - all seemed to be enjoying themselves.
An interesting aspect is the service-by-committee approach. Waiters and waitresses efficiently tag-team in and out to tables.
We started with a minor faux pas: It took the third server coming around to remember our bread. The slipup was more than made up with the quality of warm, fresh, delicious, moist-yet-airy-inside and crusty pizza-dough like bread.
Three dishes with different forms of carpaccio are on the menu as appetizers. This raw, whet-your-appetite nosh is usually a good start, though the one we tried (bufala con crimini e olio al limone) was more like basic roast beef. It was presented with sliced raw mushrooms and lemon wedges. The meat could have been sliced thinner, though the drizzle of quality olive oil and larger salt crystals, with its crunchy texture, was appreciated. (Next time we'll consider carpaccio de salomne (Atlantic salmon with capers), or manzo (raw sirloin and grilled artichokes).
On another visit we opted for the fantasia e svojature - a platter of antipasto fixings. Order antipasto at 100 Italian restaurants and you'll get 100 variations. Here, Osteria accomplishes the main thing antipasto brings to the table, so to speak: Opposite textures of meat and cheeses. Tender meats included Soppressata and prosciutto as well as hard and soft cheeses. Which meats and cheeses are chosen is up to the preparer, as long as they are different. The dish is rounded out by tasty roasted peppers, eggplant, grilled vegetables and olives.
For entrees, we tried an assortment of dishes.
With a reduced cream base, peas and prosciutto, the tortellini di vitello is not to be missed. The pasta was cooked perfectly - firm but tender, not mushy, and it held the veal well.
Maiale al porto con prosciutto was amazing. Prosciutto-wrapped pork tenderloin offered the savory, salty flavors. The prosciutto is high quality, and the tender pork is bathed in a wonderful port reduction; its umami enhanced everything. The peas were average, the potatoes OK. But the main event on the plate should be, and was, the star.
Zesty cheese really amped up the gnocchi alla dolce gorgonzola, putting a different spin on the traditional Italian dish.
Saltimbocca alla Romana - veal tenderloin with sage - was seasoned perfectly - enough, but not over the top.
Pollo di Diana con pomodoro frechi e bocconcini offered amazingly juicy boneless chicken breast with tomatoes (surprisingly good this time of year) with a white wine sauce.
Orecchiette alla panna con pomodoro e salsicca - small, curved pieces of pasta with tomato sauce and sausage - was amazing. You can taste a difference with fresh pasta, and the dish is enhanced by mild yet flavorful sausage that was not overloaded with fennel.
We had a nice surprise with dessert in the form of a helpful tip from one of our servers.
We had asked for frutta mista all' aceto balsamico di fichi - seasonal berries and fig-infused balsamic vinegar. Our server returned empty-handed and said he wouldn't fill the order; the berries just weren't good enough. Points for honesty. So we ordered amarone gelato, which came with cannoli to make up for the berry dessert. The gelato was a wonderful topoff, the cannoli light, not sweet, with a very flaky shell.
Tiramisu was an incredibly light version of the traditional dessert. I would have preferred a stronger coffee flavor here, but it was a fine finish that several of us shared.
Cleaning the plate: Can't make it to New York? Head to Osteria for the experience. Wonderful Italian dishes cover pasta to meat and more. And the unique aspect of 'service by committee,' is efficient in the small space on W. St. Clair Avenue.
More on Osteria
• It’s between W. 4th and W. 6th streets. City lots and garages dot the area.
• Osteria means a small restaurant.
• Wine list is 100 percent Italian. For beer, we found Great Lakes Brewing Co.'s Conway's Irish Ale, Peroni and Stella Artois, among others.
• Obligatory Frank Sinatra tunes played on a visit.
• Tasteful black and white shots line the restaurant. But the ones in the men's room caught our eye, with two photos straight out of central casting: Sophia Loren drinking, with another capturing men watching a woman on a street corner in Italy.
Taste Bites
Osteria di Valerio e Al
Where: 408 W. St. Clair Ave., Cleveland.
Contact: 216-685-9490.
Online: https://www.facebook.com/OsteriaDiValerioAl/
Hours: 5-9 p.m. Monday, 5-10 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday; 5-11 p.m. Thursday-Saturday.
Prices: Appetizers, $11-$28; soup and salad, $6-$20; entrees, $20-$44; dessert, $8-$9 (with cheese selection at $20).
Reservations: Accepted.
Credit cards: All major.
Cuisine: Italian.
Accessibility: A few steps into the restaurant.
Grade: ****
Notes: We make two anonymous visits to restaurants we review for dinner, and we do not accept complimentary meals. One star means fair; 2 stars, good; 3 stars, very good; 4 stars, exceptional. (Zero stars: not recommended.)