Imperia
17 Yorkville Ave., Toronto. 416-921-1471. Dinner for two with wine, tax and tip, $120.
If you were to pay attention to the career of Franco Agostino, you'd be following the moves of a guy who is pretty serious about food.
While he doesn't vibrate at such a high frequency as the other food Franco (Prevedello, that is, who, by the way, is said to be opening a new restaurant with the Splendido guys. But more on his peregrinations another time), Franco Agostino has his own august restaurant résumé.
Agostino opened Banfi, Forest Hill's pasta 'n' pizzeria, frequented by people who can afford to choose. They voted with their feet for his taste in food and his knowledge of how to cook it. He co-owned Caffe Doria from 2002 to 2005, and until recently he owned Il Posto in Hazelton Lanes (which has always been a pretty credible Italian restaurant). That's a lot of al dente pasta under the bridge. So, when Signor Agostino opens a new restaurant, gastronomes who love edible Italiana ought to go.
Imperia is neither chic nor cool, but warm, pretty and kind on the face thanks to flattering light. The stone walls speak of a gentler age; servers are both attentive and affable. Too bad that the site -- across from the fire hall on Yorkville -- is not auspicious. It's too close to Yonge Street to be part of the Yorkville scene, and the long narrow space has housed a succession of restaurant and club failures.
Part of this restaurant's problem is the large bar in the front, from whence issue whoops and hollers whenever some hockey hooligan scores a goal, or does something else that makes the guys at the bar feel good. I'm glad they're happy, but such sound effects from TV-watching drinkers do not go that well with lobster risotto.
On the other hand, it would take a lot to turn me off that risotto, especially given the terrible paucity of proper risotto in this town. Imperia's risotto is distinct al dente grains of rice in a strong tomato and lobster sauce studded with sautéed onions, celery and peppers.
The sauce is correctly alla onde, meaning that it flows "like a river." Like a really good prize in a box of Cracker Jacks, this risotto is loaded with fresh perfectly cooked lobster, a limpid whole claw at the centre.
Agostino's passion visits itself upon a host of other Italian classics that are too often screwed up. Salad of octopus with potato is a classic southern Italian appetizer that can be pathetically bland in the wrong hands. Imperia's rendition is a stand-up-and-salute delight composed of wondrously tender charred tentacles atop sweet little fingerling potatoes dressed in vinaigrette with just enough mint and chili to be exciting.
The mushroom salad, another classic that is often tasteless, is composed of thin slices of portobello and brown mushrooms with shaved fennel and baby radicchio in a dressing happily scented with truffle oil and seedy mustard.
Minestrone soup does the maestro less credit. Minestrone being one of my favourite soups, my expectations are both high and specific.
The minestrone of my dreams (oft experienced in Italy) has a strong backbone of white beans. Imperia's minestrone, while pleasant, speaks most loudly of tomato base, which is less than exciting. More entertaining are perfectly seared scallops partnered with cute little al dente green beans wrapped in bacon. Retro but fun.
Franco tends toward casual Italiana, and has majored in pizza 'n' pasta for most of his career. Imperia has a pizza oven and turns out a crisp, thin-crusted pie with traditional toppings (none of that silly seafood or sweet stuff, thank the gods of gastronomy). Among pasta, veal and spinach ravioli shine, thanks to their dressing of fresh sage leaves wilted in hot butter.
They grill impeccable whole fresh bass flown in from the Mediterranean and fillet it on command; one only wishes it were served with greens more inspiring than wilted romaine.
Skip dessert: Panna cotta, Italy's finest post-prandial hour, is strangely thin and has not quite enough sugar. Could it have been made with milk instead of cream? Which would be like making hollandaise sauce with EggBeaters and that nasty new not-quite butter aberration.
If I'm going to eat something as horrifically unhealthy as panna cotta (heavy cream thickened with gelatin and then chilled till it sets, pudding-like) then I'll damn well eat it right.