restaurant review : picco

i went to picco on saturday night with my parents, nora, and charles. picco is a pizza/pasta place on the first floor of the new apartment building at the east berkely side of tremont street - atelier 505, where nomar reportedly looked for an apartment before being traded to the cubs. it shares the first floor with a theater and another (larger) restaurant, sibling rivalry, where we went for nora's birthday back in november.

the restaurant itself is pretty small - it seats probably about 30 to 40. it's nicely designed inside, all warm colors in the dining area with a white-and-stainless steel kitchen area which is visible from the eating area. along one wall there is a counter and bar, and along the other parallel wall there are tables; the wall on that side has rows of small, clear glass votives with lit candles in them, reminiscent of a restaurant i went to in florence. the restaurant in florence had a rough-hewn ecru-colored stone wall on the inside that had candle-filled holes in it here and there, as if the holes were windows into a warm, firelit room on the other side. another detail from picco's kitchen was a white tiled wall scattered with red (as in RED) tiles here and there, just on one small expanse of the wall.

back to the food. the menu features salads, pizzas, sandwiches, and some pastas. we decided on the alsatian pizza (sour cream, bacon, caramelized onions, and gruyere cheese), the roasted vegetable pizza, and the penne with meatballs. i thought penne was an odd choice to go with the meatballs, but it was so good i let it go. the pizzas are larger than those at california pizza kitchen by about 3 to 4 inches in diameter, for the same prices. there isn't the same variety, but there are specials every night. the most spectacular thing about the pizza, which was pretty good, was the crust. that's the elusive bit that every restaurant reviewer likes to write about when reviewing pizza, isn't it? the crust at picco is thin but not too thin, very crisp on the very bottom but chewy. it actually resembles a sourdough bread in texture, but a ciabatta or foccacia in taste. it's nothing short of excellent. most pizza crusts are breadier, but this one was a pleasure to eat. it reminded me of jessica's bread, really.

the pizza toppings were pretty good, but not particularly memorable. i'm not sure how memorable a pizza topping should be, though. i have two favorite pizza toppings at the moment: a roasted butternut squash-caramelized onion-goat cheese pizza i had at veggie planet about three years ago, and the caramelized onion-fresh mozzarella pizza from bertucci's. i also recently had a pretty good pizza from cpk earlier this fall: roasted peppers, caramelized onions, and goat cheese. yes, i like goat cheese.

the alsatian pizza, by far the more exotic of the pizzas we ordered, was good but on the sweet side, which was unexpected; the jury's still out on whether or not the sweetness was good or not. the roasted vegetable pizza was good, but nothing to write home about. i think i would prefer pizzas more exciting than the ones that picco offers, but nothing as strange or purpose-defeating as clam pizza - as in the kind where the clams come in the shells, but on the pizza. perhaps if you have steel teeth and you like crunchy pizza...

the penne with meatballs was possibly the best i've had in a restaurant. the meatballs were on the spicy side, and likened to sausage by my parents, but i thought they were good. also not outstanding - i like meatballs best simmered in pasta sauce for a long time - but the tomato sauce was outstanding. the sauce clung to the pasta in just the right way - it wasn't too thick or too thin - and tasted like tomatoes.

oh, and for carrie especially: on the table before being served, bread was absent - in the place of gougeres! for the non-foodies: cheese puffs. essentially, cream puffs without the cream and with cheese added to the batter. they were absolutely wonderful, cute, fun to eat, and warm when we got to the table (and that, i think, is the most important part - i've always been put out when you go to a nice restaurant and they haven't brought the butter to room temperature before serving it to you).

finally, dessert. scharffenberger chocolate is the centerpiece of the desserts here: the brownies in the sundaes, in the souffle, and in the chocolate tart are all made with scharffenberger chocolate. those who know my chocolate tasting from a few years ago know that i don't like scharffenberger and el rey chocolates because i think they pack a weak chocolate punch, that i don't especially like valrhona (the darling of most pastry chefs), and that i rate callebaut first, then ghirardhelli a distant second. i came fully prepared to give scharffenberger chocolate a second chance - after all, it is the pet chocolate of picco, and scharffenberger has gotten very favorable reviews in the past year or so. i have to say that i was somewhat disappointed, and yet unmoved in my dislike of scharffenberger chocolate. it has always seemed slightly flowery, or fruity, or something that is less chocolaty than i would like. while the brownie sundae didn't suffer too much from this problem, due to the lovely flavor of the maple walnut ice cream, the chocolate souffle did. the souffle also seemed to have been slightly underdone - very liquidy except towards the outer edges.

you are probably wondering whether or not i would actually recommend picco to you. i think i would: the pizza is good and could eventually be excellent, and the pasta is great; all for pretty good prices ($8 for the pasta). i would definitely come back for the ice cream, if not the chocolate. add the general ambience (cozy and warm) and you have a winner. in the south end, where high-end dining dominates, picco is the equivalent of the neighborhood restaurant.