Direct From the Farm: Homey Yet Elegant Italian
New York Times Restaurant Review
By STEPHANIE LYNESS
Published: November 5, 2010

THE menu looks sensational. Grilled octopus with salsa verde. Salumi. Pizza Margherita. Spaghetti carbonara. Veal saltimbocca. And it tastes sensational.
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Billy Grant’s new endeavor, Bricco Trattoria, is his third restaurant in the Hartford area. (Bricco, his flagship restaurant, and Grant’s are in West Hartford.) Corey Cannon, who trained under Mr. Grant at Bricco, runs the kitchen; Mr. Grant is the executive chef. The approach is farm-to-table, the menu changes daily and the food is traditional, homey trattoria fare, elegant in taste and presentation.

This is food to linger over. But on two recent visits, on a Thursday and a Friday night, lingering was difficult. Bricco is made for a social scene. It’s loud. There’s a lot of action: reservations are not accepted for parties under six, which guarantees large groups, and much milling as people wait.

Once our party was seated, however, we were treated to a meal that was well nigh faultlessly prepared. An antipasto platter for two combined four varieties of salumi, ultra thinly sliced on Bricco’s special Italian slicer. Rounds of grilled octopus were unusually good, too, their exteriors delicately crisped, their interiors voluptuous. Olive-oil poached fingerling potatoes and a brilliant green basil sauce with lemon, garlic and Calabrian chilies finished this terrific plate.

A mound of calamari, encased in a light, brittle crust, hid a bed of soft, parsley-flecked fennel. Two dipping sauces — a lemon aioli and a perfectly balanced arrabiata — were excellent. Thick slices of house-made cotechino sausage were bedded on buttery lentils cooked with pancetta, garlic and fresh herbs and finished with sherry wine vinegar. Sweetbreads came in a buttered stock reduction, enlivened with sherry vinegar.

The apple, fennel and arugula salad with apple cider vinaigrette was exceptional. The soft, thin-sliced fennel contrasted with the crunchy apple; fresh thyme and pistachio-crusted fresh goat cheese complemented the taste of both. Lettuces in the Bricco Greens were woven with a scattering of thin-sliced radish and fennel and a well-balanced white balsamic vinaigrette. The Caesar was long on lemon and short on anchovy.

The crust on Bricco’s pizza — not as thin as the ones I’ve grown used to in New Haven — was crisp on the outside, with a soft interior.

The kitchen puts out a mean carbonara, dressed with cooked onion, speck, parsley and peas, with Castelmagno cheese melted into the center of the heap. Despite all that egg and butterfat, the dish was delicate, and the Castelmagno added a distinctive note.

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