Walter makes it magical

 Thursday, March 27, 2008

PROVIDENCE — Chef Walter Potenza has been a longtime fixture on the Federal Hill restaurant scene because of his talents in the kitchen, but also because he keeps reinventing himself.

Starting out with a restaurant in East Greenwich in 1985, he later opened the Sunflower Café in Cranston, then Walter’s La Locanda Del Coccio on Federal Hill in DePasquale Plaza. From there he moved to his current location at 286 Atwells Ave. It began as a glitzy all-chrome and blue ground-floor spot called Aquaviva, which concentrated on small-bite tapas dishes, then grew with an upstairs dining room, Walter’s Ristorante d’Italia. Later the downstairs restaurant at 286 Atwells was transformed again into Spezia Foodsmith’s Organic Natural Market and Cafe.

Last fall, Walter’s Ristorante d’Italia moved downstairs and the upstairs space became a private function room. Spezia is in the process of moving to a space on Mineral Spring Avenue in North Providence. Potenza branched out yet again with his new Spiga Trattoria in Cranston, the site of the old Sunflower Cafe. Got that? He’s the chef at both the Atwells Avenue and Cranston locations, said general manager Carmela Natale.

Back at 286 Atwells, the first-floor location was redesigned for Ristorante d’Italia. With its dark red walls, damask wall coverings and huge mirrors, it could easily have doubled as a film set for a romantic assignation between Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni in some long-ago Italian movie. They would have been able to carry on, too, because on a recent weeknight the place fairly filled with patrons spread out in the elegant dining room.

Despite the head-spinning changes at 286 Atwells, plus a still-operating cooking school, Potenza maintains the careful hand in the kitchen at Ristorante d’Italia that has been his trademark as much as the terracotta clay pots he uses in traditional cooking. And all at surprisingly reasonable prices.

“I thought it would have been much more expensive,” said my dining companion, even while ordering the most expensive thing on the menu — the beef filet at $28. Most entrée items fit comfortably in the $18 to $24 range, however, and you can choose from an array of wines for $8.25 a glass or a fancy “martini” for $8.75 which seemed quite reasonable after having recently paid $11.50 for a tall mixed vodka drink elsewhere.

In fact, my companion began with something called Hibernation ($8.75), a luscious white, dessert-like “martini” concocted with Frangelico, honey liqueur, Amaretto and cream. It certainly outshone my Chardonnay Cantele from Puglia ($8.25) which was fruity and fine.

We started with the “Portobello gamberi,” shrimp and portobello mushrooms, and an “antipasto fritto di pesce” — fried fish antipasto. And not fish in this case, but shellfish. The fritto di pesce ($12) was a wonderful mix of lightly fried, lightly battered, not oily, crispy scallops, shrimp and squid with a fragrant butter-lemon sauce to which had been added minced hot peppers and garlic. The spices were not at all overwhelming, allowing the rich taste of the various shellfish their own voice on the plate. It was a welcome change from the usual fried calamari.

One bite of the Portobello gamberi ($12) and we could have stopped the meal right there. Just bring us more . . . and then more. Our knowledgeable and friendly server, Crystal, told us the shrimp and thin-sliced portobello, served in a light, ever-so-slightly spicy sauce over tender, dainty pearls of couscous, is one of the few menu items carried over from Walter’s Aquaviva “blue period.” It was easy to see why.

On the side, a plate of homemade focaccia, so light, airy and spongy that we asked what it was, not recognizing it as being related to the denser versions of this bread served elsewhere. A very light dusting of salt on top added to the pleasure in every bite.

The entrée list is a tempting selection that includes veal stew over baked spaghetti in one of Potenza’s terracotta dishes and wild boar ragu over pappardelle. I chose the fiaccheraia alla Toscana Medievale ($19), bow-tie pasta baked with bite-size pieces of roasted chicken, tomato sauce, sprinkles of Gorgonzola cheese, slices of sweet red pepper and spices. Potenza, in a later phone call, said the fiaccheraia “has been with us since I started terracotta cooking in the ‘90s.” It’s easy to see why customer demand has kept it there. The flavors blended wonderfully in the rich and hearty, slightly sweet tomato sauce. Crystal had warned that one should like Gorgonzola before ordering, but it had been applied with such a light touch that one barely noticed the presence of the pungent, blue-veined cheese. The chicken had been cut into bite-sized pieces, rendering a knife unnecessary.

Meanwhile, the beef filet ($28), thick and juicy, was cooked to perfect specifications of just slightly under medium The generous portion was exceptionally tender. (Potenza stresses that everything served is hormone-free and relatively local. There’s also a special gluten-free menu.) The beef filet came with a sauce of robust Barolo red wine and Gorgonzola that only enhanced its flavor. On the side, crisp-tender asparagus spears, creamy risotto completed with a truffle mushroom duxelle and fried polenta. Alongside everything else, however, the polenta seemed bland and not as interesting.

One of the in-house dessert is the Affogato ($8), two thick slices of a delicious sponge cake with a scoop of your choice of gelato resting between them, in this case buttery-tasting fig gelato. On the side was a demitasse of espresso so one can pour on as much as one wants. Or not at all; the cake was moist and delicious on its own.

My Tronchetto ($7.25) was a generous slice of a three-layer yellow cake with hazelnut crème and chocolate fillings and covered with a dense, dark chocolate frosting. This one is definitely for chocolate lovers.

BILL OF FARE

Dinner for two at Walter’s Ristorante d’Italia might look something like this:

Hibernation martini.....................$8.75

Chardonnay Cantele…$8.25

Portobello gamberi…$12.00

Fiaccheraia …$19.00

Beef filet…$28.00

Affogato…$8.00

Total food and drink…$84.00

Tax…$6.72

Tip…$17.00

Total bill…$107.72