It's with increased
rarity (at least in Albuquerque) that you find an Italian restaurant
which greets you at the door with the incomparable aroma of breads
baking and of pastas simmering in a perfect marriage of tomato sauce,
garlic, basil and oregano. It's also rare to find an Italian
kitchen equally practiced at preparing outstanding pasta dishes and
pizza. Rarer still is the Italian restaurant which does something
innovative with bread (olive oil and spices has become so passé) or
which serves bread that doesn't taste like cardboard warmed over.
Al Vincenzo's is then
indeed an anachronism because it does capture you before the door
with wafting odoriferous emanations that bid you welcome and which have
a Pavlovian effect on your taste buds.
Vincenzo's is equally
adept at pasta dishes and pizza and does serve a complementary bread
(called garlic knots) that while, not necessarily innovative, is
reminiscent of the oven breads grandma used to make. Of
course, Vincenzo's garlic knots are ameliorated with the right amount of
garlic, oregano and parmesan. Those rolls are certainly an
indication of things to come.
The pizza isn't as
close New York quality as you might expect, but it's not bad and we did
fold it over and consumed it New York style. Even better than the
pizza are the football sized calzones, particularly when green chile is
an added ingredient. We shared a baked ziti dinner with sausage
and applauded the flawless texture of the durum semolina imported pasta,
the savory sauce and cheese combination, and a sausage which was both
sweet and spicy. As good as the ziti was, the lasagna was equally
disappointing with a taste and texture of a Chef Boyardee dish, albeit
served casserole style.
Owner Al D'Angelo once
operated a restaurant in New York where the standards are higher, the
food is better and the patrons are more persnickety about Italian food.
Let's hope his November, 2003 Albuquerque start-up succeeds where so
many others have failed--in providing an outstanding Italian dining
experience to Albuquerque diners.
