Philadelphia Weekly

Do we really need another Italian BYOB?

There's just no holding back the flood of no-license Philly Italian eateries. Are they giving the people what they want, or is it an "if you build it, they will come" scenario? Or are they slipping crack cocaine into the cavatelli?

There's a time for questions, a time for answers and a time to just let go. Philadelphia loves Italian BYOBs, and as we all know, love is blind, makes you do foolish things, offers no explanations and, in its free time, saves the day. Case closed.

If all Italian BYOBs were as endearing as Salento, I'd spend a lot less time trying to get to the bottom of the mystery and a lot more time trying to get to the bottom of a bowl of luscious ricotta gnocchi buried under a pile of forest-funky mushrooms.

Chef/owner Davide Faenza, who along with his wife Kathryn also owns South Philly BYOB L'Angolo, hails from Galipoli on the Salentine peninsula on the heel of the boot of Italy. Many of the dishes on Salento's menu are specialties of the Puglia region of Italy. Puglian food is often overlooked in favor of locales with better PR, like Tuscany, but it's home to some of the finest raw ingredients in Italy--particularly olive oil.

Puglian cuisine is very simple. Highlights include homemade pastas like orecchiete (shaped like little ears), roasted lamb and, near the Adriatic Sea, fresh seafood. (Another Puglian specialty: my mom, who was born there.)

Faenza has incorporated these and dishes from other regions of Italy into the new Rittenhouse spot, and nearly all are wonderfully satisfying.

Take a very rustic cold salad of chopped octopus, chunks of soft potato, sharp onion and candy-sweet tomato dressed in oil and white balsamic vinegar. I could happily eat this every day--and that's saying a lot for someone who gnaws through as many poor excuses for octopus and squid dishes as I do.

Tiny clams tossed with diced pancetta and roasted red peppers have a marvelous smoky flavor that permeates the white wine broth and demands to be soaked up with bread. A trio of Puglian-style bruschette sports pleasantly simple toppings: sweet cherry tomatoes, pungent white anchovies reclining under arugula and shavings of grana padano cheese, and cool slices of swordfish carpaccio. Bitter chicory greens are swirled into an almost runny puree of fava beans--sort of a twist on hummus--for spreading onto toasted bread.

For the next course you can choose from a list of mostly homemade pastas, or meat or fish entrees. Or you can attempt to eat both and end up bringing much of it home. It's a shame to miss the wonderful pastas here, but it's also a shame to miss marinated lamb roasted on skewers of rosemary. The meat is velvety soft, while a refreshing arugula salad balances out the creaminess of a mascarpone potato cake scented with rosemary.

A special of homemade ravioli stuffed with ground veal is rich enough on its own, but you'll need superhuman willpower to push away any of the accompanying truffled cream sauce. The same goes for that highly addictive ricotta gnocchi, lightly crisped from a quick trip to the saute pan and heavily doused with garlic and wild mushrooms. Ciceri e tria--a humble Salentine specialty of ribbons of pasta smeared with crushed chickpeas and garnished with fried pasta--is hearty and workingman-homey.

Monkfish wrapped in prosciutto is the only dish that doesn't really impress. The fish is nicely cooked, but it overwhelms the delicate shiitake broth, and the accompanying mashed potatoes whipped with leeks are unappealingly bitter.

A creamy, cool chocolate semi-freddo that occupies the promised land between ice cream, pudding and torte easily erases any memories of the disappointing potatoes. Risotto pudding sprinkled with cinnamon is as dense as its namesake and good to share. A perfectly pulled espresso, capped with a layer of crema that doesn't dissipate even after a stir, makes me happy.

Case closed.

Salento
2216 Walnut St. 215.568.1314
Cuisine: Mostly Southern Italian.
Hours: Tues.-Thurs., 5-10pm; Fri.-Sat., 5-11pm; Sun., 5-9:30pm.
Prices: $13.50-$24.
Sound advice: Conversation-friendly.
Atmosphere: Whitewashed walls, gilded chandeliers and not much else.
Service: Sincerely smooth.
Food: Puglian specialties.