Late dinner at Fritti
May 10th, 2009 by Cliff Bostock in Restaurants
We hit Fritti tonight around 9:30 and found Enrico Liberato, the restaurant’s new pizzaiolo, hard at work, turning out pies for a crowd that was rather large for late Sunday night. In fact, restaurant owner Riccardo Ullio reports that business has been so good that April was the restaurant’s best month ever — by a large amount.
The flip side is that the wood-burning oven can hardly keep up with the demand, so Fritti will be getting a new one soon.
I departed from my usual Napoli tonight, and ordered the Robiola e Pesto, a white pie made with goat cheese, sundried tomatoes and argula pesto. Wayne ordered the Quattro Formaggi — four cheeses with San Marzano tomato sauce. Both were nearly perfect, but nothing beats the Napoli here.
The restaurant will begin offering a new pie made with scamorza affumicata in a few weeks. A smoked cow’s milk cheese, it’s seldom seen on menus in Atlanta. Ullio plans to develop some starters using the scarmoza, too.
Meanwhile, the Pizza Wars continue. Readers are still responding to my original Omnivore post about Varasano’s Pizzeria over a month ago. AJC critic Meridith Ford Goldman basically shared my own view of Varasano’s in her must-read review last week:
But often the pizzas are soggy and laden — and worse, inconsistent. A “New Haven clam” pie touts clams, mussels, lots of garlic and either a white or red sauce (all of which are far better on a mound of linguine than a mound of dough), at one offering limp and lifeless and at another much more appropriately crisped.
The rest of the menu is as uneven as the pizzas: the zeppole are a fun, but nothing sensational. Insalata Caprese is made with mealy heirloom tomatoes prepped ahead of time so that the entire salad is ice cold when it’s served, making it as much a heap of “tasteless cardboard” as Varasano so infamously calls Fritti’s pizza on his website.
It ain’t bragging if you can do it, goes the old baseball saying goes. Varasano’s Pizzeria has a little more doing to do.
Friends who visited Varasano’s last week had the same experience of radical inconsistency. I have to wonder if all the comparison to Varasano’s isn’t what has caused Fritti’s business to boom.
(Photo by Cliff Bostock)
May 11th, 2009 at 12:48 am
That is a real chef in the kitchen.
You are not a chef unless your in the kitchen making the food.
Why isn’t Varasano’s making the night in and night out?
I guess when you have the
financial cushion, you do not in to be infront of the heat.
Well, except in your home. Pizza party at my house anyone?
May 11th, 2009 at 8:04 am
My prediction: 1 year from now fritti still slangin’ pies in inman park, jeffrey varasano playing with Rubick’s Cubes. Some people, sometimes seem too smart for there on good.
May 11th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
We finally gave in a tried Varasano’s. We walked over from the P’tree Battle area and desperately wished we’d stopped into Pizza Fusion instead. Varasano’s was all around pretty bad. Soggy pizza, tasteless salads, weird service, etc. Not planning to go back.
May 12th, 2009 at 11:24 am
Irony at it’s best. Fritti benefits from the hype of Varassano’s! Perhaps Mr. V. should have embraced the restaurant community instead of critizing it. Way to go Riccardo and your awesome staff!
May 12th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
@SM, was Varasano making the pizza?
May 13th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
bitter busboy – I don’t think V was cooking since he was helping to wait on our table and was very focused with adjusting the height of the window shade numerous times throughout the meal.
May 13th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
of course he wasn’t the one making the pizzas. that’s where we are hearing about all these inconsistances. he just wants to play restaurantuer and not chef.
May 13th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
look at this guy in the picture. now thats a chef.