Cafe Roma~~Bloomfield~~Pittsburgh, PA
Rick and I are holding good to our vow of trying new restaurants and not getting stuck going to the major chains. Not that a major chain is bad--after all most of them started out small at one time or another--but more because I like to help the little guys. You never know, they might get big someday too!
Bloomfield is a part of Pittsburgh that has the sometimes nickname of 'Little Italy.' I say sometimes because in the last decade or so there has been an influx of a lot of Asian restaurants. I like those too, but I like the idea of a 'Little Italy.' Can you tell I'm Italian? (And some Irish in there too--but I like my Italian to trump the Irish =p )
Cafe Roma was very tiny; about 6 tables were all that could fit inside. I had read online that reservations were a near must--even up to a week in advance and I was very surprised to be able to get in on a moment's notice. Then, I was even more surprised to get there and it was empty. Literally empty. I guess that's what I get for reading a review that was several months old. I don't know if it was no longer the 'hot' restaurant or if the cold was keeping people away. Two other groups came in while were about partway through our meal which made me feel better because I was worrying how the owner/chef would make ends meet if he was only serving one table's worth of people on a Friday night.
I had pasta e fagioli soup as a starter. It was quite different than what my grandmother makes but very, very tasty. I think Cafe Roma uses wine in their stock. Then I had a gnochhi dish that had extra virgin olive oil and fresh diced tomatoes as topping (sauce? hmmm.) The gnocchi were wonderful--cooked just right. I think I would have preferred a different sauce (Mezzanotte a few blocks down makes a fantastic sauce for gnocchi) but I enjoyed it none the less. Rick had a pasta dish that had a wide variety of things (mushrooms, peas, pancetta...) in a creamy sauce. I took a bite of his and it had a very subtle sweet undertone to it that was quite tasty. The portions are generous but not so generous that you feel as if everyone would gawk if you ate it all. I would have liked to try their cannoli but we were both comfortably filled up and we left it for another time.
=)
