After a month-long interior refresh, the popular 16-year-old Italian restaurant Donato Enoteca has reopened in Redwood City — better than ever.
There’s still a large patio dining area with herb planters, an open kitchen, and a handsome dining room but one that’s brighter and more contemporary looking now. There’s also a new circular white marble bar, especially conducive to the after-work crowd looking to kick back with cocktails and small cicchetti or bite-sized noshes. There are also new evocative black-and-white photos on the walls of Italian ingredients by local photographer Nadia Andreini.
The biggest change, though, is the arrival of Chef Marco Bertoldo, a native of Italy’s Veneto region, who has worked at Michelin three-starred Ristorante Le Calandre in Italy and was the executive chef at Poesia in San Francisco.
Chef-Owner Donato Scotti may be stepping back from overseeing the kitchen on a day-to-day basis, but he’s still very much a part of the restaurant. In fact, he was there last week greeting tables, when I was invited in as a guest of the restaurant.
The new cocktail program was conceived by Massimo Stronati, an award-winning mixologist from Italy. The Prisencolin ($17) is almost like Negroni’s more hefty cousin. Orange bitters and Angostura bitters amp up the lovely orange rind taste. Bespoken Twice-Toasted Bourbon that’s barrel-aged, then finished with twice-toasted oak staves adds a boozy yet body with a lovely rich caramel taste. Finally, a sprig of rosemary is flamed for a whiff of smokiness.
As you sip, nibble on one of the new bar snacks such as the olive ascolante ($4), irresistible breaded, fried olives stuffed with pork that are hot and just salty enough. Or the croccante ($4), a Parmigiano lollipop on a stick. It’s like a crispy frico, but slightly sturdier because of the addition of cornmeal.
The menu is large, so you’ll want to study it carefully. You may find yourself smiling as you do, because almost everything on the menu is $25 or less — a rarity in the fine-dining realm these days.
The salumi menu is a whole separate one that shouldn’t be neglected, especially because it’s all made and cured in-house. The porchetta Romana ($15) is spectacular with Duroc pork loin and belly sliced very thinly and served chilled, draped on a board with house-made pickles and airy, crisp focaccia. The porchetta is velvety, and sweetly porcine tasting.
Bertoldo’s debut menu includes quite a few dishes not commonly found elsewhere, including a crispy saffron carnaroli rice cake topped with a thick, creamy, satisfying ragu of cauliflower and porcini ($19). If you love crispy rice, you will enjoy this savory cake that’s crunchy in all the right places, and slightly chewy inside.
While traditional pizzas are still available, so are a couple of different styles that are worth exploring. The “pizza crunch alla scapece” ($17), a specialty of the Verona region, is made with a dough that has a hydration level of 80 percent, compared to most pizza doughs that are in the 60 percent hydration range, Scotti said. That means this particular semolina dough is mostly water. As such, it bakes up especially airy and crispy. It may be nearly as thick as focaccia, but it eats much lighter.
This version is spotlights zucchini, pureed into a creamy sauce that tops ribbons of zucchini that have been marinated in the surprise of cardamom, lemon, mint, and gin. It magically brings out a sweetness in the zucchini that is rarely present.
There’s also a pan-baked pizza, “pizza in padelliino” ($20) that is quite crispy all over, too, with a denser crust. It is topped with confit tomatoes, a creamy eggplant sauce, and house-smoked swordfish that is beyond silky and not aggressively salty like smoked fish can sometimes be.
Pastas are made in house, of course. Each is offered in small and regular sizes. Even the small servings are fairly ample, too.
Large, supple tubes of pasta known as pacccheri ($18 for a small) get a saucy tomato mix of baby octopus, olives, capers, and chili flakes. Like a puttanesca with seafood, it’s got a very concentrated tomato taste with briny, sweet-tangy notes.
The tagliolini ($14 for a small) are thin eggy strands tossed in a lusty, meaty and creamy bolognese. A pool of melted Parmigiana surrounds it like a moat, adding further richness plus a nice salty nutty character.
The Milanese ($24) is pounded veal, breaded in panko and Parmigiano, then pan-fried till crisp and golden on the outside. The meat is tender with the hit of cheese giving it even more umami taste. Sage leaves grown outside the doors of the restaurant get deep fried to scatter over the top.
Bertoldo makes all the desserts, too, including a tiramisu “nuovo” ($12) that completely fills a red, flower-shaped bowl rather than being served on a plate as a neat slab. Thick, creamy mascarpone covers the top with a dusting of cocoa. There are no usual ladyfingers in this version, but a crunchy cookie crumble on the bottom with a scoop of coffee ice cream at the very center. It’s a very coffee-forward dessert that may not resemble the classic, but tastes very much like it.
Welcome back, Donato Enoteca. It was worth the wait.