There’s a new restaurant in the North End — but wait! You can stop trying to guess what gourmet trend it will latch on to to set itself apart — what exquisite vegetable makes a cameo in the gnocchi sauce, say, or what exotic mushroom is in the free-range-chicken marinade. In February, Torri Rae Crowell, a Boston-restaurant veteran who has worked extensively at Todd English’s spots, opened Volle Nolle, which sits modestly amid the hubbub of Hanover Street. Something between a diner and a sandwich shop (let’s call it a luncheonette), complete with disposable dishes and silverware and retro-style stainless-steel tables, it’s free of gimmicks and glitter. Volle Nolle shines the spotlight directly on the chow, which we’ll describe as comfort food that smacks of European class.
For breakfast, you can have a whole-grain English muffin loaded with stuff you probably never thought to toss on a Thomas’s: smoked salmon, egg whites, and creamy marscapone ($4.75), for instance, or cheese and chorizo ($3.75). And has anyone else noticed how tough it is to find a decent deli sandwich in this city? Crowell has packed her menu with a sandwich array that would make the earl who invented the things nod in approval. There’s the Cuban ($6.95), with pulled pork, spicy mayo, and slices of ham and salami, and the Muffuletta ($7.95), a New Orleans delicacy crammed with Italian deli meats, mozzarella, provolone, and house-made olive salad, served pressed on an Iggy’s French roll. They are castles in the sky for carnivores. But Crowell also does her part with top-shelf veggies, as when she includes frisee lettuce in the grilled press-cheese sandwich ($5.75) and squishes caramelized onions into the melted Swiss cheese.
“Volle nolle,” by the way, is Latin for willy-nilly. But with its fusion of Grandma’s Wednesday-night favorites and epicurean Italian touches, this luncheonette seems to know exactly where it stands.
Volle Nolle | 351 Hanover Street, Boston | Mon-Fri, 7:30 am-3 pm; Sat-Sun, 8 am-3 pm | 617.523.0003.
