A solid Italian-American trattoria with dynamite pizza
By MC SLIM JB | December 2, 2009
Photo: Nellie Sweet
Fiorella's | 187 North Street, Newtonville | Monday–Thursday, 11:30 am–9 pm; Friday and Saturday, 11:30 am–10 pm, and Sunday, 4:30 pm–9 pm | 617.969.9990 |
Friends are always asking me for my latest cheap-eats "discovery." But amid a million food blogs, 24/7 food television, and amateur-review Web sites like Chowhound and Yelp, I'm rarely the first to sing a good restaurant's praises. Yet many a worthy eatery still eludes the wider restaurant-going population because it serves an off-the-radar neighborhood. Such is Fiorella's, located in a quiet stretch of Newton I'd never driven through, a plain-Jane exterior amid industrial storefronts. Inside, though, is an inviting little trattoria, 75 seats clustered around an open kitchen with a blazing wood-burning brick oven, serving heaping plates of red-sauce Italian-American.Complimentary bread sticks are a good omen: sliced flatbread seasoned with garlic, oregano, and Parmesan, served warm from the oven with smooth, slightly sweet marinara for dipping, an excellent sauce that is ubiquitous here. Arancini ($7) is one grapefruit-size ball of gently crisped Carnaroli rice with a coating of that marinara and a lot of melty mozzarella inside: humble and satisfying. An antipasto salad ($10) doesn't boast great cold cuts, but is helped by good marinated vegetables. Melanzane al forno ($8) is three slices of eggplant, batter-fried and oven-baked, made delectable with marinara, fine mozzarella, and fresh basil. Italian wedding soup ($3/cup; $5/bowl) loads chicken stock with spinach, pastini, and tiny pork/beef meatballs. The enormous pasta dishes benefit from al dente corkscrews of fresh fusilli. Bolognese ($14) is a tomato-heavy ragù hailing more from New Jersey than Bologna. Chicken parmigiana ($14) presents the expected giant cheese-laden fried breast cutlet with a huge side of sauce-drenched linguini.
While these apps and entrées are solid and value-priced, Fiorella's star attraction is its terrific wood-oven pizza ($6–$9/small; $11–$18/large). Its crust is thin — if not quite as thin as is currently voguish among gourmet purveyors — and very much in the Neapolitan style: bubbly, ever-so-slightly charred, just a bit chewy. Toppings ($1/small pizza; $2/large) are very high-quality, like excellent ricotta and prosciutto, and that red sauce is perfect on it. (That these outstanding pies aren't mentioned by more local enthusiasts reflects how hidden this place is.) The picture is completed by genial service, well-suited wines by the glass ($5–$9), and homey desserts like chocolate cobbler ($8), a gooey brownie sundae. In all, Fiorella's is exactly the sort of joint that cheap-eats aficionados love to say they knew about before the Phoenix guy found it.
Related:
2009: The year in cheap eats, Post 390, Silver platter, More 
- 2009: The year in cheap eats
In the wake of the Bush Recession, it's been gratifying to spend 2009 noting how many good budget-priced restaurants Boston has.
- Post 390
Another week, another gastro-pub. Okay, Post 390 technically bills itself as a Back Bay "urban tavern," and is bigger and glitzier than most, but it has the same combination of comfort food with a twist, a few bits of high cheffery, serious drinks, and playful desserts found throughout the city so frequently these days.
- Silver platter
People seem eager to call Otto's the best pizza in Portland.
- Review: Fat Belly's Pub
Who says you can't have it all? Not the folks at Fat Belly's, an "Irish" pub with the attitude — and, more importantly, the kitchen commitment — of a capable cloth napkin restaurant.
- Review: Pasta Beach
The name of this popular Italian eatery conjures up several images. Do you drop by for take-out pasta or pizza and take it down the hill to First Beach?
- Reviewer's notebook: Tavolo and Sanette’s Karoo Kafe
Tavolo snuck under my radar because Chris Douglass, then well-known for Icarus, had made his first Dorchester move with Ashmont Grill, an admitted bistro.
- Finding the fairest food: Sampling falafel, deep-fried Oreos, bacon puffs, and more at Fryeburg
There are few things more American than the fair.
- From farm to Thanksgiving table
I've never cooked a turkey for Thanksgiving. Sure, I've helped pack the bird with stuffing and paid my dues basting it throughout the day, but so far I've managed to avoid ultimate responsibility. Frankly, it's too much pressure. But at least I would ruin only my family's Thanksgiving.
- Review: Ariana
This fine new Afghan restaurant makes it official: the odd-numbered side of Brighton Avenue between Harvard Avenue and Linden Street has so many good ethnic restaurants that you could eat out in a different country every week and never even cross the street.
- Vegan venom
I honestly can’t believe you think that vegan comfort food would focus onto vegetables.
- Review: Pressure Cooker
A cross between Spellbound and Iron Chef , Mark Becker & Jennifer Grausman's charming documentary follows a year in firebrand educator Wilma Stephenson's "Careers through Culinary Arts" program at Philadelphia's Frankford High School.
- Less
Topics:
On The Cheap
, Internet, Science and Technology, Technology, More
, Internet, Science and Technology, Technology, Culture and Lifestyle, Media, Food and Cooking, Foods, Fruits and Vegetables, Desserts, Italian Food and Cooking, Less
