A real Italian find in little Parish, NY
PARISH — A reader tipped me off to a little Italian restaurant in Parish, in Oswego County. "You have to check out G&F Italian Pizza and Restaurant in Parish — the place is a hole-in-the-wall but the food is REAL Italian and extremely good."
So on a recent Wednesday we headed south toward Syracuse on Interstate 81. It was me and three of my Italian buddies. If anyone knew if the food was real Italian, it would be them.
It's about a 45-minute drive from Watertown, but as we were about to find out, well worth it. The restaurant is easy to find — less than a half-mile from the exit. It's not a big draw for the eyes, inside or out. "Hole-in-the-wall" is a pretty accurate description.
Several things set the scene for us as we entered. A sign on the door boasted fresh-breaded calamari. Just inside, the aroma of garlic and cheese hit us. The selection of pizzas on display by the counter rivaled that of any big-deal mall chain pizza restaurant.
If you're looking for a candlelight dining experience, you're in the wrong restaurant. The interior is painted stark white, for the most part. Large ceiling fans kept the air moving on a hot evening. Miniature Christmas lights here and there added a bit of a festive touch.
The place is relatively small, but there are a sufficient number of booths and tables to accommodate a good number of diners, which was the case the night we were there. We seated ourselves at a table close to the counter and the self-serve soda cooler.
Salvatore, our lighthearted and talkative waiter, is the real deal, with a thick Italian accent. Even my goombah buddies had a little trouble understanding him at first, but that quickly came around.
Sal is usually in the kitchen and his wife does the serving out front. But she was out of town that evening, so Sal was handling the serving chores and providing the evening's entertainment. One of the partners, Franco, was doing the cooking along with an assistant.
The printed menu is one of those full-color tri-fold jobs that you see in a lot of Italian eateries. But look carefully and you'll find lots of out-of-the-ordinary offerings:
Specialty pizzas like white tomato, onion and basil and pizza "campagnola" with broccoli, spinach, fresh tomatoes, roasted red peppers and garlic.
Specialty subs, too: fried haddock, pizza steak, eggplant, "turkey delight" and Gino and Joe's cold cut special.
Homemade specialties like sausage rolls and broccoli rolls and tempting calzones and strombolis. Pizza by the slice with everything imaginable.
The more "upscale" dinner menu is handwritten on big sheets of paper on the wall: things like lobster ravioli, crab cakes, stuffed shrimp and stuffed haddock, along with some unique, personalized chicken and veal dishes.
Sal took our order, scribbling things down on his pad as fast as we rattled them off.
As he headed for the kitchen, he offhandedly commented, "OK, I'll be back with this in three or four days." Funny guy.
We started with the calamari ($8.99), a large oval plate piled high with hand-breaded squid. The breading was a little heavy but totally nongreasy, just lightly seasoned so you could still taste the fish.
Homemade marinara accompanied, but Sal brought out some lemon wedges that we squeezed on the calamari and ate them sans sauce. Perfect — just the way the old timers used to do it in neighborhood Italian restaurants where I grew up on Long Island.
About the same time, Sal delivered a plateful of garlic rolls to our table. These were amazing. AMAZING. They're shaped like doughnuts but are light and airy, made from fresh dough prepared earlier in the day and allowed to rise. Then they're baked and rolled in garlic butter sauce and served hot.
I thought I'd just died and gone to garlic roll heaven.
They came with more of the red sauce, a beautiful and simple concoction of crushed tomatoes, fresh basil, subtle garlic and something that gave it a touch of sweetness.
Salads were simple, too, a combination of romaine and iceberg and some thinly sliced red onion. Homemade balsamic dressing was petty perky, heavy on the vinegar.
Chicken Rossini ($11.95) was an excellent dish, fork-tender chicken breast pounded thin and sautéed with roasted red peppers, plum tomatoes, chunks of garlic and olive oil, finished with melted mozzarella. A very tasty dish that "my boys" were trying to figure out how to duplicate at home.
Veal saltimbocca ($12.95), a classic Italian entrée, utilized tender veal, finely chopped sage, prosciutto and melted provolone cheese in a buttery sauce.
It was good, but the prosciutto wasn't what we expected. Rather than being sliced paper thin, it was tiny cubes of meat that tasted more like salami than the distinctive prosciutto (dry-cured ham).
A nice bottle of red wine would have been perfect at this point in the meal. Unfortunately there are no alcoholic beverages at G&F, so we had to settle for another round of bottled water.
Chicken Parmesan, a great deal for $8.99, was very good, strips of tender chicken breaded and browned, topped with that great red sauce and melted mozzarella. It came with a big mound of sauced ziti.
Stuffed haddock ($14.99) was a generous portion of fish, cut in half and sandwiched with an equally generous helping of buttery crabmeat stuffing. A side of linguini that appeared to be homemade, covered with sauce, filled out the plate.
Sal has a great personality and sense of humor. Instead of asking if we liked everything, he asked, "Is there anything you didn't like?" And after spotting some uneaten pasta left on our plates, he joked, "What kind of Italians are you, anyway?"
We weren't going to do dessert, but got into a discussion with Sal about how much we loved the garlic rolls. He offered to make fresh fried dough for us, and we were all over that.
In about 10 minutes, a huge platter of the best "frittas" ($3.99) we've ever had — EVER — arrived, covered in sugar with just a touch of cinnamon. They were warm, light and unbelievably tasty. What a treat!
We couldn't finish them all, and like a true Italian, Sal busted us over that once again.
You could tell Sal loved what he was doing. We watched as he brought food from the kitchen to his customers with a big smile on his face, like he was delivering a prized possession to a member of his family. There might have been a few dirty dishes on our table at the end of the night, but that didn't matter. Sal made us feel warm and welcomed. He was proud of his food and his humble restaurant, and it showed.
It cost $69 for four of us to enjoy an evening out at a down-to-earth Italian eatery in a small north country town. I don't care where you live — this place is worth the drive.
You can contact restaurant reviewer Walter Siebel via e-mail: wsiebel@wdt.net.
G&F Italian Pizza and Restaurant
2972 E. Main St.
Parish, N.Y.
625-7177
www.gandfpizza.com
Great homemade pizza and Italian specialties.
HOURS: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday
10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday
11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday
Amazing garlic rolls. A huge selection of pizza. You've got to try chicken Rossini, tender chicken sautéed with roasted red peppers, plum tomatoes and garlic, topped with melted mozzarella. And if you can get them to make fried dough for you, you're in for a treat.
RATING: 4 FORKS
