Review: Lorenzo's Trattoria in St. Louis

Most of the restaurants on the Hill, the neat, bright, always freshly painted neighborhood in South St. Louis that has been an Italian enclave for more than a century, have a common style in decor, and sometimes in food preparation, too.  The view is of starched white linen and heavy silver, lots of brightly sparkling glass, much of it in large chandeliers, all against a background of polished dark wood.

And then along came Lawrence Fuse and Lorenzo's, bringing decor of the 21st century and a menu to match.  Walls are beige, perhaps shaded toward pink, heightened by handsome black-and-white photographs and a piece of pasta art to make one smile.  Serving both lunch and dinner, Lorenzo's may be the only spot on the Hill to offer fine outdoor dining, with a handful of tables on the south side of the building.  The view isn't as dramatic as that offered by some restaurants, but in clear sight across the street is Volpi's, where great prosciutto is cured and salamis age like good wine.

Trying to describe what a chef is doing in a word or phrase can be unfair to both the chef and the food that he or she prepares.  The guru would call Fuse's cuisine "contemporary Tuscan," and then add a number of escape clauses so as not to embarrass himself.  There are classic dishes with modern twists, a changed ingredient here and there to make things lighter, or to add an extra layer of flavor. But classify it any way you please – and the food at Lorenzo's is excellent in every respect.

A couple of daily specials lead the way, described by competent, skillful servers, and they bolster a sleek, nicely designed menu that – wonder of menu-writing wonders – contains not a single flowery adjective.  Some adjectives are vital – braised, roasted, stuffed, grilled – but the menu is a delight of calm, understated description that includes all the necessary information.

It provides a fine range of choices without being overwhelming, either, with eight entrees, seven pastas/risotti/gnocchi, three salads, eight starters, even a neat quartet of pizzas. The guru always has been a fan of liver, either beef or calf, and Lorenzo's is an excellent version, with a balsamic vinegar overtone to the sauce, in the Venetian style.  The liver was cooked as ordered, and arrived with little pearl onions, tasty pancetta and a wonderful side of herbed polenta.  It's a delightful dish.

The entrees include a variety of sides, selected carefully for complementary flavors and textures.  Some have polenta, either herbed or with fontina cheese, others include whipped potatoes, tortellini, linguine, potato gratin or risotto.  This obviously is not a restaurant where one side fits all because the same holds true for sauces and vegetables. Green beans, asparagus, brussels sprouts, spinach, onions, artichokes and mushrooms accompany one or another entree, providing pleasant additions to both plate and palate.

Entrees, which change seasonally, currently include poached halibut and grilled salmon, Italian classics like saltimbocca and osso bucco, a steak, chicken spiedini stuffed with spinach and pancetta and rack of lamb, in addition to the liver.

Fuse takes the same attitude toward his pasta entrees, with fettuccine in veal-and-tomato sauce, linguine with shellfish, rigatoni with eggplant, capers and olives and portobello tortellini with prosciutto and roasted peppers. Risotto comes with seafood and with chicken and asparagus, and there's house-made gnocchi, either potato or spinach.  Choosing a different pasta for each sauce is another splendid idea.  The thick, ridged rigatoni is a perfect pasta for its sauce because it picks up the most sauce.

Appetizers receive similar treatment.  Each dish is composed as an individual unit, just like the entrees.  Flavors and textures are chosen as building blocks to construct a specific dish, the mark of a chef who cares about his cooking and his clientele.

So a couple of dinners at Lorenzo's were exciting in every respect.  The goat cheese ravioli appetizer was wonderful, arriving in a tomato-basil broth, its flavor spiked by small pieces of pancetta, an Italian bacon that Fuse uses in many dishes and sauces.  The classic vitello tonnato, or sliced veal in a tuna-based sauce, was light and delicious as a warm-weather dish, and shrimp scampi was another delight, the shellfish grilled and served atop white beans and arugula, whose flavor and texture were a wondrous contrast.  Roasted peppers and an aioli sauce raised the flavor ante a little higher.  Speaking of roasted peppers, one of the guru's special favorites, they are served as a salad, sharing the plate with pieces of delicious mozzarella cheese, the large Italian capers and a balsamic dressing, with some sprigs of basil here and there for a crowning touch.  The house salad also is carefully assembled, with the addition of pistachios again bringing both flavor and texture to the dish, and it's topped by a pleasing balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

Osso bucco, cooked a long time so the meat fell off the bone, came complete with a marrow spoon, a long, narrow utensil designed for – and successful at – getting all the delicious marrow out of the bone.  The meat was rich and flavorful, topped with gremolata made with orange rind instead of the usual lemon, but just as tasty.  Gremolata is a kind of relish, with fruit rind and parsley chopped very fine, providing a hint of fruit and a touch of bitterness that go so well together.

Linguine with seafood sauce and the two risotto entrees were outstanding.  The pasta and the rice were at the proper point of al dente, and the seafood, roast chicken and other mix-ins were tasty.  For those who think about about calories, the seafood sauce on the linguine, heavy with mussels, scallops and shrimp, was broth-based and much lower in calories than a cream sauce and a lessening of stress for those of us who count those things.

On one visit a tomato bread pudding was served as a side dish to an entree.  It was not a sweet dessert but a savory side dish, and we tried a chunk.  It brought feelings of bread-based stuffing (or dressing), with excellent flavor, but our serving, at least, lacked enough tomato, which had brought a delightful boost of flavor.

The wine list is good, with enough by-the-glass selections and some fine Italian vintages and labels.

Dessert creates a delightful finale – cinnamon-amaretto bread pudding was a delight, with a moist texture and a good bite of cinnamon.  Ricotta cheesecake was wonderful but the special chocolate cake, an extravaganza of richness and flavor, was on the dry side and not up to the version we had shortly after the restaurant opened a few years ago..  And if cakes are not high on your agenda, there's Ron Ryan's Quezel sorbet, in various flavors, always a perfect ending to a meal – and Lorenzo's provided a nearly perfect meal.