Get ready; the newest wave of Italian restaurants is arriving. This week, Frank Schmitz opened Bocci Bar at 16 N. Central Ave., in Clayton. The restaurant and wine bar is located next door to Mosaic Bistro Market, operated by his sister Ellen Schmitz, and down the street from his other restaurant, Barcelona Tapas.
Posited as a modern Italian restaurant and wine bar, Bocci Bar offers a contemporary take on northern Italian fare and strives to create the feel of a neighborhood eatery through an approachable bar and floor-to-ceiling windows that open to the sidewalk patio.
The lunch menu includes a selection of salads, soups, sandwiches, pizzas – including a German variation called Flammekuchen that’s topped with caramelized onions, pancetta and crème fraîche – and, of course, pasta dishes. The more expansive dinner menu includes a selection of crostini and antipasto, perfect as after-work noshes to pair with a glass of wine. Among the entrées, we want to slurp our way through the Italian fish stew filled with halibut, mussels, calamari and shrimp.
Bocci Bar is open weekdays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Saturday, 4 to 10 p.m. No time to grab a seat? Online ordering for carryout will soon be available.
Italian food-lovers, keep that fork in hand. Mad Tomato is next, set to open April 15 just a few blocks away from Bocci Bar, followed by Michael Del Pietro’s Trattoria Spezie come summer. Mangia!
This article appears in April 2011.