“Amateur Eats” is The Sopris Sun’s new food review, written by Carbondale resident and eating enthusiast Jake Skardon and published on the third Thursday of each month.
RESTAURANT RATING:
Cuisine: Italian
Quality: (3/5)
Price: 75+ app., entree and drink
Sprazzo is another relatively new restaurant on Carbondale’s Main Street, offering made-from-scratch pasta and other Italian eats. They also run as a cafe in the mornings, with a full coffee and breakfast menu; a standout in a town where most dine-in restaurants are barely open half the day.
While I couldn’t work out a breakfast review, a friend and I were able to snag an 8pm reservation on a bustling Thursday evening. We were seated inside. Sprazzo has a nice dining room, although it was a little on the cramped side. I wished that I had advocated for the outside seating, which is spacious, well-lit and perfect for a warm summer evening. Still, having skipped lunch and forced myself through an evening run, I was starved for carbs and very keen on eating as much fresh pasta as possible.
After being seated, the service was a tad slow. Understandable, given how busy it was when we arrived, but it took about 15 minutes for our first drinks to hit the table. I ordered the Rosé Negroni, which was sweet, soft and lightly floral, with none of the bitterness of a typical Negroni. While it was a nice drink, it’s a Negroni for folks who don’t like Negronis, and I was not compelled to order another. After I finished, I switched to beer, of which Sprazzo has a limited but solid selection of cans and draft. Next time I visit, I’d be keen to drink from the spritz menu, which looks perfect for brunch or an early evening dinner.
For appetizers, we ordered the Caesar salad, burrata plate and gnocchi al granchio (crab gnocchi). The caesar and burrata came first, with noticeably faster service as tables cleared out later in the evening. The Caesar was loaded with fresh parmesan and a delicious citrus-forward dressing, and the lettuce was a crisp, fresh mix of greens. Instead of croutons, bread was crumbled over the top, grated almost as finely as the parmesan. Very tasty, although proper croutons would have given the salad a more substantial crunch.
The burrata was soft and oh so creamy, with a cool fresh flavor, drizzled lightly with a vinegar that did not overwhelm or complicate. It was served with prosciutto, which I felt was not quite salty enough to contrast the cheese, and melon, which was sweet, crisp and perfect for getting on bites of burrata.
The crab gnocchi was incredible, my friend and I agreed that it was the highlight of the night. The gnocchi was crisp on the outside, which gave a great bite, appropriately doughy on the inside and was swimming in a rich sauce with an aftertaste of lemon and olive oil. Chunks of tender crab worked well with the crunch of gnocchi and hints of lemon, and the portion was generous enough that I was worried I wouldn’t make it through the rest of dinner. Salmon roe was also tossed in, but with all the heavy flavors already present, I felt that it was buried and didn’t impact the dish. Perhaps my seafood palate isn’t refined. Unfortunately, this was part of their rotating weekly gnocchi, only served on Thursdays, so by the time you read this, it will be gone. One can only hope the recipe will resurface.
After all the appetizers, we ordered a bottle of wine, specifically the third cheapest bottle of red (we were convincingly upsold from the second cheapest), and a few entrees. Although the crab gnocchi was plenty satiating, I was able to summon hunger through wine and willpower.
Our entrees came all at once: rigatoni piccante, bucatini carbonara and pollo Toscano. I first went for the rigatoni: large pasta tubes with a spicy red sauce. The sauce was bright and flavorful, with a smokey kick from ‘nduja (soft, spread-like salami) and chili pepper. Pancetta bits added a nice salty crunch. While slightly watery, the sauce still clung well to the rigatoni. Admittedly, I was hopeful for something spicier, something ambitious enough to make you dare the next bite — perhaps I will request “molto piccante” in the future. But if you are someone who can’t handle the heat, fear not, this dish is still for you. I would certainly order this again.
Unfortunately, the carbonara was a let down. The sauce was cooked to the point where there were small lumps of almost-scrambled egg, which overpowered the cheese, guanciale and pepper. On the topic of overcooking, both the rigatoni and bucatini were softer than I’d have liked, with the rigatoni being especially flaccid. Admittedly, I prefer pasta to be “al dente,” but considering how ours came out, I wondered if both dishes had been briefly forgotten about while on the stove.
By the time I got to the pollo Toscano (Tuscan-style chicken), I was so stuffed I was sure I’d have to take it to go. However, the broth, salty, oily, with a splash of cream, the veggies, soft-cooked greens, acidic sun dried tomatoes and perhaps mushrooms (the wine was gone at this point), and the pearls of pasta compelled me to eat on. Every bite was rich, warm Italian goodness. The chicken itself was juicy and appropriately seared, but the breast was pounded so thin that it was essentially a chip to scoop toppings onto. Still, while I would prefer a meatier chunk of chicken, especially for how much you are paying, this was a great, flavorful entree.
Full beyond belief, and having loitered well past closing time, my friend and I decided against dessert and quickly cleared out after paying. I left feeling conflicted. We had nice servers, good wine and some tasty dishes. However, I can’t say everything hit the mark, particularly the pasta entrees, which I wanted to love. Overall, Sprazzo is a fun restaurant I would recommend for group dining, or for those who crave Italian in Carbondale. I would especially recommend going on Thursday to try the gnocchi of the week. I will certainly return to try breakfast and brunch, and to be proven wrong about the pasta.