34833 Mon Mar 07 00:28:42 -0800 2005 4 1 San Francisco Bay Area 0 158048 The house made sausage recipe has been passed down for generations in Giovanni’s family. He says that in the town of Calabria, each family has its own unique recipe and a taste of the sausage will tell you who made it. There’s a tweaking in the amount of anise, for example. The recipes are closely guarded secrets. Giovanni is trying out a Saturday BBQ where chicken and his sausages are grilled outdoors. I had the hot sausage with peppers and onions on Maggiora Baking Company’s Sour Dough roll. I could have added some marinara sauce, but I’m a purist about sausage and peppers. The sausages are dense and meaty. The spicy sausage is hot without being overwhelming. The mild is very meaty and both have a snappy casing. Giovanni said that in Calabria, sausage making was done once a year when families killed a pig. Sausages were made to preserve the meat in the days before refrigeration. He talked about some of the other ways the pig was preserved for the coming year. The restaurant has only been open 8 months and it is selling about 125 pounds of sausage a week. The sandwich comes with chili and a choice of cole slaw, potato salad or macaroni salad. Everything is house made. I wasn’t in the mood for chili, especially with an Italian sausage sandwich and they graciously gave me the potato cabbage soup. This was very like a Polish soup with a broth and lots of cabbage, some potatoes, a few slices of carrots and bits of bacon. Although I think it was an Italian bacon-like meat because it tasted better than bacon. When I opened the cole slaw, I thought, ooh … that looks nice. It was in a creamy sauce with a touch of sour cream and coarse chopped green cabbage. The bottle of Bolla Valpolicella, the house wine, went very well with the sausage. While waiting today for the Italian Wine Tasting, I had lunch choosing the lasagna which is made in the style of the Calabria region. It is delicate lasagna with ground hard cooked eggs mixed into the ricotta. If the menu had not mentioned hard cooked eggs, I never would have noticed them. The eggs give the lasagna a rich flavor, but lighten the texture. There were tiny meat balls in the lasagna, about the size garbanzos. Giovanni said the marinara is unique to Southern Italy when I said in noticed a little tang to it. Very nice. You can order a la carte or the dinner. I chose the dinner and it started with a small dish of antipasti. They were vegetables marinated in balsamic vinegar and oil with oregano and chopped garlic. Veggies included broccoli, cauliflower, red onions, black olives, green olives, and celery. I was sorry I turned down the roll with dinner because I would have sopped up every bit of that garlicky oil and balsamic vinegar. The minestrone was without beans or pasta. The starch was potatoes with green beans, carrots, celery, onion and tomato in a tomato based broth. Again, another good soup. The four pieces of garlic bread that came with the lasagna looked unimpressive, but oh my goodness. It was nicely toasted and crunchy and very buttery and garlicky. Some parsley was sprinkled on top. I didn’t get dessert and only one is made in house by the Giovanni’s wife. The other desserts ARE FLOWN IN FROM ITALY!!! I am looking forward to trying the ricotta cake in the future. The spumoni is local and not house made, but Mrs. Giovanni says it is very good. On Tuesday nights it is Italian night where you can get a 6 – 7 course meal paired with Italian wine for $35. There were a number of fishes planned for this week including salmon and tilapia. Dinner starts around 6 pm and guess where I’m eating Tuesday night. If it is as good as the other food, this might have potential for a chow down. There are pizzas and panzerotti, a Southern Italian version of Calzone filled with Giovanni’s Italian sausage, onion, mushroom, black olives, and mozzarella cheese. At lunch, pizza is offered by the slice. They also sell sandwiches and salads. You can choose to have your sandwich on focaccia. There is a deli case with some domestic and some imported meats and cheeses. You can buy wet or dry bacala. A large cooler holds sodas and beers. There is a small selection of grocery items. There are loaves of Maggiora Italian bread and bakery items including bread sticks. There are a few Italian cookies and candies. The pasta selection includes tin cans of DeCecco spaghetti. I am buying that next time. It looks so cool. There are other such items including cans of Flott Tuna in olive oil, pannetone and a big glass jar of dried Italian mushrooms. The décor is deli as well with Formica tables and sturdy white folding chairs. There is a counter with comfy bar seats spanning the window where you can watch the traffic on San Pablo Avenue. The color scheme is muted yellows and olive green. A few items decorate the walls – two wooden pizza paddles, a map of Calabria, an Italian flag, and a picture of the Roman coliseum. A CD of Andrea Bocelli provided the music during my lunch. Grape vines with grapes that light up span the front wall. I am now convinced that to open a restaurant in the town of Pinole, you are required to string lights. There is not one, NOT ONE, business in town without the lights. At night, the store windows are framed in white lights. The special wine tasting event today ($20) was nice with three Italian whites, six Italian reds and a bottle of Piper-Heidsieck Cuvee Sublime. Giovanni’s won my heart the first time I walked in and saw bottles of Piper-Heidsieck cooling in the deli case. It is one of my favorite champagnes. To me it is an upscale spumante, a little sweeter than most of the Heidsieck champagnes. There was a huge platter of Giovanni’s mild sausage, cheese and bread at the tasting. It was a really pleasant event with town’s people chatting while tasting wine. Giovanni would return to the kitchen from time to time where you could seem him stirring the huge pots of marinara sauce with a large wooden spoon … with a handle the length of an arm. I actually had a discussion with one Italian woman about timpano. Outside of Chowhound, I’ve never had a discussion about timpano before. We also talked about Southern Italian cuisine where some of the lasagnas have whole hard cooked eggs in them. The wine tasting reps were really knowledgeable and handed out a very nice book about the wines of the Antinori Wine Producers. I even got some recommendations for vineyards to visit the next time I’m in Italy. I liked the Peppoli Chianti best which is a blend of Sangiovese with a bit of Merlot and aged in oak vats for eight months. I bought that plus one of the Bolla wines, the pinot grigio. This event had something to do with the town of Pinole. The wine company wanted to present some of the better wines, but was told to keep the selection to affordable bottles averaging about $10 (Heidsieck excepted. That was Giovanni’s personal contribution). I am not aware of any other restaurants in the area serving Southern Italian food. This is not A16, folks. This is food prepared the same way for generations as you would find it if you visited Italy. As the menu says “Giovanni grew up and learned to cook in the Calabria region of Italy (near the toe of the boot). San Giovanni in Fiore to be exact. The food from this region is referred to as peasant food. But make no mistake, this food is as rich in flavor as it is in history and tradition”. With my Polish peasant ancestry, I can truly appreciate this food of similar humble Italian origin. Besides, you have to love a place where, when someone calls out “Hey Giovanni”, a real person answers. If you are shopping at Hilltop Mall, Apian Way, on the way to Marine World … it is near the freeway. Giovanni’s 1971 San Pablo Ave Pinole, Ca 94564 Phone: (510) 724-4051 Fax: (510) 724-4223 (Please call them and let them know if you send a fax … from the menu) Hours 10-am – 9 pm Monday thru Thursday 10-am – 10 pm Friday and Saturday 10 am – 7 pm Sunday Call to check about Sunday. They are thinking of closing. The family does everything in the restaurant, so they may need a day off. Link: http://www.antinori.it/eng/antinori/index1.php Mon Mar 07 00:28:42 -0800 2005 0 Krys 1 158208 For dinner tonight I had a slice of pizza and some Panzerotti. I like the fact that Giovanni’s sells pizza by the slice so you don’t have to commit to the whole pie. I tried a slice of sausage pizza which is made with the spicy house made sausage. Sliced thin, the dense meaty sausage was like a mild pepperoni. The thin crust is soft and yeasty, sort of like what you would make at home. There is a thin browned crust. A thin layer of house made marinara and browned mozzarella covered the top. The panzerotti, was a soft doughy Southern Italian version of calazone with a side of the marinara for dipping. The interior was almost like a Philly steak sandwich with the cheese and onions melting into the generous thinly sliced onion, olive, and sausage filling. The Tuesday night dinner only happens on the second Tuesday of each month. They will have a live music. A local accordion player will stroll from table to table playing Italian music. Mrs. Giovanni says it is very romantic. The $35 dollar dinner (Una Serata con Giovanni) includes the following: Wine Bread Hors d’oeuvres Giovanni’s antipasto More hors d’oeuvres Soup Salad Main Course and side dish Dessert Although I don’t think anyone on Chowhound is probably interested in attending this Tuesday, should you want to attend one of these dinners in the future, reserve by the Saturday prior to the dinner so that Giovanni will buy enough food for the meal. It is different from his regular menu. Tuesday’s dinner will have shrimp, Salmon and Tilapia. It seems sort of like the movie The Big Night. If you did want to attend this Tuesday, you could always call and see if they can accommodate you. Tue Mar 08 00:21:34 -0800 2005 158048 0 Krys 1 158320 great sleuthing krys. san pablo. pinole. who knew? so did you actually find someplace that might make timpano? Tue Mar 08 16:57:59 -0800 2005 158048 0 ed 2 158395 Of course I did. However it is in San Diego. Post below. I am no yet so insane that I actually DROVE to San Diego to try it. I was visiting a friend. Looking for the post, I found another where timpano was being discussed and I found a recipe. So I say in the post "I don't cook usually, but I may actually try this some time in the future. It seems Bay Area hounds have an annual picnic in the fall. Maybe I might give this a try and bring it to the picnic." Whoo! What was I drinking when I wrote that? What was I thinking? Given my cooking skils, heating timpano would be a stretch ... but making one ... and for the CHOW PICNIC ...If I don't post again, I just died of laughter ... which would be better than Chowhounds dying from my homemade timpano during the the picnic ... at worst ... at best, I'd have to leave the state in shame. Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/84468#468242 Wed Mar 09 00:26:14 -0800 2005 158320 0 Krys 1 158407 If you came across a little deli like Giovanni’s as a tourist in Italy, you would be absolutely charmed and it would be a memory to carry in your heart. Although I am not an expert on Italian food, when I traveled in Italy there were restaurants like Caffe Macaroni in San Francisco with interesting antipasti. There are also small restaurants like Giovanni’s where Italian families enjoyed each other’s company and good, fresh simply prepared food with a house wine. The second Tuesday of each month is Italian night with a 6 – 7 course dinner including two glasses of house wine($35). An accordion player with a lovely voice sings Italian and a few American love songs during dinner. Walking in the door, I could see Giovanni busy in the kitchen while Kathy, Giovanni’s wife, supervised the restaurant and greeted customers. Families gathered for the dinner and greeted each other with warm hellos and hugs. The dinner: Wine - Two glasses of the house white (Bolla Pinot Grigio) or red (Bolla Valpolicella) Bread - Maggiora Baking Company’s Italian bread with appetizers and later Giovanni’s garlic bread with the entrée. Hors d’oeuvres – A table was set up with the hors d’oeuvres which the waiters assembled. There was a small plate of two thin slices of Genoa salami, one green and one black olive, a cheese/ham/pepper pinwheel, two small pieces of mozzarella held together with a frilly toothpick. Giovanni’s antipasto (discussed in previous post) More hors d’oeuvres – two hot mussels with a dab of marinara with a slice of the house made mild sausage. A nice combination. Two hot mini quiche (spinach/parmesan, Bacon/parmesan) Soup – Pasta Fazoole – A pretty soup with red kidney beans, yellow chick peas, white navy beans, and pink beans in a light broth with finely chopped green chard and a little pasta.. Salad – lettuce, tomato, beets, red onion with a side of house balsamic vinaigrette with oregano Main Course and side dish – Salmon, a nice shrimp, two mussels, two delicious cherry stone clams, and buttery pan fried tilapia sprinkled with paprika and parsley. Mixed green beans, mushrooms and tomatoes. My favorite dish of the whole evening was that perfectly cooked tilapia. The taste of the clams flavored the butter sauce and was a nice combination with the tilapia. Dessert – choice of any of the house desserts. I chose the ricotta pie imported from Italy. It reminded me of the pies at Café Greco in San Francisco. Surprising dense cheese. I never would have guessed it was ricotta. It was studded with golden raisin. It had, and this is not totally it, an eggnog taste. I can’t place the flavor right now. Not exactly eggnog. A chowdown dinner? No. It was a dinner to be enjoyed and not analyzed. Sometimes it is not just about the food. Sometimes it is about feeding your soul as well as feeding your stomach. It reminded me of a birthday dinner I had in Rome. The plane was late and all I could find open was a little café. It wasn’t fancy, and no one spoke much English. There was a piano player singing Italian songs. When my friend said it was my birthday, the entire restaurant sang an Italian birthday song to me. I remember nothing about the food that night. It was good, but it wasn’t important. There were some dishes I will probably remember from my dinner at Giovanni’s tonight, like the tilapia and clams. But the night wasn’t mainly about the simple well prepared dinner. It was about relaxing, enjoying the music and the evening as well as the food. Giovanni makes his own sausages and marinara. He is personally in the kitchen cooking each dinner. However some of the produce comes from Costco and the tilapia is from the live fish tanks at 99 Ranch Market. He cooks the dishes that his family has cooked for generations in the Calabria region of Italy. Sometimes in the high profile ultra trendy Bay Area restaurants, although it seems like it is all about the food … the designer meats and produce … the inventive dishes … it really isn’t about the food. It’s about the show. It’s about getting reservations to the hot spot. It’s about telling your friends you tried fiddle head ferns or whatever the trend of the moment is. I enjoy the entertainment of the scene and the dishes, but I rarely linger. Like at Scomas , I found myself lingering after dinner. I ordered another glass of wine and listened to the second set by the accordion player. The songs ranged from Bocelli’s Time to Say Goodbye (Con Te Partirò), many, unknown to me, Italian songs as well as Arrivederci Roma. They were sung with depth and passion. The candle on the table flickered and the restaurant was filled with the lively conversation and laughter of the families enjoying their dinner. I walked out into the warm evening and on the drive home quietly hummed “East of the Sun, West of the Moon”, one of the English songs. It was a night of love songs played on an accordion. It was, as Mrs. Giovanni said, very romantic. This is my love letter to Giovanni’s. Wed Mar 09 02:52:01 -0800 2005 158048 0 Krys