Pescatore Expanding?

[hiddenboston]

While I was doing research on a soon-to-open Somerville restaurant, I came across some meeting notes concerning Pescatore. Looks like they might be doubling their seating capacity. Anyone else hear anything about this?

[Bob Dobalina]

No, but that's a good sign for a great neighborhood restaurant.

[enhF94]

they've been doing construction in the other part of the building for quite a while - the part that used to be a dance studio. Haven't researched the permits or whatnot, but they're working on renovating.

[jack daniels]

was in there recently picking up an order and talking with the owner. the construction in the building behind them is to expand the available seating in the restaurant. they also installed pizza ovens where the counter service is and the kitchen will take over that whole area.

they started making pizzas a few weeks ago but havent tried them yet. if its anything like the food im sure it will be excellent

http://www.pescatoreseafood.com/pizza...

and as a side note....the gnocchi sorrentino was awesome. nice and light but with just the right amount of chew to them. not the dense potato bombs you get at most restaurants. for all you gnocchi fans like myself that love them but are too afraid to order them at restaraunts for fear they arent done right.....defitnely give these a try !

[enhF94]

The expanded space is now open; they've even moved the door. Not all the art is hung, but the lighting is lovely, there's a glass window to the back alley, and the tables are fairly far apart. I'm looking forward to another sit-down meal there. Curious about the pizza - seems a pretty saturated market to enter without distinguishing yourselves as fancier (as the rest of the menu might imply).

[Weiszguy]

The pizza is quite good. We had two pies for takeout last week and we were all impressed. It is definitely more gourmet pizza than the stuff you get from Christos or Pinis.

[dfan]

We were excited to try Pescatore out a couple of weekends ago and were very disappointed to find out when we showed up (with out-of-town guests) that they had lost our reservation, made by phone the previous day. It makes us a little wary of going back. There was construction going on in the adjacent space.

We did get a pizza of theirs delivered last week and it was quite good.

[Parsnipity]

We stopped in last night, hoping to order a pizza. The new dining room is really a much nicer space, but there are still areas with exposed drywall and some spackling that needs to be done. An odd contrast with the white table cloths. After being seated, we were told that you cannot order a pizza to eat there- only to go. They offered to do individual pizzas for us, although there was some discussion of whether this would be okay because they're not on the dining room menu, and no prices were given. We were looking for an inexpensive dinner with leftovers for lunch and were a little wary of the individual pizza offer, so we took a takeout menu and will try it some other time. Anapurna, where we ended up, was great by the way.

[Bob Dobalina]

Had dinner there on Friday night - really excellent tuna steak, seared, with roasted peppers and capers - risotto-y rice and asparagus - really hit the spot -
I really like the new place, especially the long window - place was busy on Friday, so I guess the expansion was well warranted.
Parsnipity - think I might have seen you - saw someone ask about pizza and thought it was odd, because I had no idea they made pizza in any way -
Next time, try the arancini, which always come out perfectly fried, and the fusilli amalfi with the tomato sauce - a great amount of perfectly cooked seafood - my go-to dish here.

BTW, waitress pointed out that they built a patio out back for outdoor dining in season. Hope the kitchen can keep up - they went from having 5 tables to over a dozen by my count.

[Parsnipity]

Bob- yeah, we were the wackos who sat down, got up, sat down, got up and then left... I hope the outdoor patio works out! I'd seen this thread and you can see the pizza oven from the front near what used to be the takeout counter, so we had our minds pretty set on trying it. I've had some ups and downs with the rest of the menu- for example, one time I loved their fishcakes and then more recently they were really fishy, greasy, and practically inedible.

[Bob Dobalina]

Ha - did not see you leave, but heard the request. :)
I have to admit I have never had their fried fish - always a grilled or otherwise prepared fish - you'll have to let me know how the pizza rates.

[enhF94]

Re: the outdoor seating - it's a cute little alcove back there, but I haven't heard of any neighborhood meetings about Pescatore since they opened, at which point a neighbor expressed serious misgivings about "loud diners in their backyard." It's possible they've moved.
In similar news, Sound Bites has a very cute back patio that's storage now for the same (understandable, but lamentable) reason.

[Aromatherapy]

Bumping this thread to report they are now serving lunch Fri-Sun. A smaller selection at lower prices. (I haven't actually been, but looked at the menu.) She says she'll keep it up as long as it makes economic sense. First time in the new room--nice but signficantly noisier than the old one, I thought.

[typhoonfish]

Our last experience there the kitchen couldn't keep up with what they had, never mind expanding.

[Stride]

I had dinner there last Saturday and saw that they now also have a small patio in the back. It is small (only about 6 tables) but looked lovely. We ate inside, as all the outdoor tables were filled, but service was good and the food delicious as always.

[autopi]

had their pizza last night--really fantastic. nice char & chew on the crust, good quality (and not overloaded) toppings, reasonably priced. outside of the neapolitan thing, maybe my favorite pizza in boston so far. i think they are whole pies only, unfortunately.

[Parsnipity]

Okay, so the big question: do they now let you eat the pizza there? And is it still (overpriced) individual pies only? Although I should note with the opening of Pizzeria Posto, perhaps my definition of overpriced needs to be readjusted...
In the past few months, we've had 2 takeout pies from Pescatore-- one basic margherita, quite good. This reassured us so we went nuts and ordered something with broccoli and ricotta and chicken the next time, only to get it home and find that it had none of the toppings we'd requested. Disappointing.

[autopi]

i don't know if the pizza is take out only. we've only ever tried to get it as take out.

i'd imagine if you brought your pizza situation to the attention of the owner, she'd take care of it--she's been super sweet & accommodating every time we've been there. i think we got the chicken broccoli & ricotta pie awhile back and really liked it.

i don't find pescatore's prices out of the norm. i agree about pizzeria posto, though--have been pretty effectively deterred from going there b/c of the prices.

[smtucker]

I am puzzled by your overpriced statement regarding Pescatore's. I find the pizza here to be a good value. The ingredients are terrific, the crust has a good flavor, the pizza is consistently cooked properly, and the price is less than Regina's by about $2 per pie.

I don't know if you can eat in and order pizza however, since we always drive over to bring it home. To my knowledge, they don't sell any pizza by the slice.

[Parsnipity]

Okay, to answer my own questions and respond to smtucker-- they do have a lovely patio in back with 6 tables. The renovations look great- really nice bar area, much more welcoming space, more tables. They do serve pizza to eat there, but only "individual size." These are about 10-11 inches across (disclaimer-- that's my guess based on the waitress gesturing with her hands) and we were quoted a cost of about $12-14, although it was truly an estimate as they are not on the menu. Their to-go pizzas are regular large pizza size and cost $14-18, and definitely feed 2 for dinner. So, thus the overpriced statement- it's a much cheaper dinner to share one large pizza than to have to order two. I get that they're trying to increase their revenue and go for a slightly less casual vibe, but I want them to be our casual around-the-corner option, and I'd like to be able to eat a large pizza there and get dinner for less than $20. Maybe they could do them only on weeknights or something.

[smtucker]

Now on this we couldn't agree more!

In our house, The large pizza is actually 3 servings. But you are right, if we could get a large pizza while sitting, they could probably sell us one glass of wine, one soda, a calamari appetizer and perhaps even a salad. And since I generally don't go out to eat on the weekends, this would be a great Tues-Thurs offering.

[Parsnipity]

Yeah, exactly. We actually left after being given the individual pizza spiel so that ploy lost them our business-- we had just been walking by, and decided we'd go somewhere else because we were also hoping for lunch leftovers, ie large pizza size. Also, the fact that the price was an estimate made us a little uncomfortable. Maybe if enough people ask for sit down large pizzas...