Belotti’s passionate young chef crafts some of the best pasta in the East Bay.
“Yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy.”
Chef-owner Michele Belotti repeated the phrase quickly to himself as he mulled over our question of which pastas we should order at his new Rockridge eatery, Belotti Ristorante. That, I thought to myself, has got to bode well for our meal: A chef who thinks that every course on his menu is yummy, and one that’s not too pretentious to actually use the word.
It did bode well (another good sign: Spotting Angelino Sandri, the owner-operator of the Venetian gondola service at Lake Merritt, enjoying a meal at the bar. Italians can sniff out good food.) Because it turned out that pretty much everything Belotti recommended was not just yummy, but downright delicious, highlighted by what just might be some of the best pasta in the East Bay.
Strong words, I know, especially since there’s some pretty stiff competition just in the immediate vicinity, including A16, Oliveto, and Enoteca Molinari to name just a few. Indeed, I admit to being skeptical when I first heard about the concept for Belotti, which in February took over a small space on College Avenue that had rotated through several concepts without much success over the last few years.
So, I thought, in a neighborhood packed with nice Italian options, Rockridge was getting . . . another Italian restaurant? Belotti didn’t help matters by explaining that his place would set itself apart by focusing almost entirely on pastas, even offering the option of a multicourse pasta tasting menu. Would this be some sort of mini-Olive Garden with huge bowls of pasta complemented by never-ending breadsticks?
Well, sometimes it’s nice to be proven completely and utterly wrong, which became clear to me on my first visit on a weekday during the day. That turned out to be fortunate timing. Belotti, a native of northern Italy, took advantage of a slow lunch crowd to individually guide us through his favorite pastas. Two hours and several courses later, and I was a convert.
We kicked the meal off with the casoncelli. On the menu, it’s described as “my mom’s Lombardian-style stuffed pasta,” and Belotti explained to us that in his native Lombardy, every family had a version of this dish that combines slightly differing ratios of ground meats. Belotti’s mixes beef, prosciutto, and pork shoulder into loose ribbons of stuffed pasta, topped with smoked pancetta and fresh Parmesan, and then painted lightly with a delicate sage-infused brown butter.
It was lovely, and not just because of that flavorful, meat filling—after all, it’s kind of hard to go wrong with ground beef and pork. Rather, it was the exceptional care that was obviously put into the dish. The most obvious manifestation of that is the pasta itself, which Belotti makes by hand every morning. He explained to us that, essentially, he uses double the amount of eggs, resulting in a final product that has a bit more texture and oomph to it than your typical fresh pasta.
Which is a good thing, because—fair warning—the portions aren’t huge at Belotti. But that didn’t bother me in this case, in part because the muscular nature of the pasta feels particularly substantial. Just as important, however, was the sheer quality. This is that rare kind of food that makes you want to slow down and savor each bite, which in my book makes it generous in spirit if not strictly in size.
Admittedly, it didn’t hurt that Belotti—an utterly charming host, who combines the slightly disheveled, Afro-haired look of a young Bob Dylan with the raw, infectious enthusiasm of a Roberto Benigni—was talking us through the meal. The young Italian is not even 30 years old, but he has packed in a lot of experience, apprenticing in Michelin-starred eateries Frosio Ristoranti and Da Guido Ristorante in his homeland before moving to San Francisco in 2011. In the city, he served as executive chef at Ristobar in the Marina district, where he earned high praise from none other than top dog Chronicle food critic Michael Bauer.
And you can see why his food is so well received. Belotti has obviously been well indoctrinated in one of the guiding philosophies found in the best Italian (and California) cuisine: Simplicity. He uses just a few quality ingredients and builds his flavors honestly.
The spaghetti is a good example. It sounds basic, and it was. But each element builds on the next to create a rising crescendo of flavor—curled into a perfect bird’s nest of pasta, the thick, toothsome, just al dente noodles are bathed in a rich tomato sauce made from mini-Marzano tomatoes grown in a specific volcanic region of Italy, and topped with a ultra-creamy burrata to bind it all together.
The tagliatelle with wild boar sugo is another winner. Michele braises the pork shoulder that makes up the sauce for 12 hours in red wine and grappa, lending a pleasant mild smoothness to the gamey meat, and then seasons the pasta with just pecorino and black pepper. The agnolotti de Lidia is the most decadent of the bunch. The little ears of stuffed pasta are pumped with a murderer’s row of beef shank, flat iron, pork loin, and sausage, as well as escarole, spinach, and Parmesan. Those robust little creations are then bathed in a decadent, umami-packed beef reduction.
I should add a disclaimer here that pasta isn’t the only thing on the menu. Belotti offers a handful of starters and a few entrees, which are also quite good—the Battuta rib-eye dry aged beef tartare was a standout—and the restaurant just started offering Italian brunch service on the weekends. But it’s the pasta where the magic lies. And to his credit, it’s something Michele seems to recognize by making it the clear focus of the menu when he opened his own restaurant.
And it appears that he found the perfect landing spot in Rockridge. The area is hip enough to appreciate Belotti’s sophisticated take on Italian food, while the cozy, casual, and yes, unpretentious vibe that Belotti cultivates seems tailor-made for the more down-to-earth approach East Bay diners tend to prefer in their restaurants.
It certainly seemed to have struck a chord when I returned for dinner on a drizzly Sunday night to find the place slammed. During that meal, we caught just a quick glimpse of Belotti, looking slightly exhausted in the midst of the busy dinner rush. It brought to mind my only real worry about this little hidden gem—that it’s already not so hidden. Belotti’s brand of food thrives on time and care, and I worry about the toll a perpetually busy restaurant takes on a small operation like Belotti where everything is handmade.
But I guess that’s a good problem to have, and given Belotti’s résumé and obvious dedication, I wouldn’t bet against his ability to scale things up without losing any of the food’s soul.
In the meantime, if you can, go for lunch on a weekday when it’s a little slower. You may just be lucky enough to receive a personal tour of the menu, which just might stretch your planned quick lunch into a leisurely two-hour feast.
I’ll offer a piece of advice: Just enjoy the ride; it’s worth it. And with any chance of a productive afternoon likely over, here’s another tip: Order the panna cotta. It was one of the simplest, lightest, most delicately delicious desserts that I’ve ever come across, made from just three pristine ingredients: cream, sugar, vanilla bean.
Yummy, yummy, yummy.
Belotti Ristorante
5403 College Ave., Oakland
510-788-7890
www.Belottirb.com.
Lunch and dinner, Wed.-Mon.,
weekend brunch.
Average entree: $25,
average pasta: $15.
Beer and wine only.
Credit cards accepted.