July / August 2010
Italian for Beginners
A new owner adds spark to a Boothbay Harbor landmark.
Review by Diane Hudson
What to do when you learn that the restaurant you’re about to review has changed, literally overnight?
We arrive at highly acclaimed Ports of Italy only to discover the Italian chef-owner has left the night before. Regardless, the place is packed. As we huddle in the foyer, we see and hear the new owner, Sante Calandri, moving purposely about, soothing wait staff and customers. We immediately have faith in him and decide to stay.
Colorful and engaging, Calandri–a native of Perugia, a province in central Italy–welcomes us warmly. Hailing from a 23-year stint at Manhattan’s BiCE, he tells us he’s bought Ports of Italy after visiting Boothbay and thinking, “This is so beautiful. Why haven’t I been here my whole life?”
You’ll think the same, with food this good. All pastas are made fresh in-house, as are the succulent sauces and other genuine Italian fare.
After tearing into the house’s legendary tasty, fresh-baked bread served generously with extra good, extra virgin olive oil flecked with roasted black olive pieces, we begin with bresaola ($10)–beef rubbed in spices and air-cured in the Italian Alps. Sliced paper thin, this delicate, lean meat, served with arugula and shaved celery, is a tantalizing treat, as is the golden-crusted, fried goat cheese that comes with it. Equally good is the insalata di finocchio, with fresh fennel, orange filets, capers, parsley, and lemon oil over tangy greens ($7).
Our entrées are met with equal, unanimous enthusiasm. The velvety and moist risotto del giorno (priced daily) is just the right texture, and the rich flavors of the red-wine reduction and Gorgonzola sauce highlight the accompanying fork-tender beef tenderloin, cooked precisely as ordered. What can we say? Il paradiso!
Generally finicky about gnocchi ($17), my partner has no complaints. Tossed with Italian sweet sausage, mushrooms, and cream, these handsome potato dumplings disappear quickly.
Deciding the tagliatelle with sauce Bolognese ($17) will be “the true test,” our friend and faithful believer in Ports of Italy as it was before keeps us in suspense as he muses over the first few bites. He beetles his brow. Then there’s the grin. Yes, the sauce wins him over!
The wines here, too, intrigue. The Fattoria Capannacce Rosso della Maremma Toscana Super Tuscan 2005 ($26) holds up well throughout.
For a sweet finish to a magic evening, we share cannoli and a refreshing raspberry crème brûlée, cooled by a perfect ocean breeze. Do you believe in serendipity? It’s as though we’ve arrived here at precisely the instant this place has gone from good to great.
Ports of Italy, 47 Commercial Street, Boothbay Harbor
Open daily, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., 633-1011
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