Hospitality

The owner of Via Mercanti in Kensington Market has opened a second location on Elm Street inside the newly renovated YWCA. It was a quiet street, being surrounded by hospitals and medical buildings. The restaurant didn't have too many windows, but it has a good amount of patio space for the summer, even if the view was simply tall buildings. Inside, the decor tried to invoke a homier feel with large prints and artifacts from Salerno, the proprietor's hometown.

Once I realized that compared with the old spot, which was a pizzeria/restaurant, this was a restaurant/pizzeria, I went with a pasta dish. But since I still had my original hankering for pizza, I started with some Bocconcini di pizza ($6.00). Essentially, these were fancy pizza pockets. Warm crusts held oozy fior di latte and ricotta cheese, with some salty goodness from the ham and prosciutto. I couldn't finish them fast enough.

The pasta alla Bolognese ($18.25) wasn't quite as good. The tomato sauce was excellent, fresh with a slight acidity. You could taste the ground beef, though you couldn't see much of it. Mostly though, the rigatoni was just slightly on the wrong side of al dente. For every piece that had that perfect chew, another was just a tad too gritty. Otherwise, it would have been a great dish.

With the pizza balls, pasta, and complimentary fresh focaccia bread, I was in a carb stupour. So though it was still a chilly Saturday in March, I walked a couple of blocks to work off some of those calories.