 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Risibisi elevates the basics — Veteran chef brings fine Mediterranean dishes, wines to Petaluma By JEFF COX FOR THE PRESS DEMOCRAT The region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia lies in the most northeasterly part of Italy, where the Adriatic Sea forms a wide bay on which the city of Trieste is located, just a few miles from the Slovenian and Croatian borders. The style of cuisine in this region has influences from the Tyrol and the former Yugoslavia as well as from Italy. Its wines are aromatic and fruity. A local favorite dish is a risotto with peas called, in the local dialect, risi e bisi (rice and peas), though the usual word for peas in the rest of Italy is pisello. Another product of Trieste is Chef Fabio Flagiello who, with partner and fellow Trieste native Marco Palmieri, has opened Risibisi in Petaluma, contracting the name of the risotto dish into what must be the cutest restaurant name in the county. At Risibisi, he's displaying his take on Italian, French, Spanish and Californian cooking - sort of a global Mediterranean concept developed over his years in the kitchens of the Hotel Danieli in Venice, Italy, Scoozi in Chicago, Chianti Cucina in Los Angeles, his two eponymous restaurants on the Southern California coast and a stint as executive chef at the well-known but now defunct Il Fornaio in San Francisco. But Chef Flagiello isn't just reproducing the same old classics and favorites you can get at any fine Italian restaurant. He's found some interesting ways to give his dishes a flavor boost to increase the pleasure factor. His Baked Chicken Breast ($16 ½) is an example of a prosaic entrée made into something special by stuffing it with a ground up mixture of goat cheese, chicken sausage, pistachios and bits of black truffle. Why not four stars for this scrumptious chicken breast? For one thing, it was cooked a trifle too long and the breast meat was somewhere between dry and juicy. Secondly, the black truffle was canned and added very little of its potentially profound flavor. But a bite of the meat, suffused with the baked cheese and other ingredients, was so delicious, I almost didn't care. Risibisi is located in the room that was One Fifty Four, an excellent restaurant that might have been a success in one of San Francisco's sophisticated neighborhoods but whose arty creations weren't quite right for Petaluma. The south wall is old brick, exposed when Flagiello and Palmieri had the white paint sandblasted off. The floors are beautiful hardwood, exposed when the layers of paint and polish were removed. The north wall is covered floor to ceiling with drapery and a tangle of thick, colored ship ropes that Flagiello made as a decoration. A long hallway from the main dining room to a back room is fitted with windows so you can watch the kitchen at work, or, on the other wall, see the surrealistic pictures of Paris and Venice by Bay Area photographer Ann Simms. They're well worth a look. A Creamsicle-colored, translucent onyx bar top is lit from beneath and glows softly. Lighting is provided by complex white balls hung from the ceiling. An eclectic mix of world music, B.B. King, and even that staple of restaurants everywhere, the Gipsy Kings, plays from the sound system. You can get an education in good Italian wines from the wine list. We started off with a wine everyone at the table knew and loved, the 2005 Fiano di Avellino from Feudi di San Gregorio in Campania near Naples. The Romans knew this grape as Latino, to distinguish it from the Greco variety that also was grown around Mount Vesuvius. Pliny called it Apiana, or "bee vine" because he said bees were drawn to it. It yields a fine food wine, brightly acidic, with a light flavor of toasted hazelnuts. It retails in stores for about $23, so its markup to $36 at Risibisi is very reasonable. Later in the dinner, the table ordered a bottle of Grillo for $29, another reasonable price, this time for an interesting Sicilian white wine. The parade of dishes began with a thick Puree of Pumpkin Soup ($5 ). Just a bit of salt and a touch of nutmeg and cinnamon enhanced the rich flavor of the winter squash. "The thing about great Italian food," one of our table's guests said, "is its simplicity. This soup - it's all about the pumpkin." This was followed by an Autumn Trio ($10 ) that included more of the pumpkin soup, but here served in a mini pumpkin, plus a cylinder fashioned from cabbage, apples, raisins and cream, and finally, a savory porcini panna cotta with a slice of canned black truffle. But why bother with the tasteless canned truffle? The porcini panna cotta, on the other hand, was delightful. An Organic Baby Beet Salad ($7 ½) failed to please. The red and yellow baby beets seemed short on flavor, and there were precious few pieces of beet among the watercress, arugula and lumps of dry ricotta. Some caramelized pecans and hard-as-rocks, out-of-season, decorative if not particularly edible blackberries finished the plate. Fritto Misto ($8 ½) was a workmanlike assemblage of chewy fried calamari, shrimp, caper berries and great little halved baby artichokes. A boneless Grilled Quail ($9 ½) had everyone applauding the chef's marriage of French and Italian ideas. The bird was quickly cooked and still juicy, tasting of quail although given a tangy sauce containing bits of pancetta. It came with a salad of young frisee dressed with an orange and apricot confit. The restaurant's namesake dish is Risi e Bisi ($16 ). Chef Flagiello's excellent version contains an al dente risotto made with broth and lots of wine, chiodini mushrooms - a type favored in northern Italy - frozen peas, Reggiano-Parmigiano cheese and topped with a very small lobster tail. The pleasure factor stayed high when the Sfogliata ($17 ½) hit the table. It consisted of a 6-inch-wide sheet of pasta folded over a creamy mixture of scallops, black trumpet mushrooms and white mushrooms - the aroma was wonderful and the flavor even better. A Duck Leg Confit ($16 ) wasn't memorable. The duck leg and thigh seemed more slow-cooked than confit. It was served with couscous, pan-roasted figs and spinach. Coniglio (Braised Boneless Rabbit) ($17 ) was much better. The meat was taken off the bones for a user-friendly presentation and served with cured olives, a mushroom-sage puree and a grilled half bulb of fennel. Lamb Duet ($19 ) consisted of luscious, rich, long-cooked braised shoulder and a grilled rib chop, served with gnocchi, baked pear and snap peas. Tiramisu ($6 ) and Chocolate Pot de Crème ($6 ) were very good expressions of these classic Italian and French desserts, respectively. To sum up: Petaluma gets yet another very fine Italian restaurant. You can't have too much of a good thing.
Published: November 5, 2007 |
|
• Santa Rosa Press Democrat article in the food section by Jeff Cox
|
|
|
|
707-766-7600 info@risibisirestaurant.com © 2009 risibisirestaurant.com all rights reserved