High Style Italian Restaurants

By Frank Whitman

There are a lot of Italian restaurants.  I’ll bet it’s America’s favorite international cuisine.  Here in Connecticut, pizza is our state food, but there’s much more than pies in our Italian food scene. 

Baldanza Arugula Salad

There’s an Italian eatery for all occasions and tastes. Every neighborhood has a utilitarian pizza restaurant and favorite deli. Destination pizzerias with fancy ovens and recreations of Tuscan villas are a step up. High-style contemporary restaurants and cozy old-world spots are two sides of the same coin.  

Marsha and I have recently found two new-to-us but well-established Italian restaurants at the high end of the cucina Italiana spectrum. They’re both serving delicious, hand-crafted, beautifully-presented food in a charming atmosphere, but the experiences are quite different.

Close by, Baldanza at The Schoolhouse, is an intimate family-run restaurant in the charming Wilton village of Cannondale.  In the restored one-room schoolhouse the vibe is contemporary with a dash of Italian – a comfortable space to showcase their beautiful food. 

Il Palio

In Shelton, Il Palio occupies a free-standing stone palazzo purpose-built and landscaped with energetic bronze equestrian statues that recall the famous bare-back horse race in Siena’s Piazza del Campo.  Inside the double-height beamed ceiling covers a more formal space accented with colorful walls, natural wood, masonry and geometric tile. 

We stopped in for lunch one weekday on the recommendation of a friend and were surprised to find this bustling bit of Tuscany in the middle of a glass and steel office park. The imposing façade and equally grand interior were softened by a warm greeting and a friendly server. How had we not known about this unique 25 year-old establishment?

A jaunty cap

Developer Bob Scinto is responsible for the hardware, but the magic in the kitchen comes from chef Margherita Aloi.  Trained in Italy, Aloi was recruited to come to New York at age 17 as the pasta maker at Pino Luongo’s restaurant Le Madri.  She then led the kitchen in several highly acclaimed New York restaurants until she came to Connecticut in 2004 and then to Il Palio in 2010.

House made pastas are still her calling card along with much more. The prix-fixe lunch menu ($18.95) included the most remarkable mussels.  Stacked high with a chunky sauce of tomato, chickpea and slivers of garlic and topped with a jaunty cap of toasted bread, the bold flavors set off the tender mussels.  A picture-perfect root vegetable salad was tossed with quinoa, arugula and feta. 

A classic pan-roasted chicken breast with marsala and mushrooms was tender, delicious and pretty on the plate. The crisp flatbread of the day was studded with mushrooms, greens and peas.  We ended with a scoop of gelato and an espresso.  The dinner menu, much more extensive, beckoned. Can’t wait to go back. 

Iceberg Wedge Salad

There can’t be more than a dozen tables in Baldanza’s intimate space. The tiny entrance opens up to what was once the one-room schoolhouse.  Facing the blackboard is no longer required, instead it’s the creative and surprisingly long menu that holds your attention.  The choices cover authentic Italian (as you would expect with the name Baldanza over the door and in the kitchen) but then goes well beyond.  Homemade pastas and slow-simmered sauces share menu space with steak, salmon, halibut, short ribs and the obligatory burger – all plated with considerable brio. 

My eye was drawn to the Iceberg Wedge Salad ($18).  Lucky me!  At first I thought they’d brought the wrong dish. Tiny wedges of organic iceberg leaned against unexpectedly ripe and flavorful slices of tomato, all sprinkled with applewood bacon, Point Reyes blue cheese and buttermilk dressing. What a pretty, fresh and tasty treat in the depths of February!  

An Endive Salad ($18) was picture-perfect, with petals of pear atop a column of arugula, dried cranberries and Point Reyes blue, all doused in raspberry vinaigrette.  As seasonal a salad as you can get in winter. 

Marsha dove into perfectly sautéed grey sole filets ($42). At the suggestion of our server (brothers Lauro and Mario have been professionally and thoughtfully serving here for 18 years through two owners) I went for the Fusilli Roma ($32).  Sauced with prosciutto, mushrooms, peas and parmigiana cream, it was an excellent recommendation.  

Our dinner companions raved over the Halibut ($38) with asparagus, spinach and citrus beurre blanc and Tomahawk Veal Siciliana ($59) – like a parmigiana with the rib bone hanging off the plate.  

Two dishes from Italy, and two from further afield.  The Baldanza kitchen has a long but capable reach.  

There’s no end to quality, high-style Italian restaurants in our area.  When you’re ready for something special, I suggest one of these.