With so many good Italian restaurants popping up across the city, Charlotte is fortunate to have many good Italian eats from which to choose. This week we’ll focus on the Dilworth neighborhood’s relatively new trattoria called Dolce.

The leaning tower of pizza
Dolce is owned by Luisa and Rudy Amadio. The restaurant, originally opened as Dolce Gelato in the fall of 2003, was the second Dolce Gelato location in the city and the third Italian eatery for Luisa and Rudy. The couple also own Luisa’s Brick Oven Pizza off Montford Road near Park Road Shopping Center, which opened 14 years ago and was the first brick oven pizzeria in the Queen City.

As new restaurants were beginning to expand patrons’ culinary horizons, the Amadios decided to open two gelaterias serving homemade gelato, Italy’s answer to ice cream. The first Dolce Gelato opened in North Charlotte’s Birkdale Shopping Center in March 2003. The Dilworth location soon followed. But after a year of running one restaurant and two gelaterias, all of the driving was too much. The Amadios, who live in South Charlotte, decided to focus their efforts in that part of town, selling the Birkdale location in December of 2004. They also decided to downsize the gelato business in Dilworth and use the space to open a more upscale but casual Italian eatery, or trattoria. Gelato is still available both on the dessert menu and in a small corner of the space accessed by a door on the Kenilworth Street side of the shop.

The transformation of the space is fantastic. Gone are the cold, stainless steel countertops and rounded glass cases of the gelateria, replaced with warm wood tones, sheer draperies and walls painted a welcoming terra cotta. Wooden tables are topped with colorful place mats during the day and tablecloths and candlelight in the evening. The patio dining has been expanded and formalized as well. An awning covers the patio, which houses eight to 10 tables for al fresco dining. While the dress and atmosphere are casual and relaxed, the service and food are anything but. Chef Pasquale Caruso, originally from Napoli, is in charge of the kitchen and works with Luisa to plan the menu, which changes seasonally.

Seasonal selections
Still on the summer menu but soon to leave for the season is a rich and tasty stuffed-mushroom appetizer, funghi ripieni, where three large mushroom caps come baked and stuffed with crab meat, spinach and an Asiago cheese sauce. The gamberi alla griglia, or grilled jumbo shrimp wrapped with a thin Italian ham called pancetta and served over roasted sweet fennel, also is great but about to go on vacation for the fall and winter.

For fall the menu will continue to include a fabulous antipasto misto, or cold selection of melt-in-your-mouth grilled and marinated red and yellow peppers, eggplant and sliced zucchini paired with imported cheeses and cold cuts, marinated olives and white Tuscan beans dressed in extra virgin olive oil and a special blend of herbs from Tuscany. It’s a perfect way to start the evening.

New on the menu this season is a dish Dolce has been running as an occasional special. A baked calamari dish called calamari Siciliani is served in a crock topped with a sheet of parchment paper. The presentation is as dramatic as the flavor. The calamari is marinated and then sautéed in tomato wine sauce before the dish is finished in the oven. If your calamari experiences have been limited to the fried variety, this tender and tasty variation is sure to open your eyes to a new world of flavor.

Soups on the menu change daily. All are homemade and each one is as tasty as the next. The salad selection is limited to a trio of offerings: a simple plate of mixed greens dressed in a homemade vinaigrette; an authentic insalata Cesare; and a delicious insalata fresca, which blends mixed greens with julienne pears, golden raisins and a gorgonzola-honey dressing.

Pasta, paisano?
Eight pastas follow, served as first plates or main courses. Do dinner at Dolce on Tuesday night to taste the homemade gnocchi (tender potato dumplings). These small but rich morsels are sauced with a meat ragu, a four-cheese sauce, pesto or a unique and savory butter sage sauce. The spicy bucatini alla Amertriciana with pancetta, tomato sauce and hot pepper flakes is always good, as is the linguine ai frutti di mare, or linguine with mixed seafood served in a light but spicy fresh tomato sauce.

The pasta dish that takes the cake, though, is the cannelloni di spinaci. It was love at first bite when we tasted the pair of light, homemade crepes stuffed with mascarpone, ricotta and spinach, all bathed in a creamy lemon Parmigiano sauce. My advice is to order one plate for dinner and another to go – you’ll want the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Entrée chic
All entrées are served with a vegetable and starch of the day. Menu offerings also include veal scaloppini, baked flounder, medallions of veal, and grilled New York strip steak, called bistecca alla griglia. All of the meat and chicken is hormone free, and the beef from Val di Chiana in Tuscany is grass fed, making for a more tender cut.

Entrées new to the fall menu that have previously run as successful summer specials include Costoletta Riviera, a thinly pounded pork chop filled with spinach, pine nuts, fontina cheese and ham in a mushroom Marsala wine sauce; and a risotto cinque terre, in which the slow-cooked Arborio rice is blended with shrimp, clams, mussels and calamari in a Frascati wine sauce. Both are real winners, as is the Coniglio Sanremo, or braised rabbit, in a white wine sauce often run as a special.

The wine list at Dolce is small but inclusive and entirely Italian, as is the beer selection. We enjoyed a delightful red wine called Sagantino Monte Falco that would be good with almost any of the menu selections. For starters try one of Luisa’s specialties and a fast favorite in our book, Dolce’s Bellini. Made with real Italian Prosecco, a sparkling white wine akin to champagne, mixed with just the right amount of peach and apricot syrup, this before-dinner apéritif is now our favorite starter for dinner at Dolce.

Dolci at Dolce
The dessert list includes all the popular favorites, and all are homemade in the Dolce kitchen. Tiramisu, cannoli and cheesecake are all wonderful. If you want a little of it all, order the Dolce Piatto, a combination platter of several of your favorites. For my money though, gelato is a must. There are several flavors from which to choose.

Regional favorites: From antipasto to ziti
In an effort to expose patrons to all varieties of Italian food, Luisa, who comes from the northern city of Milano, and Rudy, who comes from Rome, have devised a unique regional Italian menu offered the first two weeks of every month in addition to the regular fare at Dolce.

Here is the schedule from now to the end of the year: Oct. 3-16 – food and wine from the Bologna region; Nov. 7- 20 – food and wine from the Piemonte region; and Dec. 5-18 – food and wine from the northern region of Lombardia.

Well-known Charlotte restaurant critic, food writer, cooking instructor and connoisseur of food and wine, Heidi Edidin writes "The Charlotte Weekly: Culinary Corner," a restaurant review or food feature that appears weekly. Contact Heidi with questions and restaurant, food or story ideas by email at heidi@thecharlotteweekly.com.

CW photos by Brian Treffeisen.

This article first appeared in "The Charlotte Weekly" on September 16, 2005. "The Charlotte Weekly" is a free, locally owned, independent newspaper that's "About the Community, For the Community," available every Thursday in North and South Charlotte and Uptown.

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