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Tuscany
Il Ristorante Revisited
A Serious Affair- Family Style
Perhaps the single question most asked of me in
the last seven years either via messages to FrankAboutFood.com
or via direct personal contact has been “What is the best
restaurant in Ventura
County?” Seven years ago the answer might have been simpler. |
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But today, any single response would meet challenges
from those who have their own favorite and non-favorite choices. You
see, the number of superior dining spots especially in the narrower range of
the ethnics, namely Japanese-Sushi, Chinese, Thai and Mexican has multiplied
exponentially. When you add in Steak and or Seafood Spots, Wine Bars and
California-Mediterranean-Fusion, you begin to get the picture. This area now
has so many excellent choices that it makes the “dreaded valley” seem like a
culinary suburb of Bakersfield.
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Super Restaurateur Barletta and Part of
La Famiglia |
However,
for the last 19, years, Tuscany has always been the name with which
to conjure when one thought about who was the leader of the pack
It has remained there
ever since Tommaso Barletta left his casual
mini-tratorria in Camarillo where he did the cooking to move into the big
time on Westlake Blvd.
Much earlier Barletta left the southern Adriatic city of Bari
as a young man to hone his skills at a leading Italian hotel and
culinary academy. He combined it with 3 years on the
famous luxury Italian cruise ships that
ply the Mediterranean. As is well known these ships very often ( and still
do) carried upscale American
tourists and Barletta apparently liked what he saw stylishly parading on the
decks.
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So he made for the shores of America and wound up as a
waiter in the “hot and trendy” Adreano’s in the Santa Monica
Mountains on Beverly Glen Blvd. in Westside Los Angeles. In a sort of
coincidence, the owners of Marcello’s in Thousand Oaks and the owner
of Pastabilities in Camarillo and Ventura also worked at Adreano’s as
well as on those “notorious” cruise ships. Fortunately for all of them they did
not acquire “The Westside Attitude” that eventually put Adreano’s out of
business.
However in the last four years, there was concern among
local foodies, that flagship
Tuscany might lose its hard earned edge as Barletta opened Rustico in
North Ranch and followed with Riviera in Calabasas. Turnover of
personnel is so rampant in the food industry that it is very difficult to
maintain culinary and service levels for one restaurant, much less when the owner is not on the premises
at all times.
Yet,
Barletta seems to have that magical capacity to be in three places at one
time so we gave him the benefit of the doubt. Further he took no risks.
He fell back on the time honored Italian tradition of “La Famiglia” to
protect all of his culinary investments.
| World travelers that have visited Italy all come back
with the feeling that it is almost impossible to have a bad meal. I
think that it is probably true. And the reason is that in every town, the
trattorias and osterias are family operated. Mama or Papa in the kitchen or
manning the front while sons and daughters serve the food. No turnover or
personnel problems there. |
Tuscany Attracts The Upscale Dining
Sophisticates of the Conejo |
So Barletta anticipated his expansions by bringing two
of his nephews and a niece over from Bari.
 They all benefited immensely from
their inbred Italian food heritage and Barletta’s meticulous training
methods.
One nephew, Roberto Giliberti became the manager of Rustico
and transformed it into an instant winner. It had been a dismal failure as
Ritrovo under the amateur ownership of an arrogant hairdresser. Niece
Monica Giliberti became the bar manager there and soon married
Maurizio Ronzoni, the overall executive chef who had come from Lake
Como, thus locking him in. Fabio Longano worked as a waiter for a
number of years and when Riviera opened up he became the director of wine
and beverages and the floating manager for all three locations.
Kevin Steelman is the manager at Riviera, but while he
is not Italian and is not related, he is almost family (having operated the bar
at Tuscany for about 8 years). Barletta also makes it easier for himself by
being able to maintain most other personnel. There are at least 4 waiters
and 4 servers that have vast multi-year experience. The night we dined there
recently, Barletta was in Napa for a series of wine tasting and the
restaurant ran like a clock under Longano's direction.
| The ambience at Tuscany is very comfortably low lit,
very well maintained and mural decorated. There are 4 separate dining areas,
two of which can be enclosed for private parties. Tables are reasonably
separated.
All of this keeps the sound
levels
down and encourages sophisticated or romantic conversations which are
part of the pleasure of true dining.
This is opposed to merely
eating at formulaics like Applebee’s, TGIF, Hooter's or
Chile’s where in addition to the noise, half the servers are named
Tiffany.
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One of Tuscany's Many Warm,
Comfortable and Quiet Dining Areas |
The food is probably among the most adventuresome in the
three serious Southland food counties of Ventura, Los Angeles and Santa
Barbara.
This creative menu is always implemented by 5 or 6 primo and segundo specials. The night that we dined, there was a wonderful
roasted beet and pear salad with and walnuts ($10). A remarkable pasta dish was offered with fresh sea urchin
($18) There
was a 5 spice duck ($24) and Garlic Roasted Filet Mignon ($30). I chose the traditional Osso
Buco with risotto Milanese ($24) which is always great. My wife had a beautifully
presented and prepared Roasted Columbia River Chinook salmon over a pinwheel
of herbed crepe with asparagus. There is
almost always a big bowl of Cioppino ($24) available. Finally, is a wide choice of desserts, often
emphasizing the upscale flavors of chocolate and lemon to which
most fine chefs seem to gravitate
plus various other pastries featuring fruit.
All of this has led to Tuscany's
recent validation in the top tier of the leading national guide book
ratings for all of Southern California.
To encourage the explosion of interest in wines and to encourage
adventure, Tuscany offers 25 well thought out choices of wine by the glass.
The list includes champagne, cab, pinot, Chianti, merlot plus chardonnay,
sauvignon blanc, viogner and gewurztraminer at very attractive prices from
$7 to $15 and the latter is for a wonderful and romantic French Brut
Rose Champagne. Gone are the days of "I'll have a glass of the house
chardonnay, please"
From an award winning 500 bottle prox list, Barletta and
Longano offer also the very sophisticated Big Bs, Red Bordeauxs,
White and Red Burgundies from France, Barolos and Barbarescos
and Brunellos from Piemonte and Toscana along with the cult
names of Napa such as Opus, Staglin, Phelps and Groth . These wines are
priced from $130 to some 4 digit numberes.
However There are pages of choices of midpriced
Chianti, Cab, Pinot, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc from $35 up.
But the one area that Tuscany seems amiss is that there
are no offerings from Australia and New Zealand where wonderful values in both
reds and whites are now very accessible. Globalization of the wine industry
has made that and the other two areas of the Southern Hemisphere as serious
places to consider.
Frankly Noted
Le Cafe appears
to have completed the remodeling of its dining rooms and outside patio.
It is one of the most pleasant inside-outside dining areas in the county.
Service is also very cheerful and friendly. We intend to do a
full review in the very near future. Meanwhile if you try it out ,
give us your report. We depend upon our readers for a lot of insight and
suggestions.
 Mastro's rehab appears to be on hold. Maybe Claimjumper's,
Dakota and Chapter 8 made Mastro's management feel that with
now at least 8 red meat joints in the Conejo, all but one at about 1/2 the
Mastro tab, enough is enough.
Yet, the explosion of new eateries in The Conejo area
seems never ending. We have received many e-mails concerning the demise of
Milano’s on Canwood in
Agoura. Fear not.
Very competent Carlos
Orozco of Adobe Cantina
fame is in the process of taking over and expects to be open by February 1st
with a creative seafood menu.
That shopping center now will have two worthwhile
dining spots. We reviewed Café 14
a few months ago and have since received positive feed back from many readers.
Check out our review in our Second
Chances feature.
But Brent's seems to be on target to add a
serious deli to Ventura County. at that oft changed location near the
Hyatt. Those that revel in filling up on a 2-3" thick artery killing
corned beef or pastrami sandwiches on fresh rye bread with a giant
pickle on the side will soon have their chance. I'm sticking with the
Classic "Chicken in the Pot" with a Matzoh Ball and a Kreplach like my
grandmother used to make
We must admit that we are not quite ready to review the
supposed steak house, Chapter 8
also in Agoura. Inconsistent reports have come back to us and we really
don’t like to review suspect restaurants just to write a negative
review. Further we had concluded that it was more of a party club than a dining
spot. We have decided to wait a bit longer.
 As stated we will continue to avoid reviewing the
all pseudo dining locations at "The Lakes" But we do get continued reports
on long waits, mediocre food and infantile service. One of the
latest reports on the Claim Jumper is hard to believe. It appears
that this supposed steak type restaurant could not get one steak at the table
right, even after two tries. The size of the take home doggy bags, however
continue to be large. One wonders if mediocre poorly cooked food is better
the next day. Well, you do get to avoid the amateur serving crew.
The competitive local reviewer for the Ventura County
Star recently did do a review on Chapter 8 so we thought perhaps we would get
some professional insight. However neither she nor her guest ordered steak????. They had a
Kobe
burger and $35 prox fish entrée. I guess I should have anticipated that
since she also recently reviewed a sushi bar but did not order sushi. About
the only thing that was apparent was that Chapter 8 was very, very expensive
On the other hand, we have had some recent better things
reported on their sister restaurant P6
in Westlake.
We had also stayed away from them because it did not appear that they
were serious about food either. We seemed to be correct as they had significant
personnel turnover and a policy change when neighbors prevailed about late
night outdoor carousing by the tight black leather pants contingent. That
group may have now moved to Chapter 8.
A new chef from Joaquiin Splichal's downtown
steakhouse, NIck and Stef's
has taken over with a new menu and we
expect to do a review very soon after he has truly settled in. Let's hope
the service is also on a higher scale. Maybe now that the Olympics
are over, Wayne Gretsky can do a little stickwork on the place.
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