photo:Shannon DeCelle

A Taste of Little Italy
By B.A. Nilsson

Anselmo’s
95 Ferry St., Troy, 272-6100. Serving dinner Wed-Sat from 4 PM. MC, V.

Cuisine: Mediterranean Italian

Entrée price range: $8 (grilled chicken) to $15 (veal parmigiana)

Ambiance: Little Italy

It’s been a fairly quiet homecoming for Sam Zolio. He opened Anselmo’s with no fanfare a few months before hosting a grand opening last month. He describes it as a “no-nonsense Italian restaurant.” And his unique, satisfying way with Mediterranean cuisine will soon end the comparative peace the restaurant seems currently to be enduring.

The place needs to be busy, because it’s the closest thing we have in the Capital Region to a true Mott Street Little Italy restaurant, and such restaurants are at their best when the party is in full swing.

Nevertheless, we found much to enjoy during a pair of comparatively quiet visits. The building has been extensively remodeled but retains the spirit of the old Sam’s. Again, the walls are crowded with photos, the lighting is restrained, the music Sinatra and familiar Italian opera arias.

You enter the bar area, which also has a couple of tables. Two dining rooms lie beyond that, and beyond the dining rooms is a comfortable lounge. Dining room tables are white-linened, and each sports a candle and a couple of bottles of wine. Places are set once you enter, or in anticipation of your reservation.

A generous selection of specials enhances the two-page menu, all sharing a fairly insane pricing approach. Steak pizzaiola, for instance, was $14, and we’re talking about at least 20 ounces of beef. It was a tender, tasty cut, grilled exactly to my specification. (“On the rare side of medium-rare,” I usually say, because medium-rare typically translates, these days, to medium.)

It seems an unlikely pairing, but the meat is served atop a marinara which packs a powerful garlic punch—perfect for a steak like this. A side of ziti completes the dish.

After a starter of bruschetta, a special that day, with a tapenade-like topping rich in olives and capers, as well as a sampling of other appetizers on the table, I wasn’t about to finish the steak (it was great the next morning with some scrambled eggs). And who would have thought the bruschetta would be so filling?

I was warned by the server, but heeded not the advice. I’ll know better in the future. These are servers you can trust for food advice—probably lots of other advice, too. There’s an energetic floor crew that works cooperatively, so you’re not relying on one person alone to see to your needs. Which is as it should be.

Other appetizers we sampled include the salad caprese ($7), a plate of fresh mozzarella paired with tomato slices, enhanced with big bits of basil. A classic. Add a little bread and you’ve already got a meal. I was headed toward the provolone cheese-Genoa salami plate ($7) when the server pointed out that the antipasto ($10) gives me the same thing with a lot extra.

Roasted red peppers, olives, tomatoes, mozzarella, anchovies: They’re items that are available in separate appetizer plates, but in combination take your palate so much further, and give you bargaining power when trying to taste the other apps at your table—like the sautéed artichokes ($8), a big portion of battered and fried artichoke hearts, served with a lemon-scented sherry sauce.

Your server will ask if it’s OK to put in a order of garlic bread ($4). And you’ll say yes, because you’ll want to add the crunch and garlic to whatever else you’re starting with. Make no mistake: This is bread liberally coated with thin, magnificent slices from the clove!

Pasta dishes dominate the entrée list, and the house special, pasta Anselmo ($13) is as good as such a dish gets. Sausage and broccoli are added, tossed in a cream sauce that’s cheese-rich. Similarly, fettuccine Alfredo ($11) gives you a cream sauce without the vegetables, but the velvety texture of the dish is superb.

Of course there’s marinara as a topping ($9), along with olive-studded puttanesca ($10), caprese with mozzarella ($11), and pasta piselli ($10), with prosciutto and peas added to the tomato sauce. It’s probably a little early in the season for pasta primavera ($11), which did have asparagus as one of its spring vegetables. But we also saw zucchini poking through, and we’re still on winter overload from squash.

Otherwise, look for chicken (grilled or parmigiana), grilled pork loin ($9), some calamari preparations, and a little shrimp. It’s reliable stuff, much of which Sam has been offering in his previous restaurant incarnations. He was at this same spot when we reviewed him in 1992; three years later he was running Sam’s Ninety-Five in Saratoga, while the Ferry Street address went through a succession of publike identities.

Upon learning last year that the building was for sale, he got back in business and his fans already are finding and enjoying the place. “Their tastes are changing, though,” he notes. “Used to be you couldn’t keep osso bucco for five minutes. Now I have leftovers.”

If it’s a special when you visit, try it. Or try the three musketeers ($14), which lets you sample chicken parmigiana, eggplant rollatini and brasciole all in the same dish. It’s the kind of thing Sam serves up like a virtuoso. It’s great to have him back.

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