Village Squire, 1980-03, Page 28SQUIRE'S TABLE
Those of us who live in Western Ontario
and love Italian food have pretty well
reconciled ourselves to either learning to
cook it or doing without. For there aren't
many restaurants in Village Squire's
coverage area that specialize in homemade
pasta dishes and other Italian favourites.
The dinner we ate recently at Esposito's
Place, at 408 Downie St. in Stratford is a
sign that times have changed. Formerly a
pizza place and take out, the cozy little
(room for about 30 diners) restaurant no
longer makes pizza but you can get
delicous pasta or veal dishes to take home.
But why not eat in and enjoy both the
food and friendliness dispensed by the
Esposito family? Father is maitre d' and
bartender (and can pinch hit as chef),
mother does the cooking and son is the
efficient and friendly waiter.
From the photo of the Trevi Fountain on
the menu covers to the red•and black decor
and straw covered empty Chianti bottles
which line the dining room, Esposito's lets
you know you're not in a run of the mill
restaurant offering something from every-
where but an Italian place.
The menu is small. That's deliberate
because everything is homemade. Spag-
hetti comes with various meat and mush-
room sauces at $2.60 to 53.75 with clam
sauce or al pesto (cheese, garlic and fresh
parsley) at 53.75. Then there's cannelloni
(54.00), ravioli and tortellini (53.75 each).
Each serving is enough for a whole meal,
Canadian style or if you order one of the
menu's three veal dishes (55 each) you get
a small dish of perfectly cooked spaghetti
on the side.
Ordinary salads with an excellent tart
Italian dressing started our meal, with
warm crusty bread. A soup of the day,
homemade beef noodle was available at
75f. After the waiter warned that a choice
of spaghetti with clam sauce plus Vitello
Piccata Milanese was a bit ambitious we
whittled our order down to the veal which
came with correctly cooked bright green
peas (and the aforementioned spaghetti).
Vitellow Parmigiana (breaded veal top-
ped with a terrific sweet tomato sauce and
lots of mozzarella cheese) was our other
menu choice. Scaloppine Con Funghi E
Peperoni (veal with mushrooms, peppers
and herbs) was the third veal dish.
The veal Milanese, dipped in egg, bread
crumbs and grated parmesan, could have
been cut with a fork. The veal Parmigiana
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wasn't as tender but its sauce made it more
interesting.
After a leisurely main course in the
nearly empty, and intimate dining room we
tried the Spumoni and Esposito's Own
Cake ..."they're different, all home
made" said the waiter when we quizzed
him about what sort of cake it was.
The Spumoni was great, a huge serving,
and the cake of the day was a large piece of
white cake split in the centre by a creamy
custard. Mmmmm good and it was tough
to finish the whole thing.
Cappuccino, made to order at the bar
("put a lot of milk in mine" one of us
asked) at 51.25 was the perfect ending to a
meal that brought back memories of a
sunny Italy.
Esposito's is the kind of restaurant you
almost don't want to talk about because
fame might mean big crowds and line ups.
But it deserves a wider appreciative
audience.
So give your best pasta recipes a rest and
yourself a break. Eat at Esposito's for the
sort of Italian meal memories are made of.
Reservations are recommended because
the restaurant is small and diners like to
linger.
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