Tucked away in a working-class neighborhood of east Lebanon, tiny but attractive Trattoria Fratelli puts one in mind of those South Philadelphia row house restaurants that make one long for Rome.
This is real Italian.
You won't likely read a sentence in a restaurant review linking Lebanon to Philadelphia and/or Rome again soon. Yet, inside this restored brick building, the former Tap Room Restaurant, now with exposed brick walls and wooden ceiling beams, a wooden bar and brass cappuccino maker, patrons are transported into an eating atmosphere almost exclusive to big-city dining.
Even better, the menu is a delight, pricing fair, service efficient and informed, preparation careful and the food itself exceptional. Open a little more than a year, the trattoria clearly has hit its stride.
Appetizers, soups and salads range in price from only $2 for a cup of chicken broth with escarole and mini-meatballs to just $3 for an ever-changing antipasto special that is brought and shown tableside before orders are taken.
The menu regularly features fresh mozzarella with grilled eggplant, $5; Portabella mushroom with roasted peppers, $4.25; and a wonderful-tasting and beautifully presented calamari Genovese (small calamari slices served with diced red potato and sautéed peppers in a light tomato sauce with lemon juice on crustini). At just $4.75, the dish is both a genuine bargain and authentic Italian cuisine.
A lovely salad "alla Fratelli" is made with mixed baby greens for just $2.75; a Caesar with shaved pecorino cheese (ask for anchovies) is very reasonably priced at $4. Well-made peasant bread is offered with a light, flavorful olive oil. And the bread just keeps on coming.
A short but well-chosen wine list contains classics such as a good Barolo, selected Chianti and a fine pair of chardonnays. Available by the glass mostly in the $3 to $4 range, are such wines as Elmo Pio merlot and Chianti, as well as a very nice Citra Trebbianno. In addition to a mix of local and imported bottled beer, a few beers are on tap, including the regionally favored Yuengling Lager.
The showpiece of the place, a wood-fired brick oven, produces pizza that serves as a meal or a shared appetizer. Special pizzas include pizza del pescatore, $8, topped with mussels, clams and shrimp; a four-cheese pizza for $6.75; and pizza al pollo, $7, topped with roasted chicken, sweet peppers and hot Italian sausages.
The danger here is filling up on such goodies - for the real treat remains in the pasta dishes and entrees to come.
Among the pastas are spaghetti Bolognese, just $8; risotto with asparagus, peas, roasted garlic and goat cheese,$10.50; penne in a light cream sauce with chicken , spinach and pine nuts, $11; and an unusual but delicious side dish close to a ravioli soup - thin homemade ravioli filled with sun-dried tomato and spinach in a light broth with mushrooms and prosciutto. For $10.25, this is a beautiful, well-made meal.
A nice mix of veal, steak, chicken and fish dishes rounds out the entree offerings, which are limited - actually a good sign in a small restaurant - but inventive. Grilled salmon, $15, comes with lentils and roasted new potatoes; half of a wood-roasted chicken, $12, is served with calamata olives and grilled polenta; and a filet mignon is offered with a Gorgonzola potato cake and mushroom sauce for $15.75.
Because Italians have a historic aversion to the notion that at one point during the meal one stops eating, there are deserts; warm ricotta cake with fresh strawberries and creme fariche, and a must-try-even-if-shared chocolate mascarpone and vanilla custard with hazelnut praline. Order desert. Seek forgiveness later.
Then, as if all this did not suffice, there are Italian and desert coffees and, of course, cappuccino, espresso and caffé latte. One delight, called "monks rope", combines coffee, frangelico and creme de cacao. The name seems to imply this a method of climbing to heaven. It is difficult not to stay and have several.
In fact, if one does not stay late, one can leave with the aroma of wood-roasted chicken, which strikes home even among the sated. Pans of chicken are roasted at night to be picked for salads and pizzas the next day, a chef explains.
Phantom readers will no doubt recall oft repeated laments about the painful shortage of good Italian dining in central Pennsylvania. Thanks to Trattoria Fratelli, the lack is less, and the only pain is from overeating.
Patrons can eat and drink almost exclusively top-shelf preparations and still escape for $50 to $60 a couple. Those who cherish true Italian should, in a word, go.
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