In little time the place was full.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI chose cooking over playing video games when I\u2019d get home from school,\u201d recalls Marco Provino, a 20-something who was executive chef at Osteria Panevino in San Diego\u2019s Gaslamp Quarter before opening the exquisitely designed Giardino in mid-November with his radiant Russian wife, Karina Kravalis.<\/span><\/p>\n She works the front of the house and helped makeover what used to be a Mexican restaurant. The roomy interior captivates with warm lighting, brick and chalkboard walls, and floral wallpaper from Switzerland framing a window in the back that looks into a private dining room.<\/span><\/p>\n Amid ample seating is an orange 1972 Vespa parked between high and low-top tables, a whimsical touch that fits artfully into the scheme. There\u2019s also an inviting L-shaped bar stocked with organic Italian beer and wines from Italy, California and the Northwest. Cozy and embracing, it\u2019s exactly the kind of restaurant every neighborhood deserves.<\/span><\/p>\n Provino\u2019s menu features straightforward Sicilian dishes as well as northern Italian recipes laced with rich cream-based sauces.<\/span><\/p>\n The former shines a spotlight on breaded rib eye served with seasonal vegetables, and pizzas that defy the thick, stereotypical Sicilian style we all know. These, however, are what you\u2019d find in Sicily\u2019s capital of Palermo, which flaunt thin, crispy crusts slightly burnt in spots to give them a delicious chary essence.<\/span><\/p>\n We ordered \u201cThe Queen,\u201d a margarita pie made \u201cthe way it\u2019s supposed to be,\u201d as stated on the menu. Despite its uncomplicated topping of light tomato sauce, buttery mozzarella and fresh basil leaves, it carried the savory excitement of a pizza studded with twice the number of ingredients.<\/span><\/p>\n Leading up to the pizza and two entrees, we began with the house salad using mixed lettuces sourced from a Lemon Grove farmer. Sweet cherry tomatoes and a rather heavy hand of house-made Italian dressing added a high level of perkiness my companion favors. I prefer under-dressed greens.<\/span><\/p>\n An appetizer of meatball lollipops (five to an order) featured loosely formed orbs of beef, pork and veal draped in bright pomodoro sauce. They went down as easily as an order of eggplant rolls filled with herb-speckled ricotta and mozzarella. <\/span><\/p>\n The thinly sliced, lightly fried sheets of eggplant were delightfully firm and flavorful rather than watery and insipid like they can be without proper treatment. It was one of our favorite dishes of the evening.<\/span><\/p>\n Other starters include steamed mussels and clams in white wine sauce, calamari fritti with garlic aoili, crab-stuffed mushrooms, and the Sicilian invention of saffron-kissed rice balls with peas known as arancini. They\u2019re served here with Bolognese sauce and pesto aioli.<\/span><\/p>\n Pasta carbonara is a Roman dish featuring an egg yolk-based sauce that doesn\u2019t show up in too many Italian restaurants because of its tricky nature. If overcooked or held on a serving line too long, the sauce turns into scrambled eggs.<\/span><\/p>\n Provino\u2019s version escaped that horror. And he gives it a Milanese spin by adding brandy-spiked cream to a sauce that\u2019s already wickedly rich from sauteed bacon and the egg yolks. Tossed into ribbons of his house-made fettucine, it was one of those divine dishes that was well worth the few extra hikes I took to burn off the calories in the days following.<\/span><\/p>\n My companion opted for a cholesterol bomb too \u2013 the pork belly roll flecked with spinach and pancetta and served over mashed potatoes with mushroom-cream sauce. We were shocked at the hefty portion of belly, which featured a wide layer of the prized melt-in-your-mouth fat coiled around a strip of firm and fleshy meat in the center. Impossible to finish, given the other dishes that came before it, he toted half of it home.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"From](\"https:\/\/lamesacourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Giardino-meatballs1.jpg\")
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