Italian fare gets a lighter touch at Elio Volpe
Elio Volpe, the fifth offspring in the Banda Volpi quintet of Italian restaurants, is closest in kind to its popular kin, Savio Volpe.
“Same, same, but different,” is owner Paul Grunberg’s nutgram. “The food program at Savio showcases live fire, bigger cuts of steak, whole fish, the pasta’s more Roman and the food’s more meat forward, heavier.” Elio Volpe is the lighter yin to Savio’s yang. It is “inspired by il mezzogiorno, the ancient seafaring term from the Italian south now colloquially used to describe that part of the country,” a news release said.
Phil Scarfone, culinary director for Banda Volpi restaurants (Elio, Savio Volpe, Pepino’s, La Tana, Pepino’s Spaghetti House) adds, “Elio’s got more seafood, big salads, a thin-crust pizza, and is a fresher approach to Italian cuisine. All the restaurants offer opportunities to be creative on all fronts. Elio’s more elevated. Savio’s more traditional and regional.”
The Banda restaurants have a connective narrative involving the volpe, or fox. Without story-mining, let’s just say they’re all foxy in their own ways. There’s also an automotive motif — Savio took over a former tire shop, Elio took over a former mechanic’s shop, and coincidentally, one of the Banda partners (Grunberg’s wife) is Emily Goodrich, unfortunately not related to the famous and wealthy Goodrich Tire company. “I wouldn’t be working so hard if she were,” Grunberg points out.
Elio is in an airy space with high ceilings and a sunny feel which, like Savio, is dominated by a central horseshoe counter. The room was designed by Craig Stanghetta, a Banda Volpi partner and designer with Ste. Marie Studio. On your first visit, you play spot-the-restaurant until you spot the coy signage.
I visited on a Tuesday evening and the 115-seat room was packed and, speaking automotively, running on all cylinders. Staff are sharp and friendly, the room is abuzz, and the food looks totally inviting.
For Scarfone, the food is embedded in his DNA. Growing up, he made Sunday visits to his late Italian grandmother’s house for penne rigate with tomato sauce.
“She’d get two bushels of tomatoes every summer from farmers just outside of Hamilton. I saw the power of those Sunday meals. It brought the whole family together.”
He inherited her love of feeding people. She had only one ask from her grandchildren: “Don’t call me Nonna. It makes me feel old!”
Speaking of pasta, Elio Volpe’s calabreselli alla vodka with Dungeness crab and pangrattato (bread crumbs) was memorable — so evenly, perfectly swathed in a crab, tomato, and vodka sauce.
The pasta, extruded in-house, had a beautiful texture and mouth feel. The pasta dishes come as a primi or secondi course, $28 or $50, in this case.
I started, though, with cubed yellowfin tuna crudo ($26) in a marinade using colatura, the Italian equivalent of Vietnamese fish sauce, adding a salty, funky umami. The dish was clean, bright, and fresh with a bit of kick.
Finocchiona salami ($20) from Oyama was served with marinated artichokes and taralli (rings of snack crackers with a cookie-like texture from Puglia). “It’s like a savoury shortbread and in bars, the saltiness makes one order more drinks,” says Scarfone. The salami, sliced paper-thin, transformed into something ethereal.
For special occasions, Elio Volpe offers Giaveri Italian caviar from a farm outside of Venice. They pack and label tins specially for the restaurant. “It’s the most beautiful caviar,” says Scarfone. “I tried it at Granville Island and thought it was delicious. We sell a few a day.” It’s served with potato latkes and sour cream and costs $110 for 30 grams and up to $360 for 100 grams.
I’m not a fan of thin-crust pizza if it’s too crisp and cracker-like. But I liked their Roman thin pizza crust. It had some elasticity as well as crunch and flavour.
“We wanted to offer something Vancouver didn’t have,” Scarfone says. “It’s similar to Marta (a New York restaurant, run by Danny Meyer, temporarily closed). As soon as I tried it, I wanted to showcase this kind of pizza. It’s more about ingredients and less about crumb, more snack than main course.”
Half the dough, made with high-protein bread flour and some spelt, takes a preferment, he says. With the pepperoni, hot honey, confit garlic, sesame and tomato topping ($26), it roared to life. Scarfone thinks the clam pizza is “awesome,” but the pepperoni pizza’s the big seller.
“We sell a horrific amount,” he says.
Another of his personal favourites is the rigatoni cacio e pepe with 10-year cheddar and roasted jalapeño. “The cheese is almost like pecorino and makes it delicious.”
From the carne section, I tried the grilled lamb chops with salsa rossa, Sicilian pistachio and mint ($30). The three small, juicy chops were excellent.
For dessert, a simple semolina citrus cake with whipped mascarpone ($12) was highlighted with orange curd. A rectangle of amaretto semifreddo ($15) was drizzled with chocolate and topped with a nut mix and orange zest.
The wine list has many interesting wines from Italy — mainly Piedmont and Tuscany — and other parts of the world, but it’s not very user-friendly; it could be a lot easier to navigate. The amari and grappa selections are excellent and much better organized. The beverage menu also offers a history lesson of the Italian cocktail, stating where and when such classic drinks as the bellini and spritz originated. There are eight variations of ever popular negroni (invented, we’re told, in Florence in 1919). Elio’s own modern cocktail creations continue the Italian influence.
It’s nuts to open a restaurant when inflation has a chokehold around the industry’s neck, but Bando Volpe restaurants are thriving. How? I ask.
“Hard work. Day in, day out hard work,” says Grunberg. “As soon as you stop pushing, the needle goes in the other direction. It’s seven days a week, non-stop and relentless.” They’re lucky to attract a loyal staff, but not without effort. They offer good training, benefits, perks, proper contracts, and higher pay, he says. “Over the last two years, we’ve 180-ed our systems and gone down the rabbit hole to empower and deliver the best possible culture.”