Pazza on Porter
To me, this spot in East Boston is sacred ground because you're looking at Santarpio's Pizza, one of the most famous pizza places in the United States, but right across the street, there's another great Italian place you might not know about. It's called Pazza on Porter.
“Pazza in Italian means crazy lady, so it's the crazy different approach we bring to Italian food here to East Boston. So hence Pazza on Porter. It's not your familiar Mom and Pop Italian restaurant.” Rafaele Scalzi is the owner. He's got another restaurant in Orient Heights and a restaurant in the North End. So this man knows how to give you a great meal. When you walk in, it does have a modern look. On the left is a marble bar, then there's high tops and other tables further away from the bar. In back, there's a beautiful patio that they keep open year around, but on the walls, they kind of go old school with 70s art and pictures, and I love the contrast.
This is really two restaurants in one, but hold your cappuccino. I'll explain in a minute. You see meatball sliders a lot in restaurants, but these are made with Wagyu beef that's a very high end, very tender, very flavorful type of meat. So these are a little different. They do have red sauce, a pesto crema, some shaved parmigiano, and it's all sandwiched between that delicious brioche bun. “That first bite is juicy, it's creamy, it leaves you wanting another bite.”
The Shrimp Avvolto seems to be the Italian answer to scallops wrapped in bacon. This starts with pancetta, which is really like a salty Italian bacon, and then they wrap it around shrimp, and they put it over sauteed broccoli rabe. “Avvolto in Italian, means wrapped. So it's like a land and sea appetizer.
There's the pancetta, there's the shrimp over a bed of sauteed broccoli Rabi which is very common in southern Italy, and it's a tasty dish.”
If you're going to serve a Bolognese in Eastie, it better be good. And this one is. It's made with a slow braised lamb and beef sauce and then served over a fusilli pasta made by Lilly’s. That's a local company known for making a really great fresh product. And because it's fusilli, given the shape the sauce really sticks to, it gets inside those crevices, that's what I call pasta geometry. “It's very hearty. A lot of people come in and say, ‘My grandmother's bolognese, my aunt's bolognese’, but then they taste ours and they're like, Wow, this is delicious.”
If you really want to chow down, I say, get the short rib. A big, delicious piece of short rib over a Barolo wine reduction and red bliss mashed potatoes. That's what I call stick to your ribs, Italian American cuisine. “Barolo is a type of Italian red wine from the Piedmont region of Italy, and we reduce that down, and we cook with rosemary and thyme, and it's over a bed of red bliss mashed potatoes, and it's a very hearty meal. It's delicious, it's savory. It's just amazing.”
One thing I love about East Boston is all the Latin influence. This dish is a tribute to that culture. It's a skirt steak. That's a thin steak, but it's still very flavorful. They serve it with a caramelized pineapple, and because this is the USA, they serve it with a side of French fries. This is really a sweet and savory dish that is a real melting pot kind of entree. “What we love to tell people is to cut up the pineapple, cut up a piece of that skirt steak, and eat it in one bite. And it's so juicy, it's tender. And people actually come in often, repeat guests to order that same dish.”
They do brunch here Saturday and Sunday. I think brunch is the most fun meal of the week. You're not tired and you have nowhere else to be. So if you're having a good time, you can just have a couple more espresso martinis and stay till dinner. I love Southern food, especially chicken and waffles. Here they take that dish and Italianize it, so instead of fried chicken, it's a chicken cutlet, and they put it over that fresh made waffle with some powdered sugar and strawberries. But what really makes this dish is the Calabrian maple syrup. It's got some heat. So when you put it on that waffle, you have sweet and spicy, soft and crunchy, everything you could hope for in a brunch dish. “It's not your traditional grandmother's chicken cutlet because we're putting that spicy Calabrian maple syrup on top, but it's definitely something savory and enjoyable.”
I told you, this is really two restaurants in one and next door, they have a speakeasy called Next Door. Let's go check it out. To get into the speakeasy, the staff has to open the door, hidden behind this green wall, then you gotta bang on the knocker. Password? Chicken parm. Come on in That's the only way to get inside Next Door. I had a great Italian dinner, but I had to come in here and get a cocktail and a lobster roll. This is such a unique, fun experience. I highly recommend Pazza on Porter and Next Door in East Boston.
