Olerio's

Careful in the kitchen and rewarding on the plate

by Bill Rodriguez

1099 Park Ave., Cranston, 943-1980
Open Mon-Thurs, 11:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m.;
Fri, 11:30 a.m.-10:30 p.m.; Sat, 4-10:30 p.m.
Major credit cards
Sidewalk access

Italian restaurants are like sports teams and mystery novelists -- everybody's got a favorite that's the absolute best. By my loose count, at least a dozen of the absolutely best Italian restaurants in the world are in Rhode Island, especially if you go by customer loyalty. Or should I say customer vehemence?

I've never heard anyone talk so passionately about General Tsao's chicken like boosters do about a place's puttanesca sauce. It's that feverish Mediterranean influence, I guess, pulling hands out of pockets to gesticulate like divas.

Our friends, David and Ginny, had been wanting to break bruschetta with us at their favorite place, Olerio's in Cranston, for some time. We'd done so years ago, to mutual delight. But the memory had faded to the generic, as with childhood Sunday family meals.

Family indeed. Our guides are weekly regulars at Olerio's, so it's usually hugs all around when they arrive. It's a snug, narrow restaurant, with attention paid to food on the plates rather than velour on the walls. A friendly, unpretentious, paper-napkin place. And that keeps the preparations straightforward, the prices low, and the Saturday-night lines snaking out the door.

No doubt, Olerio's aims to please. Popular bar snacks, such as fried mozzarella sticks and stuffed hot cherry peppers, are among the appetizers, along with an Italian version of wings ($5.25), alla Taranto, with lemon butter and fresh rosemary. Ginny said that what sets Olerio's apart for her is their deft use of fresh herbs. So we had to try their scampi oreganato ($7.25). Good choice.

Four medium shrimp, not overly cooked, were splayed for a maximum surface area to which the herb could cling. Even better, an extra basket of excellent hot Italian bread arrived to sop up the tangy, lemony sauce.

We also checked out Olerio's take on the omnipresent fried calamari ($5.95), a standard preparation served with olives and hot pepper rings. It was refreshingly non-greasy and, as a further inducement to the squeamish, nary a tentacle was clinging to any of the squid rings.

For an entrée, David recommended the tortellini Ripieni ($9.50) among the pasta choices, but I went for scampi basilico ($14.95), served over basil fettucine, because I'd liked the appetizer so much. When the dish arrived, the "lots of fresh basil" promised in the menu description wasn't more than a couple of leaves, yet I enjoyed it. The butter and wine sauce was tasty, not overwhelmed with garlic.

In fact, every main dish we tried was quite good, prepared with attention to the ingredients. For example, both the chicken Franchese ($11.50) and the sole Franchese ($12.95) were sautéed not a moment past their prime, so both were moist and delicate, the egg batter appropriately minimal. The side vegetable was simply buttered carrot slices.

The chicken Zingarella ($11.50) sounded different on the menu, the white wine among its ingredients not preparing me for what appeared to be a red sauce. What happened was that the "diced tomatoes" had been cooked down with the roasted red peppers, mushrooms and onions for what amounted to a light, and delectable, sauce.

Considering that Ginny and David have been going to Olerio's for a decade, I was stunned to discover that they hadn't had dessert there in years. Too stuffed by the end, they claimed. Well, in short order we put an end to that negligence. The grapenut custard ($2.25) was as flavorful as at a good New England chophouse, while two items billed as "pie" were crustless varieties: chocolate cream pie and cappuccino pie (both $2.95).

One was a shallow bowl of light chocolate pudding with a swirl of whipped cream on top. Yummy. The other was a slab of coffee and vanilla ice cream with a butter-crunch filling and crumbled cookie topping, slathered in coffee brandy sauce. Definitely my favorite.

Olerio's is an unassuming place that's careful in the kitchen and rewarding on the plate. I can see how that could earn loyalty without bribing customers with dessert.