Bacio 1571 Plymouth Rd

Bacio
1571 Plymouth Rd, Minnetonka 952-544-7000

Let them eat tiramisu

Full Speed Ahead and Damn Those Icebergs!

Just a few weeks ago The Lunch was at Coco Cha Cha, and I indulged in a bit of a diatribe against the recent profusion of upscale, trendy Italian restaurants that were swamping the Twin Cities’ dining scene. B thought I was being unfair in not reviewing a place entirely on its own merits. I saw his point but wasn’t swayed.

I suspect we’ll be having the same argument again this week, which found us at Bacio, the most recent addition (unless others have sprouted since it opened a few weeks ago—I wouldn’t be surprised) to the already overly long list of tony Italian places. Bacio, located in Minnetonka next to the Ridgedale shopping center, is the latest creation of the team that has already brought us Ciao Bella in Bloomington and Zelo in downtown Minneapolis. The family resemblance is apparent, especially to Bella. The overall layout is similar, a large bar and lounge area behind a wall to your right as you walk from the front door to the greeting station and separate dining rooms further ahead in the restaurant proper. The signature décor element of Bacio is the vaulted skylight-ceiling central dining area framed by brick archways. "Looking fabulous" is what it’s all about.

We sat in the lounge, which itself is reminiscent of Bella’s. Elegantly (and comfily) upholstered circular booths and a long bar counter are common to both. Unlike Bella, however, the Bacio lounge is windowless and darker. To lighten the tone several large mirrors hang from two of the walls; a third sports a flat panel television, tuned to a financial channel. A heavy dark curvilinear curtain partitions the lounge from the airy and light-filled dining rooms.

The lunch menu includes a number of the usual Italian restaurant items, over a half-dozen each of pizzas, pastas, paninis. Eight salads and three soups are also listed; the chicken fennel bread soup caught my eye. A separate menu card on the table provides seafood options: halibut, salmon, and walleye in grilled, roasted, and sandwich preparations. Almost 20 wines are available by the glass. I noted the Tommasi Amarone but ended up with the "J" pinot noir, a rendition not as light as most pinot noirs. The basket of bread contained a nice striata.

B and I split the Brasiliana salad to start—hearts of palm, avocado, tomato, celery, with a lemon vinaigrette. The ingredients were good enough, but the overall combination fell flat, the dressing somehow suppressing flavors instead of enhancing them.

For my main dish I had the lasagna alla salsiccia, a classical red-sauce lasagna with ricotta, mozzarella, parmigiano Reggiano, tomato, and Sicilian sausage. This came as a hefty triangular wedge. Definitely a non-subtle dish—the ricotta provided the only light-on-the-palate counterpoint to the robust, spicy, and hearty dish. The pasta noodle was overcooked, leaving little textural interest.

We passed up on the dessert choices, all eight of them. I had an espresso which was appropriately Italian style, dense and short, but its enjoyment was marred by the regulation teaspoon provided to stir the inch of liquid with.

My assessment of Bacio probably isn’t the common take. The place was crowded; we sat in the bar area because the alternative required a wait of over an hour. Yet another reminder that I have little in common with most Minnesotans (or most compatriots for that matter)—last week’s election was reminder enough, thank you. The state of the economy notwithstanding, places like Bacio proliferate, indicating a resurgent trend toward ostentation, material excess, and exurban insularity. The less fortunate in our society have fewer true representatives, their elected leaders showing little understanding of their needs. Wealth and corporate interests are in control. You won’t find the oligarchs in palaces and castles, however (although they may think "my McMansion is my castle"), but in Italian restaurants in the western suburbs.

I occasionally have visions of being a restaurateur – have asked A to partner me in this venture – but am always constrained from this course by an innate sense of self-preservation and the abundance of common sense found in A, who might muse philosophically about such a venture over a glass of wine but never allows it to go much further. The problem is that I can visualize the sort of establishment that I would like to own but can’t find a way of translating that into practical terms. That’s why I find people who operate multiple, successful restaurants so fascinating. This is the case with Bacio, the site for The Lunch this week, an upscale Italian restaurant with elder siblings: Ciao Bella in Edina and Zelo in Minneapolis.

A & I have both dined a couple of times at Ciao Bella with our families and I for one have enjoyed it as a guilty pleasure. Guilty because the ambiance and location (Edina) is so typical for an upscale restaurant as are the demographics of the patrons – we’d like to think that we’re more sophisticated than this! The same (if not more so) is true of Bacio. It’s located in Minnetonka’s Bonaventure shopping center – a spot formerly occupied by Lee Ann Chin. For our readers not from the Twin Cities, Lee Ann Chin is a local chain offering buffet style dining that only a Minnesotan would recognize as Chinese. The location has gone through a complete transformation. The walls have faux Italian frescos. No expense has been spared on the furnishings either with plenty of leather and brass on display. The bar is gorgeous with polished wood and ample glass. The main dining room is expansive and accented with bricked arches. If money could have bought a better view, say a Neapolitan one, then that too would have been taken care of; sadly it currently displays the Bonaventure parking lot and Highway 394 beyond.

Upon arrival I was told that there was an hour wait for a table, and was offered instead a table in the bar area an offer that I gratefully accepted. The bar is wonderfully dark and on this day free of smoke (though we might just have been lucky). The bar tries to set an Old World tone and if you try hard enough you could imagine yourself in a colonial bar somewhere. However, for me it was difficult to put the thought of Lee Ann Chin out of my mind as the bar sits squarely where the old buffet line started and the thought of all that ancient grease had a disconcerting effect.

There is a regular menu that features salads (Caesar, Chicken-Caesar, Ciao Baby (baby greens, goat cheese), Brasiliana (avocado, tomato and heart of palms), Seared Salmon Salad, Caprese, Bacio Salad and Ahi Tuna Salad); Soups (Tomato Basil, Minestrone and Chicken Fennel); six types of pizza; pasta (Fusilli Linguini (chicken, artichokes), Tagliolini ai Gaberetti (Shrimp), Risotto al Pollo e Funghi, Linguini al Nero (Tiger shrimp, Mussels, Salmon)); and the menu includes a few panini sandwiches. In addition there is a second (smaller) menu that lists only seafood items: Walleye sandwich, Halibut, Salmon, Alaskan Halibut, and Walleye Milanese. The wine list offers 10 reds by the glass and six whites.

I ordered a glass of Danzante Sangiovese (bright cherry and spice aroma) on the "when in Rome principle," only to discover that it’s a Robert Mondavi (of California) wine. The Brasiliana salad looked appetizing, on paper at least, and I shared it with A; its contents are pretty exotic (heart of palm – a delicacy in Brazil) but the salad proved to be a disappointment with no discernable flavor. For my entrée I had a roast turkey panini sandwich with French fries. The sandwich was tasty and the turkey slightly moist and roasted to perfection. Our bill including the obligatory coffee came to $58.00. The food was palatable but not exceptional and I believe our lunch money would have been better spent elsewhere. The service was attentive but not too well informed about the menu. These may be teething problems – the restaurant has only been open since September 19^th, 2002. Bacio must be a sizeable investment and is the flagship of this particular empire of Italian restaurants; let us hope it doesn’t founder like another flagship from the past – The Titanic.