WHO’S IN CHARGE Call Bambolina an Italian restaurant, and co-owner Larry Leibowitz will correct you. “We’re influenced by Italian culinary techniques,’’ says Leibowitz of his trendy Salem eatery, “but this isn’t a chicken marsala, veal parmigiana kind of restaurant.’’
For one thing, Bambolina’s menu offers just three pasta dishes, and the most popular of these, the carbonara, isn’t the stuff your grandmother used to make. “Instead of ground pork and cream, we use a wine reduction with braised short rib and a soft egg,’’ says Leibowitz, who calls Bambolina’s unusual approach to the Italian classics “neo-Neapolitan.’’
He and business partner Tim Haigh opened the restaurant in downtown Salem three years ago. Last year the pair opened a second restaurant around the corner, Kokeshi, devoted to their version of Asian street food. Kokeshi is all about ramen. At Bambolina, the signature dish is pizza.
The restaurant’s three-ton, igloo-shaped, wood-fired pizza oven cooks the pies at more than 900 degrees. “It’s a quick bake,’’ says Leibowitz. “A pizza takes about 90 seconds to cook.’’ Both the oven and the flour for the dough come from Italy. Otherwise, Bambolina uses fresh, locally sourced ingredients where possible. The chef, Chris Allain, emphasizes food made from scratch. If you order a sausage pizza here, the crust is made in house and so is the sausage.
THE LOCALE Behind the restaurant’s bland, easily overlooked exterior on Derby Street is a spacious, industrial-chic dining room. The high ceiling is criss-crossed by giant ducts and heavy wooden beams. The floor is dark concrete. Arriving just before 7:30 on a Monday evening, our party of three was seated at an unadorned wooden table set with rough cloth napkins. Overhead, old-fashioned filament-bulb pendants cast a warm glow. Amy Winehouse music added to the retro vibe.
ON THE MENU The regular menu when we visited offered eight starters and shared plates, including an unusual grilled Caesar salad with white anchovy ($10.50, or $17.50 with grilled octopus). A separate menu offered more than a half dozen varieties of house-made charcuterie, such as a spiced rabbit and pork pate ($11) flavored with Salem’s local Notch beer.
We settled on an appetizer of grilled asparagus served with a finely diced smoked-ham vinaigrette and buttered bread crumbs ($9). The asparagus spears were thick without being tough or stringy, and the ham concoction added a pleasant smokiness. The tanginess of a second app, fire-roasted Castelvetrano olives seasoned with garlic and herbs ($8), was complemented by tart slices of edible charred lemon.
From the dozen 11-inch pizzas on the menu, we selected three to share. The prosciutto pizza ($17) featured imported prosciutto, crushed tomato, mozzarella, and baby arugula. The mozzarella was fresh and moist — it has to be, Leibowitz explained later, to withstand its minute-and-a-half trial by fire. The arugula, added afterward, provided radishy sharpness.
The beef & blue pizza ($16.50), with cured beef, gorgonzola dolce, and caramelized pearl onions, was rich, flavorful, and salty. One of us had balked at ordering a pizza smeared with blue cheese, but he had no problem with it. The gorgonzola was surprisingly creamy and mild, and the roasted pearl onions added a little pop to the pizza’s texture.
The fennel sausage pizza ($17) was topped with crumbled house-made sausage, red onion, oil-cured black olives, and soft burrata cheese. Each flavor was distinct, yet the pizza as a whole seemed light. Indeed, all the pizzas here avoided the sodden, cheesy heaviness of many a traditional American pie. The crust, we decided, was key. Crunchy, chewy, bubble-blackened, and light, it was as divine as a fresh Parisian baguette or a top-quality New York City bagel.
We ended with a traditional dessert from Haigh’s native England: Eton mess ($8). (That’s mess as in mess hall.) Buried under a small mountain of fresh whipped cream were sliced strawberries and chunks of meringue with a touch of basil — a variation on Wimbledon’s strawberries and cream. We attacked it with three spoons. Yes, it was soon a mess, but it was an excellent mess.
Bambolina, 288 Derby St., Salem, 978-594-8709, www.Bambolinarestaurant.com.
Coco McCabe and Doug Stewart can be reached at dcstewart@verizon.net.
