Restaurant Sun Jul 22 2007

Flummoxed by Il Fiasco

Il Fiasco (which means "flask" as well as "flop" in Italian) is Andersonville's newest Italian restaurant (following quickly on the heels of Anteprima). It is located at the corner of Clark and Carmen, in what used to be Rioja. Already, Il Fiasco is getting some good press, which is why I was slightly disappointed by my underwhelming dinner there last night. Fortunately, as Joe Gray writes in his post for The Stew, the prices are more than reasonable. Most pasta and pizza dishes are $10, and the tasty house red, at $7 for a quartino (about 2 glasses of wine), is quite a steal.

Sadly, the pasta and pizza we tried were pretty one-dimensional. The shells with Italian sausage, tomatoes, red pepper, marinara and ricotta were bland while the anchovy pizza was tongue-searingly salty. Perhaps that's what one should expect from anchovies, but the salt drowned out any other flavor that might have been imparted by the other toppings: capers, olives and mozzarella cheese. Despite my disappointment, however, I haven't given up on this place. With its attractive prices and large menu, I'm determined to find a dish that will have me singing Il Fiasco's praises soon enough.

Image from liquorimorelli.com

— Dana Currier / Comments (0)