Alessandro’s… nothing beats parking garage ambiance
Alessandro’s bills itself as fine Italian food, and has the prices to match. But the funny thing is, you just don’t feel it. Caleb and I are wondering how they stay in business. It’s at the bottom of Caleb’s parking garage downtown, and everytime we go by, there is NO ONE there. So we took pity on them tonight and had dinner there. It’s a little creepy to go into a restaurant that has only 2 other couples in it. Maybe it’s the layout… maybe it’s the lack of hustle and bustle, but it just feels cold and empty inside. By the time we left, there were about 8 tables filled, but still the same feeling persisted. Caleb’s Caesar salad had bitter romaine, but the starter of minestrone soup was good. Rather brothy, but lots of fresh vegetables. Our server, Elio, was very pleasant, and cracked a few one-liners, but still, this big, cold, empty room feeling pervaded. The girl that filled my water was there about every 5 minutes (or maybe even less)… a little too often for me. But what else are you going to do with only 3 tables filled at the restaurant? I didn’t think the food was any better than a chain restaurant like Romano’s Macaroni Grill or Olive Garden, I had the fettuccine pesce, with shrimp, scallops, clams, and salmon. The cream sauce that accompanied it was very rich, it made it hard to eat a lot (which is probably a good thing!) Caleb had the tortellini with alfredo - I think he was in love with it. He described it as
“Having one food in an Italian restaurant, and one foot in a soul food restaurant… It was a cross between an alfredo and a sausage gravy.”
Me? I think he was exaggerating a little bit. Overall, this restaurant has fine food, but something is just not right… I mean, they would be a lot busier on a Friday night than 8 tables at 7 pm, if there wasn’t something off about the place. Located at 301 SW Morrison St, open M-Th 11:30am-10pm, F 11:30am-11pm, Sa 12pm-3pm and 5pm-11pm. There is a Happy Hour in the adjoining bar. Oh, don’t let me forget the bread! It was the best thing. The bread was a moist sourdough, fresh from the oven, and they had an olive oil with crushed garlic and chopped kalamata olives. It was the only redeeming thing about dinner!