above left: In addition to a variety of fun cocktails, Antonio’s offers an extensive wine list. above right: Meltingly soft short ribs braised in Barolo are served over polenta.
Photography by Venera Alexandrova
With crisp white tablecloths, attentive service and comforting dishes, Antonio’s Italian Bistro offers old-school Italian-American hospitality in downtown Darien. The bistro celebrated its first birthday in November. Owner Antonio Sandolo, a product of the restaurant business in Stamford (his father owned and operated John the Baker), has strong opinions about hospitality. It starts with servers’ neat, well-attired appearance, and their goal of making guests feel special.
At Antonio’s, attentive servers welcome guests with warm, house-baked bread and a little bowl of stracciatella (a creamy, mild cheese) to spoon over the bread. Guests order wine by the glass or bottle and settle in to a succession of courses.
Of the antipasti, deep-fried burrata topped with prosciutto is irresistible, especially when the hot, soft cheese melts into the rich tomato sauce and you scoop it up on the crunchy, grilled bread. The day we tried the grilled octopus with little potatoes and cherry tomatoes, the texture of the tentacles was spot-on tender.
We added a pizza to share with our antipasti, happy to discover one with our favorite toppings—prosciutto di San Daniele, sliced in Antonio’s kitchen, mozzarella and fresh arugula. (Antonio’s has a pizza truck, and a second brick-and mortar restaurant on Lake George in the Adirondacks.)
We shared two house-made pastas for a table of four. Pappardelle with plump jumbo shrimp, wilted baby spinach and sundried tomatoes has a creamy, garlicky sauce to twirl the wide noodles through. Cavatelli with sausage and broccoli rabe is a rustic dish with pleasing, irregular lumps of sausage. Shaved parmesan melts into the handmade pasta’s curves and ridges, catching the buttery sauce and slices of sautéed garlic, while the tender rabes brings a pleasing note of bitterness. Yes, Antonio’s serves Nonna’s Sunday sauce with braciole, meatballs and sausage, and it’s a best-seller.
Under the “Primi” section of the menu is traditional Parmigiana di Melanzane, lightly battered fried eggplant slices napped in tomato sauce and blanketed with melted mozzarella. It smells like fresh basil, tastes like eggplant and is utterly comforting.
A roasted cippolina onion crowns the boneless short ribs braised in red wine and served over polenta. It is as meltingly soft as the fork-tender beef. Lamb chops crusted in pistachio pesto, with cauliflower and pomegranate sauce tempted us and we vowed to try them next time.
The chef crafts the tiramisu in-house. Antonio sources the pistachio ricotta cake, a light and pretty sponge cake between layers of ricotta and pistachio creams. The pistachio martini, sweet, pale green and nutty, tastes like dessert—a powerful one. Espressos are strong, as they should be.
Antonio’s buzzes in the evening. Lunch is quieter, with tables by the sunny window in the simply decorated room, with warm white walls, hardwood floors, bistro chairs and tables set with flower bud vases. Antonio’s serves its full menu from 11:00 a.m. until closing, seven days a week, and has introduced a new three-course pre-fixe lunch ($30).
As for that old-school hospitality that’s so important to Antonio himself—between courses, a server scraped the crumbs from our table and lay a fresh napkin over the place where we’d gotten rather enthusiastic with the short ribs and polenta. The table was ready for the next course and so were we.
