We broke up with Fajitas & 'Ritas and never went back. So we're guessing that we're not the only ones to embrace La Morra, an Italian wine bar and restaurant that Josh Ziskin opened a scant six weeks ago in this same Route 9 spot. Instead of fajitas, you order cicchetti, which is Italian for tapas. Instead of 'ritas, there's a list of sophisticated cocktails, such as Meyer limone, a vodka drink with sweet Meyer lemon juice and a twist. Rum drinks, mixed with lime juice, ginger beer, and other warm-climate coolers, are legion here.
We take in the exposed beams and bricks as we sip, and for a minute we're back at the Red Fez. "For Brookline Village, this place oozes South End," one of us whispers, checking out the wait staff, a group of 30-ish hipsters with those layered, hipster haircuts and rolled-up shirtsleeves.
Our hipster/waitress, Martha, brings us a rich, pungent pate of chicken and duck livers mixed with anchovies, capers, and Vin Santo. This foray into cicchetti, small (actually very small) plates full of lively tastes, continues with fresh poached tuna with garlic and white beans. There's a kick of lemon juice in it that is irresistible. Then we try arancini, balls of risotto stuffed with braised short rib and smoked mozzarella.
These are old Italian recipes, Ziskin says later, and the plates are small because the tastes are sharp. "You wouldn't eat 12 green olives in one sitting," he says. Then he remembers the two guys who like to sit at the bar, ordering three or four little plates of anchovy and fried sage sandwiches. (Some people are unstoppable.)
The entrees, which dwarf the cicchetti plates by several sizes, almost daunt us, but not quite. A lamb stew with polenta, roasted vegetables, and a runny poached egg, is enough to make us glad it's winter. The shoulder cut of lamb is bathed in red wine, rosemary, carrots, onions, and celery, Ziskin says. "We leave some of the fat on because that's where the flavor is."
The only failure turns out to be one of Ziskin's favorites on the menu, a crab carbonara with pasta that's too cool and crab that's too bland. When Martha sees this plate still full after all the others are clean, she takes it off our bill and brings us all little glasses of moscato, a sparkling dessert wine that goes zipping down nicely with a citrusy semifreddo.
"We've had a lot of chefs in and out of here," Ziskin says, rattling off their names: Rene Michelena from Saint, Amanda Lydon from UpStairs on the Square, Nadsa de Monteiro from Elephant Walk.
"I think they appreciate the down-home cooking," he says. "It's not so creative or over the top. We're doing what they do in Italy with the best ingredients we can get."
For a Brookline native, Ziskin sounds like Rocco DiSpirito's proud mama. He says he fell in love with Venice, and from what we can see, he managed to bring it back.
La Morra, 48 Boylston St., Brookline Village. 617-739-0007.
