Ditto something like the “local farmers salad’’: spinach, beets, white beans, olives, aged ricotta, red onion, and lemon-mint vinaigrette. Half those things will never show up in my CSA share. But the real problem here is that the salad is boring, with barely any dressing and little visual oomph. Salads and parms need to be made wholeheartedly if they’re going to be offered. I’ll bet Pazzo sells a lot more of them than its stellar chicken livers.
For dessert you’ll find a fairly standard lineup: warm chocolate cake, creme brulee, tiramisu, and gelato, with a pear tart to mix it up. They’re fine. Eat. Enjoy. But I do wish restaurants would start thinking a little harder about what to do with the sweet side of the menu. It confounds me that a kitchen imaginative enough to offer, say, spice-crusted tuna carpaccio glazed in grape-must vinegar with currants and mint doesn’t take that imagination one step further: Spiced farm-stand peaches or plums glazed in grape-must vinegar, grilled, and served with gelato, currants, and mint sounds pretty good to me.
The wine list mixes things up more, with grapes like falanghina, cortese, and negroamaro alongside chardonnays and pinot noirs. Bottles are mostly Italian, with some American offerings. Few are priced beyond the $40-something range. Value-driven wine lists seem to be even more in fashion than value-driven menus these days; it’s good for the wallet, but one feels sad for the wine geek.
“Pazzo’’ means “crazy’’ in Italian, and the name leads you to expect a less serious restaurant than the one you find. Pazzo isn’t perfect. It is, however, one of the best places to eat on Newbury Street. With Bradley in the kitchen, it stands a chance at finding balance.
Devra First can be reached at dfirst@globe.com.
Clarification: The Dining Out review in today’s “g’’ section is missing its star rating. Pazzo received 2 stars.
