Pietro's Italian Restaurant - Dallas, TX

I'm pissed.

Really pissed.

I've lived in Dallas for 16 years.  I've been a 1.8 mile straight shot away from Pietro's for five years.  I love Italian food.  I've driven by this place countless times, always saying to myself, "I need to go there".  And when I finally did yesterday, I found out it is fantastic.  And now I'm moving.

Seriously, this has vaulted up my charts to my favorite Italian restaurant in Dallas.  Food and atmosphere, this place is great.  This has to be the most under the radar 50 year old restaurant in the state of Texas.  Opened up in 1960, this place advertises on it's sign as Genuine Home Cooking, and that's exactly right.  It's a family run operation that makes true Sicilian food from scratch, and its easy to figure out that they're cooking to order with a comment on the menu that warns, "Please allow thirty minutes for your food", and then it comes out piping hot.

Alright, so let's back up here.  First off, go here for the food.  This is not a typical Dallas see and be seen place, or a fancy space in a popular spot, or a good spot to take a first date unless she's from the Bronx.  It's easy to miss this spot, and its really easy to drive by and think its been out of business for years.  Set aside your expectations and any impatience you may have, and enjoy it for what it is.  A family run, true Italian hole in the wall, with an incredibly loyal customer base, many of who have been coming here their entire lives.  I love it for the atmosphere it is.  Old school.

Let's talk about the atmosphere.  Red and white checkered tableclothed tables spread out across three rooms, one of which is a nice sunroom right in front.  Salt and pepper shakers of the thick tinted brown curved glass variety with dinnerware of the same vintage that makes you wonder if you're having dinner at grandmas and not at a restaurant.  Starting to believe this Genuine Home Cooking bit now?  This is like going to your Italian grandmother's house for dinner...correction, for the best Italian dinner you can get.  There's a bar, but it serves more as a place for the patriarch to greet you, and doesn't offer any seating, but would be a nice place to grab a glass of wine and talk to him if there is a wait.  He's a great guy who loves what he does, and is very personable.

On to the menu.  They opened in 1960 and moved to this location in 1972, and I'm guessing at that time they printed new menus, and those are the exact same menus that you get when you sit down.  Don't get frustrated when they don't have the wines that are printed on the back pages of the menu.  The wines available when your mom and dad slapped on their bellbottoms and headed over there were different than they are today.  There are about thirty Italian reds listed, primarily Sicilian, Chiantis, and Chianti Classicos as well as about twenty or so domestic cabs, merlots, and others.  The whites are similar.  They're also really affordable, starting at about $16, with the bulk being below $30, and a couple, labeled only as "Brunello Selection" or the other prime Italian wine regions, which go for up to $65.  So I asked if there was a moderately priced one that he'd recommend.  He asked if I liked chianti and I said, "yes, but what about these three wines from Montepulciano over here".  A concerned glance washed over his face as he said, "ooooohhhh, I'm pretty sure we don't have those".  "Okay, what about this one?"  Again the squinted eyes and pursed lips..."nope, probably not".  BUT, the do have wine, and with 50+ reds on that menu, he said, "we've got a nice Sicilian table wine for $28".  Not on the menu.  One please.

The menu has a really big selection of pastas, meats, vegetarian options, appetizers, and seafood.  I don't think they left off anything.  I was excited to see about fifteen different veal dishes on the menu for under $20, all of which were medallion based, and all of which sounded incredible.  I figured getting the meat would allow me to sample their basic pasta, as it comes with a side of spaghetti with the homemade house red sauce.

Now, I've tried to read up on this place and have seen many mixed reviews, people seem to either love it or hate it.  It appears to me the people who hate it don't appreciate Italian home cooking, with authentic sauces and simplicity, and also probably didn't get the service and atmosphere that they expect when they go out to dinner in Dallas.  Well, those who don't like it are dead wrong.  This place is flat out awesome.  It's science.

So I was with a good friend of mine who, upon setting foot in the parking lot, was equally as excited as I was to give this place a shot.  He got even more excited when he opened up the menu.  We decided to try a few of the basics as an appetizer, and though not on the menu as an appetizer, we had our waiter bring us out a couple of meatballs and a couple of Italian sausages, as well as a piece of cheesy garlic bread.

Wow.  Does that look like a picture straight off of a 1970s Italian menu?  How about that plate?  Yeah.  Well I took that picture last night.

Let's start with the meatballs.  They're great.  Medium sized and of the finer ground spongy variety, they keep their integrity and are easily cuttable with a fork without falling apart, and they nearly melt in your mouth.  Only slight seasoning, primarily provided by onion, garlic and salt, which makes for the essence of simplicity.  The sausage is also homemade, and tastes like it was just packed.   It's great.  Relatively lean compared to what you might expect, no grease runs from it when you cut into it, and it doesn't appear that extra fat was added to the grind.  They let the pig do the talking, complimenting it with a light fennel seasoning with a hint of spice.  It's also not a consistent grind, which I like, and some of the pieces in the sausage show evidence of being shredded from the shoulder.  It is really a great Italian sausage, that you know is homemade when you bite into it.

I'll take this opportunity to talk about their red sauce, not to be confused with marinara, as some people may think are one in the same.  I've seen some reviews of pasta with the red sauce here which were fairly scathing in describing it as a basic watery tomato sauce ladled over store bought pasta resulting in an incohesive (not sure that's a word) dish.  Thin would be a better word to describe it, which is just fine, because the flavor is what counts here.  This isn't your bright red chunky sugar and herb laced marinara sauce.  No, this is clearly a sauce that begins with the sauteing of beef and pork bones and perhaps a few short ribs in olive oil, and then is built from there with pureed tomatoes maybe a little onion or garlic, minced so small you don't notice it, a little salt, and maybe just a slight touch of oregano somewhere in there, before it's left to simmer all day letting the flavors come together in perfect harmony.  Yes folks, this is the real deal.  A relatively thin, but consistent red sauce with incredible meaty backbone.  Wonderful.

We both got veal dishes, both very similar.  My friend had the Saltimbocca...thin, tender, naked scallops of veal topped with prosciutto and cheese sauteed in a light wine sauce and served with a broiled spinach pancake.  Mine was similar, the Veal Champagne.  The same veal medallions topped with prosciutto, cheese, mushrooms and tomatoes, sauteed in a light champagne based sauce.  It was great.  So simple, and so good.  The veal was done perfectly, pounded to tender oblivion and cuttable with a fork, it was a large plate of food that came across clean and light.

It was served with a side of spaghetti with red sauce, pictured, which is all about the sauce, which we've already talked about.  We also had the choice of salad or soup.  My friend opted for the house salad, which was nicely torn chunks of crisp iceberg lettuce, some tomatoes and other vegetables, topped with simply red wine vinegar and olive oil.  I heard no complaints from that side of the table.  My minestrone soup was great.  Very rustic, and not as tomato laced as other varieties of this Italian classic can be.  Good potato and escarole content, very light on beans (if there were any), it screams comfort and home cooking.

We...oh, crap, the cheesy garlic bread!  Wow, this was incredible.  An inch thick slice of fresh, soft italian bread, mopped with butter and garlic and topped with cheese before being broiled to perfection.

I can't say a single bad thing about this place.  Go, and enjoy it.  I'll be back very soon and can't wait to try the vegetarian lasagna, the veal francese, the eggplant parmigiana, the veal siciliana, and about 30 other things.  Mmmmmmmm, anyone free tonight?

Summary

Atmosphere:  old school red and white checkered Italian, good for families, good for groups, as untrendy as it gets, family run

Food:  classic Italian

When to Go:  dinner

Crowd:  loyalists, neighbors, families

What to Get for the First Timer:  I'd have to say pick a veal, get the side of spaghetti and the minestrone, and start with meatballs sausage and cheesy garlic bread.  Will update after my next trip, my sense is that most everything is great.