It’s said that “crazy” is doing something repeatedly and expecting a different result. For many in Sarasota, “crazy” would be if the Calore family wasn’t helming a restaurant serving up some of the best Italian-American cuisine south of Jersey. The Calore’s first introduced their crazy (pazzo in Italian) good food to the city in 2012 with Mozzarella Fella on Main Street, a casual sandwich shop whose chicken parm made belt buckles panic. Then it was Pazzo Southside in the Hillview district right on Osprey Avenue, a small, bustling, full-service restaurant that served lunch and dinner to anyone lucky enough to get a table.
They bet big on a move to a big space on Hillview that, through the many pitfalls of the grueling restaurant business, didn’t work out. And they return now with Pazzo on Orange, just north of Fruitville, bringing the same greatest hits that made the first Pazzo so well loved, with a couple new ones thrown in. New co-owner and former front-of-house manager Frank Rocco—who actually used to dine at Chef Mike Calore’s restaurant in Brooklyn—assumes his position once again as the floor general. The kitchen is now headed by Andrew Calore, with father Mike Sr. steering the saucepans and older brother Mike Jr. at the pizza oven. “Everything I learned, I learned from my dad,” says Chef Andrew, “and he always said to keep it simple.” Fortunately, “simple” doesn’t mean tasteless.
Take the baked clams oreganata, for example. There’s nothing but breadcrumbs, garlic, a touch of herbs and spices, a bit of butter and the perfect temperature that transforms the little mollusks into savory bites. Or another starter staple, the fresh mozzarella salad. It starts off as a caprese with housemade mozzarella, sliced tomatoes and sweet basil, then adds house-roasted bell peppers (an all-day process) and aged prosciutto before getting a drizzle of sweet balsamic glaze. Both are balanced, delicious and let the main ingredients speak for themselves.
Those who grew up in Italian enclaves in the northeast might also recognize the meatball salad, a simple plate of mixed greens, olive oil and red wine vinegar topped with a dollop of Sunday gravy.
While all pasta dishes deserve attention, standouts include the rigatoni prosciutto, farfalle and seafood linguine. The rigatoni prosciutto is a savory, hardy bowl of rigatoni, prosciutto, mushrooms, arugula, fresh mozzarella, sweet onions, garlic and olive oil. It’s a wonderful mix of flavors, with the prosciutto and mushrooms adding an especially nice bit of salt and umami. If umami is the goal, however, the farfalle shines. The magic comes primarily from the parmesan cream sauce. Parmesan cheese, as many may already know, contains a very high amount of glutamate, the amino acid responsible for the “fifth taste” most commonly associated with Japanese cuisine—umami was first discovered and studied by a Japanese scientist, after all. The result is a pasta dish so mouthwatering that it’s easy to blow right past your body’s pleas to stop eating it. For those in the mood for seafood, the seafood linguine should check every box. The generous portion comes with lobster tail, shrimp, mussels, clams and calamari, all tossed with linguine in a spicy fra diavolo red sauce. The blend of diverse seafood captures a good mix of flavors, from the light buttery profile of lobster to the salt and brine of the mussels and clams. Entrees include the usual suspects like marsala plates, a mix of chicken, pork and veal offerings, and a delicious risotto. Altogether, these are the quintessential flavors of Italian-American cuisine expressed to perfection.
From the oven, Pazzo’s game has come a long way from its first offerings on Osprey Avenue. The pizzas are somewhere between New York-style and Neapolitan, with a nice thin crust that holds its form well. Start off with the barebones tomatoes and basil pizza to gain an appreciation for the pie, then dive into the heftier options like short rib and onions or the deliciously salty broccoli rabe and sausage.
The cheesecake has also come a long way since Chef Andrew’s first go on Osprey Avenue. This iteration is fluffier, more consistent and a little less sugary. It showcases the growth and maturation of a chef who was practically raised in a restaurant kitchen. In the new, larger, refined space on Orange Avenue, replete with an overflow “party room” and ample patio, this next chapter of the Pazzo story feels like a safe bet. The food’s still crazy good though.
