A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

Nebo opened on June 20th of this year just next door to Trade. The restaurant, owned by the Pallotta sisters, Carla and Christine, was originally located in the North End before moving to the Financial District. The decor is industrial and modern, love the feel. The one downside to the open ceilings is that it can get a little noisy. Everything looks delicious – they have a well rounded menu with something for everyone…until they tell us that the pizza oven isn’t working. There goes half the menu. That’s ok though, we aren’t here for the pizza. For only being open for 5 days, they ran more smoothly than I would have predicted. I am amused that the waiters are wearing Adidas Sambas…reminds me of my high school days. Out waitress was good: professional and friendly. We start with the arancini ($10), porcini mushroom and mozzarella stuffed rice balls, the honey drizzle gives a lovely sweetness to the dish. The burrata ($15) was simply prepared with mortadella, olive oil and some crushed pistachios. I wanted a little more heft to the dish, so we asked for some bread. They make it to order, which makes it sound special…but it’s toasted and drizzled with olive oil. ($2.50!) Two of the entrees that I wanted to try: the gnocchi with broccoli rabe and sausage topped with pecorino romano ($20). The gnocchi was really dense, although I didn’t really mind. The sausage was tasty and the rabe tied everything together nicely. Papardelle Bologneses ($22) is slow braised meat ragu, tomato, cream and pecorino romano. I’m pretty tough on bolognese in general. The pasta was delicious and home made, you could tell. The sauce was really sweet, like what you would taste with San Marzano tomatoes, and it didn’t taste like there was all that (any) cream in the sauce. The meat was one dimensional, was there a mixture of meats of just ground beef? The thing about the dish that was great was that it was pretty light – which is important, some of the sauces with a lot of cream can sit in the pit of your stomach. Verdict was that it was ok, not great… The ricotta pie on the other hand…($8) was delicious. The filling was slightly sweet and creamy and pretty cold which I look for when I order pie in general. The crust was a little dry but overall a great dessert. We sat next to the window in between the two doors. When you are looking at the restaurant, go to the far door on the left, the one on the right is locked. It was a never ending laugh waiting to see how many steps people would go before realizing that the door was locked. Hey, I’m amused easily! It was a lovely evening. I’d like to go back when they have been open a little longer to see if they have worked out any of the kinks. I’ll leave you with this image of the 70-foot-by-70-foot painting by Brazilian twin brothers Otavio and Gustafo Pandolfo, known as Os Gemeos. Check it out if you haven’t already, it’s only here until November 2013. Nebo 90 North Washington Street, Boston http://neborestaurant.com/

Tags: financial district, italian, restaurant