Building on the success of their Mission restaurant and their second location in West Springs the owners of Mercato recently opened Bocce an upscale-casual eatery located on the corner of Fourth Street and 22nd Avenue S.W. less than a block away from the original Mercato.
Both restaurants serve Italian food and feature a busy and lively dining room with an open kitchen but the similarities end there. While Mercato has a more classic and formal look Bocce’s décor is inspired by summery Italian cucinas with whitewashed exposed brick walls and light wood accents. Robin’s egg blue windows looking into the prep kitchen add a pop of colour as do large pink posters painted with citrus motifs.
The food and cocktail menus both offer familiar favourites like spaghetti bolognese margherita pizza negronis and gelato alongside slightly less traditional fare like Dom’s calabrese burger which replaces the ground beef patty with Italian fennel sausage ($10). There is also an impressive selection of domestic and imported beer (including local microbrewery Toolshed) wine and bubbles.
Bocce’s menu is dominated by items meant for sharing like appetizers salads pizza and big pasta plates which is exactly what we did though there are some killer-sounding sandwiches should you find yourself at Bocce alone.
I was originally hoping to grab a salad to get in my daily allotment of greens but my fiancé’s love for broccolini and rapini won over instead. The char-grilled rapini is small for an $11 dish but what it lacks in quantity it makes up for in quality. Though the salt was a little heavy-handed we liked the slight smokiness of the charred rapini and the dressing of garlicky olive oil. The puffed quinoa does not add much to the dish but the cute teardrop-shaped sweet pickled peppers were perfect bursts of colour and flavour.
We decided to share the Boschetto ($18) which was a bianca pizza meaning it had a base of olive oil instead of tomato sauce. The Boschetto was topped with semi-dried tomatoes mortadella mozzarella and parmigiano with a handful of pistachios and a few more cherry tomatoes sprinkled on top. Both my fiancé and our server seemed to be huge fans of the pizza though I found the layer of semi-dried tomatoes made the pizza a little too sweet for my taste. I did however enjoy the crust — chewy but light with crispy edges that had just a slight smoky char. I also liked the house-made chili oil which was satisfyingly spicy.
For dessert we tried the fresh strawberries balsamico ($9) which was a dish of quartered strawberries sitting in balsamic syrup topped with a generous dollop of mascarpone a dash of freshly ground black pepper and a fresh mint leaf. I’d heard of this flavour combination but had never tried it before. While the concept was good the execution fell flat. The strawberries were watery and flavourless with the balsamic syrup barely adding any flavour. The mascarpone was slightly gritty and bland and the black pepper didn’t provide the promised punch. My fiancé and I both jealously eyed the warm chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter gelato ($8) at the next table.
Although I admittedly did not have the best meal at Bocce I did have a good time. Our server was friendly and seemed genuinely excited about the food at the restaurant and the space itself was sunny and lively. I would definitely go back to see if I could choose some different items and put together a more delicious meal.