Ciao Osteria takes the farm-to-table concept one step further.
Words by Stefanie Gans
Photos by Rey Lopez
Fat wedges of Green Zebra, Cherokee Purple and Brandywine quickly come to the table at Ciao Osteria. Slices of dragon cucumber slip between the multicolored tomatoes. The summer salad is heavily dressed in a balsamic and oil mixture with dried oregano and fresh streamers of basil. I recognize the components of my salad, tossed on a large white platter. I picked out the bounty myself.
Buzzwords become mainstream. Trends recycle, but only after prolonged dormancy. For the concept of farm-to-table, not only is the novelty gone, the entire premise has been co-opted. When McDonald’s runs a commercial showing vast monoculture farms producing potatoes for its billions served, the origin story of farm-to-table ends.
Farm-to-table initially showcased the strong ties restaurants and farmers created to bring local, sustainably raised and seasonal produce—and animals—to diners.
Restaurants demonstrate this commitment with not only the obvious, changing menus reflecting the daily haul, but by printing the names of the farms whose products shine on the plate. This is common practice, especially in farm-rich Northern Virginia. And many restaurants circumvent the trail altogether, from keeping honeybees in McLean (härth) to growing up to 90 percent of what’s foraged or grown on the land in Lovettsville (The Restaurant at Patowmack Farm). While some restaurant owners utilize their connections, some rely on their own employees to bring local produce to their tables.
At Ciao Osteria, deep within a winding strip mall village, there is a farmer, who is also Ciao’s mixologist, manning a mini-farmers market out front. It’s late July and Nathan Heath sells a few varieties each of tomato, cucumber, eggplant, squash, and its blossom. Anyone walking by can pick up a pint of Sun Golds, or, can purchase items and bring them into the restaurant where the chef, Antonino Di Nicola, will turn them into a meal.
First out was the tomato and cucumber salad, then a plate of squash blossoms. Most chefs stuff the marigold-hued blossom with ricotta and then fry it. But here, the Brooklyn-born, Sicilian-raised Di Nicola, sautees them. The already pliable blossoms turn limp, barely able to capture the ricotta rupturing into an overlay of creamy pesto. It is a dish built for bread to swish through it, and we swipe the plate clean with gratis rolls. It is a simple, beautiful dish that accentuates Ciao’s farmer-chef relationship.
In another farmers market creation Di Nicola hollows out a golden egg, a bright yellow oval-shaped squash whose heft rivals an eggplant, and stuffs it with mushrooms, ground beef and cheese and serves on a plate with extra cream sauce. The squash was also from Heath’s 13,000-square foot Manassas plot, Ripe Farm, which we paid him $2. Heath, 33, sells his produce directly to Ciao during the week, but it’s only on Saturdays (through September) when customers can pay for Di Nicola to play with that exact vegetable; the restaurant charged $15 for the finished dish. Unfortunately, the squash was undercooked and the beef underseasoned.
Heath first met Ciao’s owner Sal Speziale (his wife Gina is co-owner) when he waited tables at his previous restaurant, San Vito. That was 10 years ago, and in between Heath worked under cocktail master Todd Thrasher at Society Fair. This is the first time that Chef Di Nicola, 40, cooked with Speziale. Di Nicola owned and cooked at Pane e Vino, before joining Speziale in April, whom he has known his whole life. They’re first cousins and Speziale, 60, is Di Nicola’s godfather.
In preparation for Ciao, Di Nicola earned his certificate in authentic Neapolitan pizza making. More than papers, the pizza proves Di Nicola’s skill. Spicy sausage mixes with broccoli rabe and smoked mozzarella on crust with good chew and ample char. Most importantly, it maintains that signature soupy middle. The Verace is another tell of a superb pizza shop, especially with a restrained sweetness in the tomato sauce.
The pastas are not made here (that will change in the coming months), but creamy Alfredo is, and it’s worth the extra gym session.
A special with scallops and shrimp over noodles displayed a weak sauce that is more watery broth. An appetizer on special, octopus, arrived with tentacles so burnt it only tasted of bitterness, not letting diners witness the sweet fleshy meat of the sea.
But at lunch, there’s an improved alternative use of flour and water when pizza dough turns into sandwich bread, panuozzo. It results in a charred pita-like texture and encapsulates a whole hog’s worth of meat—speck, sopreseta, mortadella, prosciutto di Parma—plus cheese and arugula. It’s an excellent sandwich balancing salty, meaty and bitter.
But what’s even better is a cocktail. It’s back to the field with Heath’s Garden in a Glass. The farmer-bartender turns 15 pounds of heirloom tomatoes, seasoned with lemongrass and serranos, into a savory mixer shaken with citrus-flavored vodka. It’s sweet in the way fruit is naturally and garnished with pea-sized tomatoes and ridged cucumbers. The farm is in your glass. And it’s intoxicating.
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Notes
Ciao Osteria
Scoop
From 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. every Saturday in September, you can shop the farmers market out front, taking produce home or getting the kitchen to cook it for you.
Dishes
Appetizers: $6–$15; Entrees: $10–$32
Open
Lunch and dinner daily
Contact
14115 St. Germain Drive, Centreville
(September 2014)
