New Italian restaurant in Schenectady
Italian cuisine at E.K.'s Cibo is a welcome addition to region's dining options
By Bryan Fitzgerald
Updated 3:54 pm, Sunday, July 27, 2014
There's another Italian restaurant in Schenectady. Other unsurprising news items that invoke similarly humdrum reactions in the Capital Region: Northway traffic is at a crawl near the Twin Bridges; a member of the state Legislature has been indicted. But there is reason to be excited for E.K.'s Cibo.
First and most critically, the food is memorably good, a welcome surprise for a place that opened with minimal fanfare in a nondescript Chrisler Avenue strip mall by a couple taking their initial plunge into restaurant ownership.
The road Kimberly Ferraro and her fiance, Scott Carlton, chef at E.K.'s Cibo, traveled en route to their first venture is as common to the industry as veal Marsala is in this city. They both worked in restaurants for two decades — she in the front of the house, he in kitchens. They saved for years for a place of their own, eventually taking over what was Brandon's Ritz Terrace. E.K.'s Cibo opened in May.
Coupled with a stellar small menu is an equally affordable and more-than-palatable wine list, both of which exhibit noticeable attention to detail. Though the space is a bit low on ambience, servers are seasoned and neighborly. They cultivated a communal atmosphere that turned a 10-minute power outage — the whole block blacked out amid one of those awful storms earlier this month — into a long laugh rather than a collective groan.
Like all restaurants, however, this matters only if the food is worth the wait.
It was at E.K.'s Cibo, perhaps most apparently in Carlton's manipulations of tomatoes.
In a mussels appetizer ($10), they're braised with the shellfish to a thick pomodoro, the spice more aromatic than scorching, contrasted against pebbles of chewy garlic. We were guessing at what was triggering an herby hint of warm sweetness until one of my guests had to pluck a fennel seed from her teeth. Had we not sponged up the bottom of the bowl with bread, I would have taken the rest of the sauce home and tossed it on top of rigatoni the next day.
A less pungent but equally satisfying blend came with a bowl of chicken Florentine soup, tailor-made for a rainy night inside, and a glass of sangiovese.
Carlton's sauce is almost purely tomato in his take on eggplant Parmesan, "Danny's Eggplant" ($
. A soft cheese custard substitutes for what would normally be oily blobs of mozzarella on top. Eggplant is cut to the width of fettuccine and shaved just as thin. It's a recommended change-of-pace appetizer that would only be better served if the custard was layered throughout instead of all thrown on top, though such a suggestion may not be feasible in a small kitchen busy with orders and tight time windows.
A meltingly soft and pillowy side of thyme-infused polenta with a braised chicken appetizer was simply excellent and a must-try. Veal sauteed with wild mushrooms and prosciutto in a "Veal Ferraro" entree ($24) carried an appetizing blend of flavors of earth and salt while staying light.
Though the only vegetarian main course seemed like it would be uninspiring melange of veggies and angel hair pasta, the quality of the exotic mushrooms, carrots, broccoli rabe and tomatoes suggested they were seriously fresh.
A Chianti-braised short rib dish ($24) disappointed, the beef fall-apart soft but the glaze overwhelming, leaving me wishing I had tested the chicken or veal Parms.
I've always thought red sauce, in any incarnation, is particularly hard to nail and, when executed well, is a hallmark of a great chef. Though seemingly simple, it has to be flexible enough to cater to everyone's taste, especially when it's the backbone of a menu. Carlton's blend, thick with fresh tomatoes and first-rate olive oil, more than stands up in a city where everyone seems to be stirring up gravy.
Carlton's skilled hand comes from his time as a Culinary Institute of America graduate and training with Dale Miller — our area's only Certified Master Chef — at the former Stone Ends in Glenmont. Carlton also cooked at Prime at Saratoga National and Milano in Latham.
Ferraro does the wines and, for a small spot in a strip mall, offers a limited but well-selected list that has only a handful of Italian options — including a smooth Rosso Toscana sangiovese — but features a good number of bottles you don't typically find in stores or might overlook if you saw them on the shelf. For something different, try the 19 Crimes red blend from Australia. A 2013 vintage, it's vibrant and young, not close to overly sweet, instead almost silky with soft notes of berries and oak and clove.
Dinner for three — three appetizers, three entrees and a few glasses of wine — came to a reasonable $140 before tax and tip.
Ambience consists of a some local art on the walls for sale in a dining room that's not inviting but not uncomfortable.
Unlike some of the area's higher-end options, E.K.'s Cibo may not be the type of spot you want to indulge for an anniversary or special occasion, but it should be fine as a weekly or monthly neighborhood destination for locals who want a reliably good meal with solid service.
Ferraro, a Rotterdam native, says no matter how saturated, there is always a market for a another Italian restaurant.
"It's just what people love around here," she says. "Even the places that aren't Italian, on their Italian nights they'll be packed."
The crowd on our trip was busy for a weekday. If E.K.'s Cibo keeps this up, it should only grow.
bfitzgerald@timesunion.com • 518-454-5414 • @BFitzgeraldTU
E.K.'s Cibo
1702 Chrisler Ave.
Schenectady
Phone: 952-4210
Web:
http://www.eks-cibo.comHandicapped Accessible: Yes
Credit Cards: M, V, AE, D
Hours: Closed Sundays. 4 to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday
Parking: Not a problem: sizable on-site lot in a strip mall
Reservations: Accepted, but not necessary
Food (***): Well-executed, small menu of Italian standards with some nice twists, handful of original dishes
Service (***): Not fine dining, but savvy and affable.
Beverage (***): Average beer and cocktail options. Go for the surprisingly clever wine list
Ambience (**1/2): Standard bar area and comfortable but unremarkable dining room
Personality (**1/2): The servers and staff have a lot, making you feel more than welcome, though the space is a bit dull.
Overall: ***
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