A BOTTLE OF RED

I always think of that Billy Joel song when I eat out at a traditional Italian Restaurant. As we did last night with friends. We headed not far across the river to Del Pietro's on Hampton in south St. Louis. And we used one of the $25 dining certificates from restaurant.com.

Our meal started with calimari and brushetta appetizers. I'm not a calamari eater but the guys said it was served differently than they had ever seen it but it was good. It was larger pieces that did not exactly look like the squid they had eaten. It was in a light breading and was softer not a crunchy batter. It was very tender though and not at all chewy, as calamari can sometimes be. It was served with a marinara and lemon. The brushetta were grilled and topped with fresh tomatoes, slivers of basil and fresh slices of parm. It was also tasty.

Soups and salads followed. I forgot to ask how the other couples' soup was but I do know they ate it all. I believe it was a minestrone. John and I both had house salads. They were what I'd call typical St. Louis style with greens, pimentos, cheese and a good coating of Italian dressing but I enjoyed it as much or more than others I've had around town. It was every bit as good as The Pasta House's.

We then moved on to entrees. I had a small order of spaghetti and meatballs (and was very glad that a small order is offered), John had pasta tutto mare and the other couple had veal canneloni and the evening special of beef spedini over ricotta based gnocchi. We all thoroughly enjoyed our meals and I think everyone polished theirs off or came close, there were no doggy bags to go home.

We finished off the meal by splitting desserts of chocolate chip cannoli and tiramasu and again the plates were "licked" clean. With our meal we enjoyed two bottles of chianti, a must drink with pasta in my opinion. Service was good, we were waited on by a young man that has worked there for 6 years and pretty well had it down. They're located not far from Ted Drewe's which could be another option for dessert!