Little Italy Calls

Rocco’s Capriccio

846 Fawn Street

Baltimore, Md 21202

410-685-2710

 Itsa the real deal!

This dinner visit with friends was inspired by Baltimore Restaurant Week with its $35 per person menus. The story at Rocco’s is all about the sauces. While the menus at all participating restaurants provide limited selections from their full menus, the one offered by Rocco’s capriccio included a very large selection of appetizers, entrees and desserts. All four diners this evening were easily able to choose selections without duplicating one another.

It had been many years since our last meal in Baltimore’s Little Italy as we have been travelling to the superb Mama Filomena’s in Georgetown for our Italian food fixes. My family used to go to Maria’s 500 in Little Italy several times a year for the simplest of inexpensive cuisine and house red wine. This trip to Fawn Street recalled many of my memories of those good times as I stepped out of our car and engaged an entire neighborhood overwhelmed with the aroma of cooked garlic on a warm evening.

Parking in Little Italy has become competitive and expensive. The residents there are certainly entitled to most of the street parking but it makes for a nice business for those with nearby lots of valet services. One entrepreneurial fellow has staked out the restaurants on the four corners of Fawn St. and rather than cruise the neighborhood for 20 minutes looking for a free spot I paid the $10 tariff and moved onto our meal. Parking is even more difficult and expensive in Georgetown.

The dining room is not large at Rocco’s and it certainly has a homey mediterranean feel to it. Reservations are suggested for any evening meal regardless of which night you choose. The bread that comes out shortly after you are seated is the flavorful white loaf that has accompanied many a meal in many a restaurant in Little Italy. It did not need the butter that accompanied it but it would have been nice if some olive oil and herbs had been available for dipping it in.

Two of the appetizers we ordered were remarkable, the Prosciutto over melon and Insalata Del Mare. The Prosciutto was thinly sliced sheets of perfectly lean meat in over sweet green melon slices. The portion was huge. My mix of shrimp, mussels and clams were in a totally perfect red sauce that must have been cooking for days with EVVO and garlic. Everyone at the table took occasion to put that bread to use.

All of the dinner entrees were impressive. The Fettuccini and Shrimp in a white cream sauce was spectacular. The Stuffed Veal was a nice size portion in a wonderful brown / mushroom sauce with a stuffing of prosciutto & asiago and gorgonzola cheeses. My Rack of Lamb was cooked to medium just as I asked and the final dish of Costa Rican Snapper with leeks and carrots left only a very empty plate in front of my friend. The side dishes of penne pasta with marinara sauce that some ordered were fine but a bit disappointing.

Desserts of fresh cannoli and tiramisu finished our leisurely meal. I liked the tiramisu quite a bit because it was so moist from the rum saturation, another among us found it to be too mushy; less than the expected firmness. Oh well.

Looking over the regular dinner menu I found many reasons to return to Rocco’s with entrée prices ranging from $20 for the veal dishes to $32 for Rack of Veal. Chef Rocco Gargano twice visited tables in the dining room during our visit. It’s a family business there with his daughter serving tables and his son as bartender. I’ll return to this restaurant if only for some more of his incredible tomato sauce, perhaps with the calamari over linguini. Only next time I’m going to arrive early and walk the neighborhood, taking in as much of the aromas as I can.