Bill Bradley is a longtime Boston chef with a string of
successes — restaurants like Carmen, Bricco, and Rustic Kitchen — who recently
found himself cooking in the remote Boston suburbs. However good Incontro
Restaurant in Franklin might be, I suspect the switch felt like being demoted
to the Triple-A Pawtucket team after years of playing at Fenway Park. Or
perhaps it was more like a mercenary stint in Japanese baseball: collecting a
fat paycheck, enjoying the locals’ adoration, but knowing he wasn’t competing
against the best anymore. Whatever lured Bradley back to the big leagues, it’s
good to see him at Pazzo (269 Newbury Street, Boston, 617.267.2996),
a slick newcomer in the space that was long occupied by the original Davio’s
and more recently and briefly home to gourmet pizza spot Croma.
This roomy restaurant has long dining rooms upstairs and down, a
spacious bar, and the cozy sidewalk patio that’s de rigueur on Newbury Street.
As befits an Italian restaurant catering to a mix of tourists, exurban
shoppers, cocktail-swilling grazers, and Back Bay locals desperate for
affordable weeknight dining options, Pazzo’s menu sprawls. Smaller courses
include stuzzichini (tapas-like small plates),
flatbread pizzette, four versions of carpaccio, and traditional-sized
antipasti, including salads and soups. The generously sized
secondi (the Italian third-course offerings most akin to American
entrees) feature meats and seafood creatively punched up with fresh herb- and
spice-heavy accents. (There are even a few idiot-friendly Parmesan-style
cutlets with piles of linguini.)
But Bradley always wowed me with his primi,
the pasta or risotto dishes of the Italian second course, and a spell in the
provinces has not diminished his skill. His spicy tagliolini ($19) is
exemplary, the skinny, slightly chewy pasta ribbons providing a simple foil for
plump, sweet, subtly briny Wellfleet clams, a few piquant grape tomatoes, and a
studiously plain, brothy sauce of white wine, garlic, fresh basil, and fresh
parsley. This dish shows a keen grasp of the virtues of the best Italian cooking
— an understanding of when to keep arty technique from overwhelming fine
ingredients, of how to limit the number of flavors to a handful that can play
together gracefully without getting in each other’s way. Throw the ball, catch
the ball, hit the ball: don’t overthink or swing so hard you fall over. This
storied veteran makes a strong case that he belongs back in The Show, playing
once again to a broad swath of fans (both the serious and the pink hats) and
proving he hasn’t lost the swing that catapulted him to the majors in the first
place. I still believe. Welcome back, Papi.
