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| - I'd never been to the excellent Sidecar's sister restaurant, Negroni, but figured that its having gone through a recent reworking to emerge as Carpano gave me an excuse to check it out - an open, clean space right on College with a small patio. The lunch panini that many Yelpers have talked about remain on the menu, but they are absent from the dinner selection, which now offers pastas, risottos, grilled meats and crudo (raw plates.)
Having been very impressed with the drinks at Sidecar, I made sure to order a cocktail (a mojito) to start dinner off with. And much like Sidecar's, the cocktails here are very well made (though there's not as wide a selection.) The mix of bite, freshness and sweetness was just right for a hot summer evening.
I ordered the tuna crudo for dinner, while my girlfriend had the lobster risotto. The crudo comes in a small portion of five or six sashimi-like slices of fish brushed with a bit of oil and lightly salted, served with little cloudlike puffs of pureed white bean and a caper/pepper relish which was quite good. It was pretty light as far as dinner dishes go, but there was a delicate, elegant balance between its flavours.
Having tried a bit of the risotto, my assessment was that while the lobster part was excellent - firm, meaty, buttery and without the usual shellfish hassle - the rice and sauce were not as good. The rice was overcooked for my taste and there was too much sauce. My girlfriend agreed.
Let me be clear about something - you absolutely must try the ice cream at Carpano (though the other desserts sound nice too.) It's so good that the next place they open should open a gelateria. They're currently offering three flavours - a raspberry sorbet that would do a Prince song proud, a chocolate flavour that's semi-creamy and dark, and a velvety smooth, rich, absurdly awesome peanut butter flavour. You can mix and match 2 (generous) scoops of the three, and there's no wrong way to go about it - either you get the experience of a sweet/tart tartufo, a melt-in-your-mouth Reese's cup or, perhaps most impressively, a frozen PB&J with amazing texture contrasts.
Much like its sister restaurant, Carpano delivers well-made modern Italian food at a reasonable price in a nice location. The drinks are a bit pricey, but worth it, and the dessert is wonderful. I'll have to come back for panini, though.
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