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Bellaluna Shines Brightly ... Most of the Time
• by Joe Pollack
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Peppe Profeta and his mother have been cooking and serving excellent meals to the Guru for many years. I remember the old Gian-Peppe’s on the Hill with great fondness when Peppe, much younger but not much smaller than he is today, was scurrying around the dining room, bringing huge plates from kitchen to table, recommending wines, discussing the day's specials.
Ernie Trova, the St. Louis-based artist with whom I drank and talked nearly a half-century ago at Richard Mutrux's Gaslight Bar before it gave its name to the neighborhood, used to call Gian-Peppe’s his favorite St. Louis restaurant. He called upon the Profetas to cater holiday parties at his home, and the food matched the conversation – always interesting and tasty.
The Profetas sold the Hill location a few years ago and Peppe was involved in some other restaurant operations, notably Roberto's. But the restaurant bug dies hard -- most antibiotics don't even scare it –- and the Profetas are back in action as Bellaluna, in the old Joseph's location in Kirkwood. Mom isn't working nearly as much as she used to, but Peppe's staff has been turning out some superior meals. Things aren't perfect yet; a splendid evening was followed by one that was badly sub-par in terms of both food and service, but a third visit came back to a higher note.
Funny, isn't it, how a sub-par round of golf produces a joyous evening, but a sub-par experience at a restaurant is quite disturbing?
The Bellaluna menu is strongly Italian, wide-ranging and on the expensive side. About half the entrees are in the $20 range, but the half listed as "grand specialties" are higher. Pastas are superb and, of course, less of a strain on the budget. The wine list is extensive and had satisfactory by-the-glass variety. The Guru applauds half bottles and enough by-the-glass choices to allow diners to enjoy a couple of different wines with dinner. A few more selections would have helped, however. One of the nice touches about Bellaluna is the presence of a real piano player, mostly on weekends. There's something about live music that brings a festive air to dinner at a restaurant; it makes the tablecloth whiter, brings extra sparkle to the gleam of the crystal and the shine of the silver.
St. Louis Italian restaurants are properly famous for their cuisine, but they never seem to receive sufficiently glowing notices for their pastas. We sampled a number, and they were unanimous winners. Spaghetti alla Carbonara, usually rich and creamy with bacon and egg, reaches new heights at Bellaluna, with duck prosciutto and a quail egg bringing extra flavor and texture to the dish. It was brilliantly conceived, executed and served.
Spaghetti Fritti, pan-seared with a peppery arrabiata sauce, was a delight, and the crisp edges, usually available only when the chef forgets to take the pan off the heat, were a delicious change and the sauce brought nice heat on a cold night. Linguine with clams in a spicy red sauce were a welcome change from the bland, creamy sauce seen so often around here, and old-fashioned penne pasta, short and thick, was splendid with equally old-fashioned meat balls.
Appetizers were generally good, but not always. Eggplant rolls in some overdone sauce didn't make it, and arancinetti, or smaller-than-usual rice balls with different fillings, lacked sufficient flavor and the rice was tough. Caponata, an eggplant relish heightened by capers, olives and lots of garlic, was a far more successful dish, with good texture and superior flavor. Fried artichoke hearts in a tasty, extremely light batter also were winners, and crostini with mushrooms were excellent, with the full, earthy flavor of porcini mushrooms coming through.
Salads were fine, especially a splendid Caesar with a good hit of anchovies coming through nicely. The full leaves of lettuce make it rather difficult to eat, but we were warned by a menu description of "whole leaf" for the salad. The flavor was enough to make the fight worthwhile, and besides, it's always good to win a battle with an inanimate leaf of lettuce.
Entrees were generally good, led by a superlative piece of fresh halibut (the catch of the day), perfectly cooked and served with a marvelous garlic-mushroom-butter sauce that was so good it even gave welcome flavor to the zucchini, that most tasteless of vegetables. And speaking of vegetables, it's time that everyone shelved the zucchini, broccoli, carrots and cauliflower that seem to be the “seasonal vegetables” that are always in season.
A filet mignon with a red-wine-and-mushroom sauce also was a delight, and a pair of pork chops, cooked Sicilian style, were outstanding. Pasta with seafood sauce was good, but not exceptional, and the same held true for veal piccata, with an elegant lemon sauce but meat without much to recommend it.
Desserts are standard, and eminently satisfactory, but a plate of crisp, freshly stuffed, miniature cannoli was a gem, with tender crust and tasty filling. No one mentioned it, but as a lad, one of Peppe's tasks was filling the shells. He has not lost his touch.
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