Posted by Rod Weatherbie in italian, restaurant review on September 26, 2008 at 3:20 pm

Pizzeria Libretto
221 Ossington Avenue
416-532-8000
Dinner for two with all taxes, tip and wine: $80

The recent buzz about Pizzeria Libretto has led the newest Ossington restaurant to run out of pizza dough on at least two occasions in the last month. All good restaurants should have this problem.

Since it opened in late August, the place has been packed. Walking by is akin to running a Terroni-like gauntlet of smoking hipsters, locals and foodies. Line-ups are out the door, and Pizzeria Libretto has a firm ‘no reservations’ policy.

I hate waiting in line for a restaurant but this seems to be something more and more places are encouraging. Foxley just a few doors down has the same ‘no reservations’ policy as does Terroni. However at Pizzeria Libretto customers can grab a glass of wine at the bar while they line up, a nice change (and probably illegal, as I seem to recall some Ontario law about only getting a drink if you have a seat).

This pizzeria takes its pizza seriously. That’s not to say the place itself is in any way dreary. It’s a nice room, high ceilinged. The wall along the entrance is slate and chalk is provided to while away the waiting time doodling or writing rude limericks, just be careful that while waiting you don’t rub up against it. Chalk dust can be difficult to get out of, oh, I don’t know, suede, maybe?

On the other side of the room there is a long granite bar, the end of which is set up so diners can actually face each other and avoid getting diner cramp, you know, when you’ve spent an hour with your head turned to talk to the person beside you at the counter.

And in the far reaches of the room, way at the back, is the kitchen, dominated by what appears to be a sweltering igloo. This is the wood-burning pizza oven, a necessity for a place that prides itself on making real Neapolitan pies. The owners, chef Rocco Agostino (of Silver Spoon) and proprietor Max Rimaldi, had this beast shipped from Naples.

Does it make the pizza any better? Depends. I’ve never had real Neapolitan pizza. Never been to Naples. In the end there were four of us, two pizzas were great, one okay, and the fourth bland as air.

All will be explained.

We went on a Friday night. Probably not the best night to avoid the line up, but we arrived at 6:30pm and had seats at the bar (facing each other) at a quarter past seven. The benefit to sitting at the bar is constant access to the bartender, we put this to good use and the wine list, while not very broad, is very reasonably priced. And almost any wine they have is offered by the glass, quarter, half or bottle. Lots of young wines. We went with a 2007 Angelo Nero d’Avola I.G.T. from Sicily.

My instinct is to save the best for last when writing, but such is the nature of dining that the appetizer, of course, comes first. We ordered the affetati e formaggi misti - chef’s choice of meat and cheese ($25) - to start. This is the highlight. Customers who order nothing else should get this or any of the meats, some prepared at the restaurant. Forgo the pizza and fill up on house-made wild boar cappicolo, salty dreamy Pingue’s prosciutto and house-made duck prosciutto.

The duck prosciutto is one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten. Six slices sat on our plate like little edible pieces of stained glass, deep red and translucent fat. And it (cliché warning) melts in your mouth. It really does. The fat and salt balanced just right, the taste is musky, and soft and good.

The boar cappicolo is just as tasty, if not quite heavenly. And Mario Pingue’s prosciutto is some of the very best in Ontario.

The plate also featured a chevre noir, a rocchetta, and some beautiful four-year-old Parmigiano-Reggiano.

The mains are all pizza, two of which have a D.O.P. designation (DOP stands for 'Denominazione d'Origine Protetta' which means Denomination of Protected Origin, similar to France’s Appellation d’origine contrôlée protecting such things as Bresse poultry), hence the oven from Italy. To be D.O.P. you have to use Italian flour, yeast, buffalo mozzarella and a wood oven at a certain temperature. Libretto does these things, but isn’t actually certified. Small bone when the results are this decent.

And that’s something that may take some getting used to. The oven is kept very hot and the pizza, especially the D.O.P. pies, can only be in there for a minute or a minute and a half. The resulting dish is hot, fragrant, crunchy. However there is a fair amount of caramelization. In other words the pizza can look a little burnt. I’m assured this is correct.

Despite the wide-ranging ingredients, pizza prices are reasonable. We had the prosciutto with basil, mozzarella, tomato ($15); the sardine with tomato, olive, chili oil ($13); the house-made sausage with caramelized onions, mozzarella, chili oil ($13); and the wild mushroom with tellaggio, mozzarella and herbs ($15).

The house-made sausage was the best of the bunch. The sausage was sufficiently fatty without overpowering the pie. A little bit of honey lengthens the taste. The prosciutto features some more of Mario Pingue’s salty goodness. The chef was judicious in his use of sardine on the sardine pizza. When it came out it looked like maybe they were running low on fish and were trying to stretch it out, but the oiliness of the fish diffused throughout the pie and was just the right amount.

The disappointment of the evening was, by far, the wild mushroom pizza. It wasn’t bad. It just wasn’t good either. It was nothing. There was absolutely no discernible flavour whatsoever. It was like eating the idea of a pizza and about as tasty.

But the memories of that duck helped us through.

For dessert we played it safe and had cannoli and coffee. The bartender makes an acceptable espresso and lattes are top notch.

Pizzeria Libretto is a nice addition to the burgeoning Ossington scene. The food and staff are unpretentious and the prices spot on.

And thankfully for our visit they didn’t run out of dough.

Rod Weatherbie is a Toronto-based journalist and poet. He is also partly responsible for Gadzooks! an online arts zine.