OSTERIA MATTONE
1095 Canton St., Roswell. 678-878-3378, osteriamattone.com. $$$
Italian restaurants never go out of style because, well, because. Who doesn’t look down into a bowl of fettucccine or risotto and encounter a piece of his own soul? But once every turn of the restaurant trend clock Italian surges back into the forefront.
Roswell’s Osteria Mattone, with its rustic, country-inn attitude, is the second venture from the Table & Main team of Ryan Pernice and Ted Lahey.
Lahey’s menu is a well curated grab bag, and if there are a few tonal inconsistencies, that’s what to expect from a restaurant that calls itself an osteria but can’t stop its fancier instincts.
Tuna carpaccio glossed with oil and dotted with slivers of black olive, chive and invisible shavings of bottarga seems to have come from a different kitchen than a rustic plate of furled octopus legs with chickpeas and mint. Happily for us, both are great.
And Lahey channels Rome nicely with his handmade tonnarelli cacio e pepe — fine (if too clumped) strands of pasta in a terrific sauce of ewe’s milk cheese and black pepper.
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