Thursday, December 15, 2011

Il Cane Rosso


Cyberspace: ilcanerosso.com
Grade: B+
Where to Find It: 2612 Commerce St, Dallas, TX 75226
Food Group: Pizza
How Much to Fork Over: $$
Faves: Delia Pizza, BYOB, Service, Use NoWait Host app (will explain)
Peeves: No reservations, Long Wait on a busy night




The Jibba Jab:
A well needed resurgence in Deep Ellum?  I think it’s happening, and Il Cane Rosso is great place to start your night down in the Deep.  The service is friendly and assertive and they use this NoWait Host app on an ipad to organize their waiting list because they don’t take reservations unless you have a group of 6 or more.  What is this NoWait Host app?  It’s simple!  The hostess takes your name, party size and phone number.  When your table is ready, they text you!  Why is it so great?  Because you can go anywhere (and not be scrunched up against every other patron waiting for a table in the restaurant’s bar) while you are waiting for that long starving hour, and you will still get the text!!  So we marched ourselves down to the next cool and non-crowded bar and had ourselves a drink. 

Of course we came prepared with our bottles of wine to take advantage of BYOB, so when we were seated the waiter popped them open for us.  They do have a bar, but I love utilizing BYOB for 3 reasons: 1) It automatically chops your bill in half  2)You drink wine that you like, and aren’t limited to their menu  3)You can take it home if you don’t finish it!  I wish more places allowed it.  Before grubbing on our much anticipated hot, crispy, cheesy, delicious pie of all pies, we needed my always Go To as an appetizer….Salad.  Because they had Caesar on the menu, I had to try it to compare it with Louie’s Caesar, which is by far the best I’ve ever had…..and still is.  Cane Rosso’s was quite good, but it didn’t have that sharp, spicy, pow in your mouth flavor that Louie’s always achieves.  We also had the Mista salad parading a basic, but good balsamic dressing.

By now, you probably know that I glorify pizza with such esteem that I think it should be a food group (and it actually might be at a school cafeteria).  I also feel that the crust is just as important, if not more, than the toppings on the pizza.  It is my favorite part to eat, so I am quite particular about its characteristics, which should be crispy on the outside with a bit of fluff on the inside.  The only place I’ve recently had the pleasure of eating at that has achieved this type of crust flawlessness is Otto in New York City.  Mario Batali is a genius when it comes to anything Italian and his pizza perfection proves it. Now I have something to compare every pizza to….which brings me to my one and only complaint at Il Cane Rosso.  The crust just didn’t cut it for me.  It was beautifully cooked with those lovely little black charred spots, but the consistency was doughy with no crispiness at all….having said that, the toppings made up for most of it.  The Delia, which consisted of Bacon Marmalade….yep that’s right….tomatoes, House made Mozzarella….yep they make their own Mozzarella, and arugula was by far my favorite and most eclectic pizza of the day.  I wanted to smear that Bacon Marmalade on everything I touched it was so good.  The other two pizzas, Zoli (Tomato sauce, Mozzarella, Basil, Hot Soppressata, Jimmy’s Sausage) and Gus (Tomato sauce, Mozzarella, Basil, Jimmy’s Sausage, Mushrooms) were great as well, especially the Zoli because the Hot Soppressata was a huge hit…..nice and crunchy with the right amount of kick.  Overall, Il Cane Rosso is a great BYOB stop for some good pizza.  Keep it coming Deep Ellum!
Salads separated by fork: Mista on Left, Caesar on Right

Delia

Gus

Zoli

Il Cane Rosso on Urbanspoon