Jan. 04, 2012 - Issue #846: Year in review
Could this be Amore?
Finding an authentic Mediterranean experience
» Café Amore provides an authentic Mediterranean experience
12118 - 90 St
780.477.7896
Close your eyes and you might think you were in an Italian osteria. It is late, well after the traditional dining hour, but tables are packed and multiple layers of conversation are interwoven with lively music. Multiple generations of the same family cook and run the front of the house, their enthusiasm infusing the small room with contagious light. Open your eyes and you realize you are nowhere more—or less—exotic than the mature, residential neighbourhood of Delton. This is Café Amore Bistro.
The concept is simple. Hand-written menus hang on the wall and one of the owners, Nick or Cristo Crudo, greets you at your table and takes your order. The kitchen produces an astute assortment of pastas and panini. Pasta specials change daily and today’s offering is inspired by the sun-soaked coast of Calabria. Pasta Calabrese ($10) presents properly al dente penne that loll in a zesty tomato sauce with slices of spicy sausage. A small shaker of red chilies is available for those that wish to up the spice factor but, in my estimation, the kick of this dish is bang-on.
A chicken pizzaiola panino with a green salad ($10.50) is comprised of a crisp bun that cradles a whole, juicy chicken breast caressed with melted cheese and dusted with gentle herbs. A slightly piquant oil-and-vinegar dressing emphasizes the salad greens’ innate earthiness. A half-litre of the house red, a Montepulciano, is ruby red, vivacious and assertive. It matches and emphasizes our entrees and recapitulates the bistro’s animated atmosphere.
Dessert options are limited to sorbetto, which is similar to sorbet in that it is made from fruit juices, but differs in production methods. We sample generous bowls of strawberry and orange ($5 each). Each spoonful is whisper-smooth and sings of summer fruits, the likes of which will only be delicious fantasies that live in the dark of a winter’s night. A frothy, milky cappuccino ($2.50) is a quintessentially Italian coda to the meal, wrapping up our culinary telekinesis from Edmonton to Italy in a warm cup of joie de vivre.
Café Amore Bistro is an admirable anomaly among Edmonton eateries in its uncanny ability to authentically represent the laid-back, distinctly unpretentious Mediterranean approach to both dining and life. The lines between family, friends and customers are blurred to the point of nonexistence. The owners cook, serve and interact with diners instead of remaining sequestered in an off-site office. To eat at Café Amore Bistro is to experience both the new and the old, the European and North American, artistically arranged over pasta and chased with a properly-pulled cup of cappuccino. vueweekly.com comments: powered by Disqus
Privacy Policy:
Vue respects your privacy. We will not forward your personal information to any other organization except as required by law, and will use your e-mail address only to respond to your comments. We reserve the right to edit and remove comments for length, clarity and/or if they are illegal or inappropriate. Your email address is never shown to visitors to vueweekly.com. Read the whole policy at: http://vueweekly.com/privacy
Comments policy
Comments go online directly without first being seen or reviewed by editors at Vue. Don't personally attack people, don't be defamatory, don't be spam-atory, don't hawk your band, don't pretend to be someone else, be clear, be on topic, be nice. Read our extended comments policy here. »
We use Disqus for our comments system. What's that all about?
We found that managing the comment community at Vue was easier to do with a system like Disqus. If this isn't straightforward to you, get help here.