Pizza. Pasta.
Riverbend: 1519 S. Carrollton Ave. 504-865-9200. Map.
Lunch and dinner cintinuously seven days.Sunday brunch.
Very Casual
AE MC V
WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
New Orleans is not a particularly good pizza town, so any place that bakes pie consistently well is worthy of note. They make them here in the New York style--thin crust, a little burned around the edges. Also here: Philly cheese steaks, better than any other locally. And some surprisingly fine, unexpected daily specials.
WHY IT'S GOOD
Nino's pizza and cheesesteaks are reason enough to come here and to put up with the minimal surroundings. But that's just the start of his efforts on your behalf. He cooks everything Italian, and many things that aren't. Mussels, for example, have become a house specialty. Other specials appear from what seems like nowhere. The fact that a dish seems too fancy for the place shouldn't prevent you from ordering it.
BACKSTORY
Nino Bongiorno, native of Sicily, moved to New York in his early adulthood, and started cooking. He moved to Philadelphia for a time, then wound up here, duplicating the kind of neighborhood Italian restaurant he found in the Northeast. He's there almost all the time.
DINING ROOM
The converted Steak 'n' Egg Kitchen is, to be charitable, low on creature comforts. Everything's pretty beat up. But there's a certain charm in this. The service style is unique: the food comes, and comes, but no check. Ask Nino how much you owe on the way out, and he'll make up a figure that will be a bargain.
ESSENTIAL DISHES
Pizza.
Calzone.
Sausage rolls.
Philly cheese steak.
Basic pasta dishes.
Lasagna.
Arancini.
Daily specials (particularly the mussels on Friday and the osso buco).
FOR BEST RESULTS
Get ready for a very off-the-cuff, loose operation. You not only order at the counter but most of the time pick up your own food.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
The premises are about thirty years overdue for renovation. The clean-up crew could be a little more efficient, too.
FACTORS OTHER THAN FOOD
Up to three points, positive or negative, for these characteristics. Absence of points denotes average performance in the matter.
- Dining Environment -2
- Consistency +2
- Service -2
- Value +2
- Attitude +1
- Wine and Bar
- Hipness
- Local Color +1
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
- Open Sunday lunch and dinner
- Open Monday lunch and dinner
- Open all afternoon
- Unusually large servings
- Quick, good meal
- Good for children
- Easy, nearby parking
- No reservations
ANECDOTES AND ANALYSIS
It's nice to find the backstreet specialties of other cities once in awhile. Two such are found at Cafe Nino: New York-style thin-crust pizza and Philadelphia-style steak sandwiches.
The pizza crust is just right: hard on the bottom, just bready enough around the edges, topped with basic ingredients, well made.
The Philly steak looks like a roast beef poor boy, but the taste is totally different. The thinly sliced beef is grilled to order with peppers, onions, and (almost always) provolone cheese, and shoved onto a long bread. Some of the daily specials (mussels, for example) are unexpectedly delicious. They also have basic Italian dishes here, but those are forgettable. The place is a bit seedy. The building was once a chain diner whose remodeling actually brought the atmosphere down an inch.
This review was updated with new information on 1/8/2010.
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