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Every Day Is Sunday at Nicky's By S.A. Socha |
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Well, okay, every day really isn't Sunday, but the menu at Nicky's Italian Café is designed to make you feel as though you've joined a large Italian family for Sunday dinner. Since purchasing the restaurant in September of 2001, chef/owner Bob Barbera, his wife, Laura, and son, Nicky, have worked hard to create an intimate and welcoming atmosphere that feels more like a friend's home than a café. But even better than at a friend's house, at Nicky's you won't get stuck helping with the dishes.
The menu is concise, but offers a good mix of northern and southern Italian selections. Nightly specials add variety and change as foods come in and out of season. Local seafood is used whenever possible and all cooking is done, by Bob, on premises. All meals begin with a fabulous loaf of Osprey bread and seasoned butter.
This time of year, Island clams are featured on the appetizer menu. A favorite at Nicky's is clams gorgonzola … a nice display of littlenecks on the half shell, bathed in a blend of butter, garlic, and gorgonzola cheese, baked until it all runs together and served with crisp pancetta. If gorgonzola is too strong a flavor, clams toscano, Island clams sautéed with crumbled hot Italian sausage, garlic, and onion in a tomato Chardonnay broth with bruschetta is available.
Additional appetizers include artichoke-prosciutto gratin, a warm mix of artichoke hearts, prosciutto bits, and parmesan cheese … served with garlic parmesan crostini. There's also an interesting stuffed mushroom dish consisting of mushroom caps stuffed with spicy crabmeat, shrimp, scallops, and breadcrumbs. A classic caesar salad or a plate of fresh greens with homemade vinaigrette rounds out the appetizers.
Main courses include meat, fish, and pasta selections. Meat items include veal piccata, tender veal cutlets sautéed with butter, garlic, and onion and finished with a lemon caper, butter, and white wine sauce. Chicken may be substituted for veal. Chicken Marsala, chicken finished with a mushroom Marsala wine sauce, is also offered. Veal may be substituted for chicken. A pork dish featuring center-cut chops fried with red skin potatoes and spicy vinegar peppers is new to the menu this season. It joins café favorite beef tenderloin, filet mignon seasoned and seared in a large iron skillet, served dripping with gorgonzola-cheese butter.
Fish choices include shrimp scampi aglio i olio, shrimp sautéed in olive oil with thin sliced garlic and finished with a bit of pepperoncini and fresh Italian parsley. Cioppino, a combination of clams, scallops, crab, and codfish, simmered in a light Chablis and served with crunchy garlic bread provides the Italian answer to the classic French bouillabaisse. Shrimp, scallops, and crab come in another combination, dressed with a light parmesan Alfredo sauce. Also, by popular demand, the clams toscano appetizer has been expanded to entrée portions.
If pasta is what you crave, Nicky's marinara sauce is available over your choice of pasta and with meatballs or sausage, eggplant parmesan, chicken parmesan, or veal.Vegetarian selections include pasta alla puttanesca, a spicy melange of tomatoes, onions, capers, olives, anchovies, and garlic … all tossed together in olive oil and served over linguine, and mushroom penne, a blend of wild mushrooms and fresh herbs in a light sherry cream sauce. A final pasta dish is sausage with spinach and cannellini, a traditional blend of mild Italian sausage with marinara sauce, whole roasted garlic cloves, baby spinach, and white beans, tossed with penne.
Desserts vary with the day. On the night I visited, three or four choices were available including a heavenly apple cinnamon cake topped with whipped mascarpone.
Lunch is served from 11:30 am to 2 pm during the week and offers everything from house salads to hearty wintertime entrées like ziti and sauce, sausage and peppers over penne, and shrimp and garlic pasta. In addition, a wide variety of subs and sandwiches are available.
Nicky's is moderately priced, with the average entrée coming in at around $23. The most expensive item on the menu is the filet at $24.50. Appetizers average about $7.50, allowing two people to have a lovely meal for under $80 including tip.
The café has nine tables and seats only 32, including four at the bar, so reservations are advised, particularly on busy weekend nights. Bring your own wine.
And on Sunday, do plan to really dine at a friend's house - Nicky's is closed on Sundays. Nicky's Italian Café
State Road
Vineyard Haven
508-696-2020
Open for dinner Monday through Saturday from 5:30 pm.
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Steve Socha is an occasional contributor to the Edibles column of The Martha's Vineyard Times. This article appeared in the March 20, 2003 edition.
Copyright by The Martha's Vineyard Times, reprinted with permission. 2003.
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