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The summer of 2002 Tettamanzi unveiled La Grolla, a casual neighborhood eatery with a large, Tuscan-influenced menu. He chose the Cathedral Hill stretch of lower Selby Avenue in St. Paul, the same real estate that is home to W.A. Frost and Zander Café.
La Grolla is exactly what the area needed, a good Italian restaurant. Stick with simple traditional dishes, and you will play into Tettamanzi’s hands. The composed plates I loved most featured a warm, milky, fresh mozzarella paired with transparently thin sheets of prosciutto de Parma, capers, and olives. The same mozzarella layered with slices of heirloom tomatoes was also to-die-for. Steamed mussels in a garlic-spiked wine and tomato broth were briny, intense, and delicious—though at $12 (for eight mussels), overpriced. The chef’s signature appetizer of sea scallops wrapped in angel hair pasta, flash fried, and sauced with shellfish cream sounded scary and unappealing, until I tried them—delicious! La Grolla serves a wonderful fritta mista, a trattoria classic featuring crispy fried calamari and zucchini served with a wedge of lemon.
Salads were generally well crafted and vibrant, and the ingredients were top shelf. Why the kitchen insists on calling an arugula salad with nary a crumb in sight panzanella (a Tuscan bread salad) is beyond me.
Pasta choices were plentiful. Try the rigatoni allmatriciana. Here, it’s a rugged, rosemary-infused tomato and pancetta braise. I also loved Tettamanzi’s spaghetti puttanesca, a generous toss of thin pasta with tomatoes, olives, capers, and herbs. Pastas were all finished traditionally, sautéed in the sauces before plating—the mark of a sure hand in the kitchen, though a curious and woeful rarity in these parts.
Among entrées, the osso buco—braised veal shank on a bed of saffron risotto—was moist, tender, and nicely seasoned. The risotto could have used some punch and suffered from a heavy hand with the butter, but it was the supporting act on this plate. The veal capricciosa was an undercooked, over breaded greasy pair of veal scallops with mozzarella cheese perched on top. On the other hand, zuppa di pesce proved to be outstanding—a classically rendered seafood stew loaded with perfectly cooked clams, mussels, fish, squid, and shrimp. Desserts were forgettable except for a lovely tiramisu, the espresso-soaked lady finger dessert.
What I like best about La Grolla are the simple traditional foods that rely on gutsy, robust flavors. This restaurant doesn’t need to offer duck pot stickers, yet Tettamanzi feels compelled to do so. The breadbasket also needs work. The host staff could use more seasoning. A smaller trattoria menu would also go a long way toward helping the young, energetic staff learn the ropes. My heart broke at each varied, but incorrect, pronunciation of a-maht-ree-chana.
All that aside, the arrival of a charming trattoria doing most things right is long overdue on Selby Avenue. I left La Grolla smiling each time I dined there. With a strong trio of restaurants anchoring lower Selby, things are looking up for St. Paul chowhounds eager to eat well but drive less on a weekday night.
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