Nicola’s had fallen off my radar, but news of a recently hired executive chef gave me good reason to revisit the fine Italian restaurant. It has been at the same downtown/Over-the-Rhine location for 22 years, making owners Nicola (Nick) and Maureen Pietoso true pioneers in the area’s eventual renaissance. In June, executive chef Jack Hemmer came on board. He had cooked at Nicola’s a few years ago and left for other local kitchens, including a stint as executive chef at Mercer OTR when it first opened.
Patrons will be delighted by the lovely main dining room the Pietosos have created on Sycamore Street, greeting diners with a beautiful interior where everything your eye rests on makes you feel indulged.
It wasn’t always this way, according to Nick. Back in the 1990s as a startup, the place had vinyl floors, bare windows and cheap, uncomfortable chairs, he said. Over the years the upgrades have included lighting “that puts the food on stage,” curtains, much better furniture and new flooring. In 2013, they closed for a couple of weeks to do a complete overhaul of the kitchen.
Hemmer, 30, has known the Pietoso family most of his life, so returning to Nicola’s as executive chef felt like a homecoming for all concerned. He and his team retained some fan-favorite menu items that he said “absolutely deserve” keeping, such as a couple of pastas — tagliatelle with Bolognese sauce and four-cheese gnocchi — along with a goat cheese salad. And since June, Hemmer has developed several intriguing appetizers, pastas and entrées. He said that on the fall menu he especially recommends the duck leg and octopus starters; tortelloni pasta with a mélange of ingredients that “balance savory, sweet, spice and acidity;” and a pan-seared branzino entrée.
I went for dinner with several friends and had a fun evening where we sampled dishes across the menu, both tried-and-true and new additions. Unfortunately, though, we did encounter frustratingly slow service throughout the meal. Virtually anyone in the restaurant business will tell you how hard it is to find reliable employees, from line cooks to bussers and wait staff. Cincinnati has so many restaurants that the talent pool — one chef/owner called it a “talent puddle” — is stretched way too thin. But you would expect the higher-end places to find, train and retain dependable staff.
During our weekend night dinner, our table of six endured long waits and wine brought to our table that wasn’t exactly what we had ordered. The worst offense was at least a half-hour lag between our appetizer and main course. By the time the entrées showed up, we had drunk too much wine and loaded up on too much bread.
But for me the quality of the food is the real measure of whether you’ll want to spend your time and money at a restaurant. I’d say that, overall, our meal at Nicola’s had way more hits than misses. Some of our best-loved courses turned up on Hemmer’s lists of long-time and recent menu favorites, and looking back, I wish I’d known his preferences in advance because we didn’t try them all.
Nicola’s gets lots of praise in online comments for its house bread basket, and for good reason. While it’s not complimentary — it will add $1.99 per person to the tab — the quality and variety of the focaccia, sliced Italian bread and crunchy breadsticks is well worth the small charge. And if the kitchen happens to be as slow as it was on our visit, you’re going to want something tasty to go with your cocktails or wine.
And yes, they serve cocktails, but better to delve into the list of wonderful (mostly) Italian wines. The cocktail list did look interesting but I knew better than to down hard liquor on an empty stomach before starting on what would become a deep dive into the vino.
For appetizers, some of us went with antipasti while others chose salads, and we enjoyed everything set before us. The biggest hits were the duck leg and the octopus antipasti. The hearty duck leg ($15) — the chef’s personal favorite on the current menu, prepared with farro, sweet potato purée and smoked grapes — could have been a main course. Octopus ($18) was top-quality and grilled to tender perfection. Two at our table ordered the Caesar salad ($9) and found it to be an excellent rendition of the classic.
We took our server’s recommendation and split a couple orders of gnocchi ($18-$28) as an intermediate course. We agreed that the dish had been over-salted, which bothered some of us (including me) more than others. After more wine and waiting, our main dinner arrived. Several of my companions scarfed up more pasta, from the Bolognese ($15-$25) to risotto Milanese ($18-$28), while two of us went with fish entrées. Between the branzino ($34; my choice) and my friend’s Atlantic sole ($34), I preferred the latter. The fish was tender and flaky, and I liked the preparation with sautéed cauliflower, Marcona almonds and wine-soaked raisins.
We had no room for dessert but ordered a couple anyway. A dish of Dojo’s mango sorbet went down easy, but the small square of carrot cake and a strange chocolate, banana and bacon construct called The Elvis were lackluster.
One final thing that makes this restaurant special is owner Nick, whom I spoke with by phone a couple of times after our visit. He has to be one of the kindest, most personable restaurant owners in this city. I had discovered through internet research that he is a committed Buddhist, which must be a factor in the positivity he brings to his interactions. (The practice of Buddhism “is the greatest gift life has ever bestowed on me,” he told me.) My brief conversations with him made me want to learn more about his practice and to hope for continued success with the restaurant he and his wife have operated for all these years.
Nicola’s, 1420 Sycamore St., Over-the-Rhine, 513-721-6200, nicolasotr.com.
