Lucca Wood Fire Bistro is a Main Street staple in Victor that
has been serving the community truly fantastic wood-fired specialty pizza,
wings, sandwiches, and huge salads since 2011. Though Victor is only about 20
minutes from the center of Rochester, a lot of folks flinch when I say its
location. Some are not willing to schlep to the burbs (I learned this through
numerous cancelled Tinder dates). Matthew Gervasi’s
original Lucca now has a sister restaurant in the North Winton neighborhood,
which offers a more expansive menu.
Lucca
Kitchen & Cocktails is located on the corner or Merchants Road and Akron
Street in the spot occupied by Remington’s Restaurant, which after 30 years in
business shut down earlier this summer. Gervasi, with
the help of his wife Jennifer and a team of contractors, began renovating the
space in June, and they worked non-stop until opening day. Matthew planned on
having a full cocktail menu, which meant updating the bar to accommodate this
ambition. Aesthetically, the dining area transitioned from resembling an
exclusive British Officer’s club to an urban Italian bistro.
Opened for
business on September 10, Lucca Kitchen & Cocktails has creamy white walls
with deep brown wood trim and navy blue accents that meet a more natural-looking
wood floor. The Gervasis have managed to modernize
and brighten up the space while still maintaining a mellow, neighborly aura
about it. It is a casual eatery with class that fits right in with its
surroundings.
Gervasi decided to open Lucca Kitchen & Cocktails in
part to better exercise his craft, and with a larger kitchen, he has more
opportunity to put his skills to the test. Gourmet pizza and wings are not on
the menu at Merchants Road. But to start, diners can choose from such dishes as
crab dip crostini, quattro formaggio arancini balls (four cheese arancini),
veggie crudité, and garlic hummus.
And what
better way for a restaurant to be neighborly than by naming entrees and salads
after streets in the neighborhood? For example, the “Garson” is a kale salad
with Kalamata olives, banana peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, and sunflower seeds,
with a tahini dressing. Main dish “Humbolt” pairs chicken
cooked in a lemon sherry wine sauce with sautéed spinach.
After
perusing the menu for a long while, my party of three settled on the arancini balls ($12), an enjoyable shared starter that
married the sharpness of the cheese with the mildness of the risotto into a
lightly fried sphere of taste, topped with basil pesto sauce.
I could have
been happy just eating a few orders of that, but there was no way I was going
to pass up the day’s special, Shrimp Puttanesca
($26): pasta with shrimp, anchovies, hot cherry peppers, pine nuts, black
olives, capers, and sprinkled with parsley, all tossed in a diavolo
sauce that was spicy-hot perfection. Many times, I shy away from diavolo sauces I don’t make myself, as some seem to be made
strictly to inflict pain. But I trusted Gervasi to
maintain the rich basil and tomato flavor when making his sauce, and I was
right. My meal was bold in taste with a spicy finish.
Another
thing to note is that the menu boasts a decent selection of vegetarian options.
The Monticello ($20) is grilled tofu with roasted heirloom tomatoes accented
with a balsamic glaze. It’s a testament to Gervasi’s
artistry that he can infuse abundant flavor into tofu, which is the Styrofoam
of non-meat food options.
Additionally,
if you like pasta but for some reason are watching your carb intake, the
Farmington ($17) is a bed of fresh zucchini noodles, meatless tomato sauce, and
vegan meatballs. All portions of entrees are plentiful, too, easily enough to
bring home leftovers. Try as I might, I could not finish my puttanesca
in one sitting, especially since I wanted one of the rotating desserts that
they provide, made by Scratch Bakeshop ($6-$7), at the encouragement of
Jennifer (as if I needed to be convinced).
This article appears in Oct 23-29, 2019.
