There’s not a bad seat in the house at Rella. That’s because
any seat you choose — and there are only 15 — is a seat at the chef’s table.
The new restaurant, which opened on Monroe Avenue in June, is an intimate
dining bar where you can watch the kitchen’s every move. There are no tables,
and no waiters. Instead, the cooks do double duty, deftly plating and serving
dishes while chatting with the diners just feet away.
Rella is the
sister establishment of popular Italian restaurant Rocco, located three doors
down at 165 Monroe Avenue. Both are owned by Mark Cupolo, a Rochester native
who got his start in the restaurant industry in Boston in the 1980s. Cupolo
opened Rocco in 2008, and in the decade since has several times considered
opening another restaurant nearby. By the time the space at 181 Monroe Avenue
became available, Cupolo already had an idea of what he wanted his next
restaurant to be.
Together
with chef Cruz Nieves, a veteran of Rocco as well as New York City
establishments such as Del Posto, Cupolo formed the concept of a casual but
refined seafood-centric dining bar. Like Rocco, Rella is heavily influenced by
Italian cuisine, but its menu focuses on a rotating selection of small plates
that showcase the fresh seafood Cupolo has shipped in from Boston.
A friend and
I visited Rella on a recent Thursday around 6 p.m., scoring the last two seats
in the place. The open kitchen occupies the center of the unusual
triangle-shaped space, with the bar running around it on two sides. Allusions
to the seaside abound, from the shell-shaped side plates to the
oyster-patterned wallpaper accenting the kitchen. Large chunks of blue sea
glass adorn the bar at either end.
It was a
hot, humid night, and Rella’s air conditioning was not yet up and running.
Nevertheless, a couple chilled glasses of Trebbiano and half a dozen oysters
served on a heaping pile of crushed ice was enough to keep us cool. The fresh,
briny mollusks were adorned with either a bit of zesty cocktail sauce or a
pinch of vinegary mignonette.
We followed
the oysters with a plate of burrata, slashed to reveal its creamy interior and
accompanied by a salad of mixed greens, grilled corn, and tomatoes, dressed in
a chanterelle mushroom vinaigrette. The tuna crudo arrived next, the raw fish delicately
fanned out alongside crisp slices of cucumber, and strikingly garnished with
thinly-sliced green beans, fresh dill, and spiky shards of black salt. Satiny
yet subtle, the tuna was one of the highlights of the meal, we agreed.
We decided
to round out our dinner with a Sicilian-style pizza, which is traditionally
prepared with a thick crust. Rella’s version featured an airy, sky-high crust
generously topped with scallions and crab meat, and finished with a dramatic
zigzag of saffron aioli.
Throughout
the meal our server, sous chef Tyler Gaudioso, graciously answered our many
questions about the meal. Cupolo himself flitted in and out over the course of
the evening, slicing melon, tasting dishes, and greeting patrons.
Though we
hadn’t planned on dessert, Cinnamon Toast Crunch ice cream was too intriguing
to pass up. Nieves explained that he had toasted the cereal and soaked it in
cream to render the sweet, spicy flavors that, for some, are the very essence
of childhood. Right before serving, Gaudioso applied a drizzle of olive oil
over the ice cream, proving that there isn’t really anything that can’t be
improved with a judicious dose of the good stuff. As I remarked on the ice
cream’s satisfying touch of salt, Nieves zipped past with plate in hand,
announcing, “If your pastry chef is not putting salt in his desserts, fire
him.”
It’s worth
noting that Rella does not take reservations and only accepts credit and debit
cards for payment. Those are just a couple of the steps Cupolo has taken to
keep things at the new restaurant simple. Rella doesn’t have a website, or a
phone line (though you can call Rocco for inquiries).
As you leave
the restaurant, you can’t miss the large mural next to the front door depicting
the late Anthony Bourdain, whom Cupolo acknowledges as a major influence. When
asked why he decided to have the famous gourmand’s face painted on the wall of
Rella, Cupolo cites a passage from Bourdain’s best-selling book, “Kitchen
Confidential,” in which the author remembers his first oyster: “It tasted of
seawater…of brine and flesh…and, somehow…of the future.”
This article appears in Jul 24-30, 2019.
