DINE+WINE - wine time
Scenes
from an Italian Restaurant
Over the years I’ve spent many hours in family oriented, Italian restaurants. I treasure them all. Whenever possible I dine in one and it always brings back some very pleasant memories. In all the years my wife and I have lived in the lake area, and it’s a lot, we have been frequent diners at Pomodoro’s—in its original location and in its new home. Full disclosure, my wife is from an Italian family and that may have helped shape my opinions. Here’s a simple example of why I love these restaurants so much. Many years ago, my wife Mary Ellen and I would hang out at a local Italian tavern/restaurant. We were always served by our favorite waitress. She and I had a routine. I would order pasta and clams in red sauce. Notebook in hand, she would write down and recite, “linguini and clams.” My part in the routine was to ask if I could have spaghetti instead of linguini. Her eyes would roll, and I would be informed that, with clams, the pasta had to be linguini. My next part in the routine was to plead that pasta is pasta and that I wanted spaghetti. She would close her notebook and let me know, firmly, that I was getting linguini. This went on for years. Apart from a great pasta dish, it just added to the fun. Back to Pomodoro’s. It checks all the boxes. There’s a definite atmosphere—lots of Italian dishes on the menu, lots of hustle and bustle, great aromas emanating from the kitchen and golden oldies from the Great American Song Book on the restaurant’s sound system. So, given that, let’s get on to the wine at our last visit. Pomodoro’s wine list is filled with Chianti wines from Tuscany. That’s great and that’s appropriate. But I was in an exploratory mood. I meandered through the list and a wine jumped out. It 56
LAKE NORMAN CURRENTS | APRIL 2021
A great combination; a glass of Super Tuscan wine and a simple but delicious plate of pasta.
Pasta and wine at Pomodoro’s provides a nostalgic dinner by Trevor Burton photography by Trevor Burton
was a wine from Tuscany but had a listing of grape varietals that make up the wines of Bordeaux in France. This was a “Super Tuscan” wine. It’s a long story. Some years ago, a group of Italian winemakers wanted to expand from constraints of the Tuscan wines allowed by Italian laws. They wanted to experiment with non-Italian grapes. Italian bureaucrats had their flabbers gasted. They couldn’t believe that any reputable Italian winemaker would do such a thing. As a form of revenge, they allowed only the lowest categories of wine to be listed on the labels of these sacrilegious concoctions. It all backfired. These were great wines. These new wines were so good that they found a large audience of vinous admirers. They became somewhat of a cult—Super Tuscans. Anyway, one of them was on Pomodoro’s wine list and I went for it. Wine chosen, I had to come up with a pasta dish. That’s another story. At another family restaurant, I used to wander in at lunchtime and have a glass of wine and a plate of pasta. I got into a comfortable routine; some say it was a rut. I inevitably ordered capellini marinara—simple but delicious. So, it was a simple decision at Pomodoro’s, a glass of Super Tuscan wine and a simple but delicious plate of pasta. I confess that a great deal of my pleasure at Pomodoro’s came from luxuriating in nostalgia—going back in my mind to the many great dining experiences I’ve had in this type of restaurant. But, make no mistake, the nostalgia was delicious but so was my combination of wine and pasta. A great combination of past and present and a great combination of food and wine. Nice
