Leave the Gun, Take the Affertitti: The Jester-in-Exile Samples Gusto Italiano

The other night, I went to Santa Rosa, Laguna, to visit old friends Jojo and Tess, friends from Voice of the South. When I got there, I found myself being dragged to a party -- not unwillingly, of course -- and there met Tess' cousin Vlady and their nieces Bono and Madon (pretty smart young women, they are), Jojo's Turkish friend Sam (a fellow enthusiast of history and knows far more about local history than many Filipinos), and their Italian friend Franco, an affable man from Firenze. I found myself at an al fresco table outside an Italian restaurant: Gusto Italiano.

Franco, dressed as the chef he is, is Gusto Italiano's proprietor and pizza maker, and it was a fine night to enjoy his sinfully delicious creations with a bottle of red wine from his excellent cellar. I do not doubt that Franco's countryman, the master engineer Leonardo da Vinci, would have found the food to his liking; heck, the food of Gusto Italiano would be the perfect complement to Don Vito Corleone's glass of vino.

Let's take a little stroll through Gusto Italiano, courtesy of the trusty cellphone camera, shall we?

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Gusto Italiano!

Tess taking us in.

Outside looking in

The buffet table and salad bar.

The salad bar: all you can eat for PhP 199.

The buffet: all you can eat for PhP 299.

Dessert: if you still have room after getting stuffed.

The pizza oven.

Where pizza for the gods is made in Gusto Italiano!

Old school rules.

Madon's buffet sampler -- and with this little taster she was full. No kidding.

Affertitti -- great with vino.

A Bruschetta plate. If Apollonia knew how to make this as good as Franco does, I'd have to shoot Don Michael for her. Heh heh.

The Napoletana. So damn good, I might help someone sleep with the fishes for it.

The Marguerite. Luca Brasi might have had some of this before rolling out his mattress.

Pepperoni. Lord have mercy.

Olive oil with spices -- this hot virgin makes this slice of pizza heaven really sinful.

Entering the consiglieri's upstairs room

Whatta wine rack!

From the corner, watching the bar.

From the bar, watching the corner.

A bottle of Merlot from Franco's wine rack -- he has even better than this good stuff.

Franco Martelloti, the don of Gusto Italiano. Heh heh.

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Gusto Italiano's running a pasta promo right now, with servings good for two (imagine that, servings made for two, and large to boot), coming with bread and potato croquette. Look at how reasonable the prices are:

Spaghetti Aglio Olio (oil and garlic) PhP 130
Linguine Aglio Olio Vongole (oil, garlic, and clams) PhP 155
Fettucine Pomodoro (tomato) PhP 165
Spaghetti Carbonara PhP 215
Penne Arrabiata (spicy tomato) PhP 165
Penne Puttanesca PhP 185
Italian Lasagna PhP 265
Four-Cheese Gnocchi (potato-based) PhP 245
Ravioli Pomodoro PhP 195
Spaghetti Scoglio (seafood) PhP 185
Fettucine Funghi Porcini (italian mushroom) PhP 215
Lingune Pesto PhP 185

No kidding, folks. They're making an us an offer we can't refuse.

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Franco's place Gusto Italiano is located at Stall #5, Paseo de Santa Rosa, Santa Rosa, Laguna -- it's the Italian place between Yellow Cab and Cabalen. The restaurant can be called at phone numbers (+6349) 837-2700, (+6349) 502-7571, (+63921) 712-8091. I'm probably going to send them an email (their email address is fastaurant@yahoo.com to tell them how pleased I was with the evening -- this post is a little tribute to start with.

Let's have pizza and pasta there, shall we? And some of the buffet.

And the vino, let's not forget the vino.

For Plurklakbayan folks who want good food out of the metro, Franco's got this little treat for us online folk:

Penne gorgonzola. It's not on the menu, and you need to be in on our little secret.

For PhP 300, we get a plate of penne gorgozola AND a glass of delicious red wine of Franco's own selection... IF you know the password. Here's a little hint: jester, to Franco. Yes, folks, you're getting something special for one helluva good deal... but you gotta be in the know.

We can have our food and wine in the consiglieri's upstairs room. Now, if you good folks wil excuse me, Tom Hagen and I need to have a little chat about business. Heh heh.