By Rick Pender

Early on a sunny Thursday evening, a few friends and neighbors gather in the bar at Nicola's at Liberty and Sycamore streets. The restaurant offers Northern Italian cuisine, but some just stop by for a drink. It's a pleasant little bar, sharing the restaurant's open feeling, although it's divided from the dining room by a wall with bottles of liquor and wine.

Nicola's is a fine place for friends. Joan and I are having a pre-theater dinner with one of my oldest friends, Jim, whom I sat next to in first grade. Glasses of white wine and mild Peroni beer lubricate our conversation. Bars of bright sunlight, sliced by wooden blinds, fall across our faces and our drinks.

Nicola's dining room can be noisy at lunchtime, full of wheelers and dealers. Once a warehouse where streetcars were repaired and stored -- old timers call it the "Car Barn" -- it has brick walls and terrazzo floors, so voices and dish clatter can create a din. In the evening, it's quieter, more intimate. There's a balcony, used only when things are busy.

The tables in the main dining room, a dozen or so, aren't filled when we sit down at 6:30. By our 7:40 departure, more guests have arrived, but the room is still soft and subdued. A group is assembling in a private room with a wall of racked wine bottles. The outdoor patio, sheltered from the traffic on Liberty Street, stays empty.

As we talk, I observe nearby tables with two or three people, ties and suits, ponytails and a hooded sweatshirt, young and middle-aged, black and white. The space is open and airy, decorated in shades of brown, sandstone and mustard, plus exposed brick. Immense clock faces hang overhead. Nothing particularly Italian about them, but without hands perhaps they suggest timelessness.

The menu is replete with entrées at prices (most are $18-$24) defining Nicola's as a special occasion kind of place, but nearby we see friends from around the corner, obviously in for a meal after work. Service is unhurried but attentive. (We dash off to the Playhouse -- no time for dessert -- but we easily arrive by curtain time.)

Joan is won over by the sea bass special, served on a bed of shredded cabbage and beets. I stick with filetto di salmone, delicate salmon served on polenta and green beans. Jim, back from a three-year stint in southern Germany -- which made for easy excursions to northern Italy for fine dining -- orders gamberoni al soave, a spectacular array of jumbo shrimp. It's a fancy presentation, orange and curly, standing on edge. Are we sophisticated or what?

Before our entrées, we want an appetizer and decide to share an order of risotto al pesce in bianco -- seafood, garlic and olive oil with tiny pasta. Without even asking, our waiter divides it into three servings. We comment, and he says, "If you wanted to work, you could eat at home."

That, and great Italian food, keep me coming back.

E-mail Rick Pender

Acting up in Middletown (October 19, 2000)
An Ideal Play (October 19, 2000)
Curtain Call (October 19, 2000)
more...

personals | cover | news | columns | music | movies | arts | dining | listings | classifieds | mediakit | home

Talking 'Bout Our Generation
Allyn's Cafe, Colombia-Tusculum

Talking 'Bout Our Generation
Ambar India, Clifton

Talking 'Bout Our Generation
Kaldi's Coffee House, Over-the-Rhine

Talking 'Bout Our Generation
The Diner on Sycamore, Over-the-Rhine

Talking 'Bout Our Generation
Scalea's Ristorante, Covington

Talking 'Bout Our Generation
Behle Street Cafe, Covington

Talking 'Bout Our Generation
Iron Horse Inn, Glendale

Talking 'Bout Our Generation
Mullane's Parkside Cafe

Talking 'Bout Our Generation
Sturkey's Restaurant, Wyoming

Talking 'Bout Our Generation
Dewey's, Oakley

Talking 'Bout Our Generation
Teller's, Hyde Park

Talking 'Bout Our Generation
Teak Thai Cuisine & Bar, Mount Adams

Talking 'Bout Our Generation
York Street International Cafe, Newport

Talking 'Bout Our Generation
Barrelhouse Brewing Co., Over-the-Rhine

Talking 'Bout Our Generation
Knotty Pine on the Bayou, Cold Spring

Talking 'Bout Our Generation
Boca, Northside