Touch of Italy
Ask anyone her favorite restaurant short list, and invariably there’s an Italian, and not one that serves only “regional” or “authentic” motherland food, but general Italian-American cuisine. White-tablecloth, Frank Sinatra, house-red sauces, the Sopranos, and Tuscan wines type of Italian, mixing cooking from all regions. Why? Because Italian food is the most popular non-native cuisine in the country, and there’s a certain honest, immigrant mysticism to a red sauce restaurant, a Parm-imbued spirituality that has the ability to soothe even the most overfed and foodie elitists among us. It’s marinara as antidote to food-world ennui. A red sauce joint generally serves large portions of pasta and tomato-based sauces, often made from a generations-old recipe and typically smothered on everything. Touch of Italy may not be a standard bearer red sauce joint, but it is close, and with no excuses. Its pizzas and calzones are legitimate brick oven good, with plenty of custom additions, as are its pastas, if not over-sauced and over-cheesed at times, and often, too al dente. Penne Vodka, ravioli, lasagna, and gnocchi join seafood and sandwiches as a love letter to standard central Italian cooking. Each restaurant has a salumerial (deli) and pasticceria (bakery), and the Rehoboth location just opened a “Chef’s Table” concept, with plans for classes, food tastings, private event space, and special dinners. Touch of Italy serves Italian food with a touch of grandma’s (or the Bronx’s Arthur Avenue) cooking, but not much more than a touch, as its approach over the years has shifted from local Italian neighborhood favorite to tourist-attracting families. Alas, the landlord has to be paid, and with such an investment in the old school Italian countryside décor and the labor and equipment necessary to also run a market, Touch of Italy had to focus on commercializing its initial local success. If grandma is in the back, or her recipes still relevant, she is apparently never without a stick of butter, because a trip to Touch of Italy should be followed by an angioplasty, as the heavy food, drink, and copious deserts (all of them quite good) are sure to strike fear in every health insurance actuary. But, alas, meals at Touch of Italy are vibrant, fun, and welcoming, and no doubt worth passing on your weekly Ozempic injection, at least while you are on vacation and plan to swim-off the night’s prior meal.