Brigantessa: Southern Italian on East Passyunk
Le Virtu's owners have ventured up the Avenue with this modern Southern Italian bar-restaurant, which features a pizza oven made by hand in Italy as well as a wood- and coal-fired rotisserie and grill.
The opening of Brigantessa - a Southern Italian bar-restaurant by the crew from Le Virtu - is days away at 1520 E. Passyunk Ave., across from the Singing Fountain.
Walk in. Pass the hand-cranked slicer on the marble counter and the salumi hanging behind the bar. You'll see a big-bellied wood-burning forno a legna hand-made outside of Naples by the well-regarded Gianni Acunto, who finished off the three-plus-ton monster with mortar made from ash taken from Vesuvio. Peek back farther into the kitchen and you'll see a rotisserie and grill, fueled by wood and coal.
There's a lot of cooking going on at this forneria.
Where Le Virtu is all about Abruzzo, Brigantessa goes south.
The Salerno-trained Joe Cicala, the chef in the partnership (which includes Le Virtu owners Francis Cratil Cretarola and Cathy Lee), is turning out delicious Neapolitan pizzas with house-made mozzarella from milk sourced to York County's Caputo Brothers.
Full menu is here. The whole dorado at $30 is the top price.
Cicala's wife - Le Virtu pastry chef Angela Ranalli Cicala - has a second shop in the basement. She'll be making gelato from imported buffalo milk. Dessert menu is here.
Befitting the enoteca and birreria themes, the bar list will include 6 wines on tap, 16 beers on tap, assorted bottles of beer and Italian wine (nearly 70 percent of the wine will be Southern Italian).
Brigantessa - named after the female Southern Italian guerrilla fighters who resisted the unification of Italy in the 1860s - occupies the building that formerly housed Karina's, which moved to Third Street in Queen Village.
The building was purchased by Passyunk Avenue Revitalization Corp., which uncovered some stunning deficiencies during the work. This delayed the opening of Brigantessa by several months.
Service will start with dinner daily and will pick up lunch Friday, Saturday and Sunday as management feels demand.
The bar area has high-tops along the Greenwich Street side of the corner property. Majority of seating is upstairs in a contemporary dining room lined with historical and contemporary photos from Southern Italy.