photo:Martin Benjamin

Italian for Adventure
By B.A. Nilsson

Lorenzo’s

1733 Van Vranken Ave., Schenectady, 370-5455. Serving Sun, Tue-Thu 5-10, Fri-Sat 5-11. AE, MC, V.

Cuisine: exotic northern Italian

Entrée price range: $13 (spaghetti pomodoro e basilico) to $23 (grilled filet mignon); and one dish at $48 (filet mignon-lobster combo)

Ambiance: intimate but casual

You have to look outside to remind yourself that, yes, you’re on Van Vranken Avenue in Schenectady, epicenter of Italian dining in the Capital Region—yet what’s before you is a very different take on this classic cuisine.

Chef-owner Daniel DeLorenzo is betting that what he offers, which is a gourmet approach to (mostly) northern Italian fare, will complement what’s been here for so many years, and I’ll add my money to his. With the arrival of Lorenzo’s (which actually occurred a year ago), a fresh wave of talent promises to lift all the boats in the harbor.

And it’s good for the clientele, offering a chance, to put it gently, to expand some horizons. “Adventurous dining” and “Schenectady” don’t often appear in the same sentence.

So why is DeLorenzo here? This is a guy who parlayed a Culinary Institute degree into work for Wolfgang Puck: In San Diego, DeLorenzo opened Puck’s first Italian restaurant. And he’s put in time at fancy resorts in Las Vegas and Key West; so Schenectady would seem to be a last resort. But he has family here, strong ties that have persuaded him back over the years, this time to stay.

The menu changes according to season and customer response, but there are some favorites you can count on enjoying. Veal Lorenzo ($19) layers medallions of the meat with spinach and mushrooms and Gorgonzola, with roasted red peppers adding color as well as a contrasting sweetness.

My otherwise environmentally sensitive daughter has discovered the appeal of veal, and tested its flavor against the hearty competition of prosciuto and sage by ordering saltimbocca ($20), which is one of the finest preparations of this classic dish I’ve sampled in the area. Those other flavors roared on through without diminishing the quieter contribution of the veal, all of it finished in a lemony wine sauce.

What also sets this dish apart is a chunk of melt-in-your-mouth polenta, with wild mushrooms and a touch of heavy cream added to the cornmeal mixture.

The few beef and chicken dishes tend to be similarly inventive. Even the filet mignon-lobster combo ($48) gets some added foie gras and is served with white truffle butter, but more interesting are items like the pollo piccata ($16), pairing sautéed chicken with sundried tomatoes and mascarpone-enriched polenta.

Or the entrée my wife enjoyed on one of our visits: chicken alla forno ($17), noted as a Tuscan-style preparation, in which the skin-on bird is roasted until crisp and served with a mix of white beans and tomatoes. It’s a dish that exemplified not only the persistence of flavors of fresh, well-seasoned ingredients, but also an uncluttered but attractive presentation.

The restaurant itself is like that. DeLorenzo designed its refurbishment, which meant replacing the wall between the two small dining rooms with a friendlier divider, rebuilding the bar, installing new carpet and painting the walls—in a black-and-white scheme that carries over onto the tables as well. It works, and it can suggest intimate or casual dining.

And it’s not surprising that the chef’s talents should also extend to the look of his restaurant. “You eat with your eyes,” I was repeatedly told during my own chef’s training, and getting each plate to give a come-hither stare can be a challenge.

What, for example, do you do with four fat scallops? Contrast the color, for one thing, with the green of an emulsion made from sweet peas. Array them near a slice of that useful polenta. And while you’re enjoying the complex, varied flavors of this $20 entrée, you’re interacting with a kinetic work of art. These plates prove that food needn’t tower to be attractive.

I mined the pasta and risotti list during both of the visits I paid, first to enjoy risotto Milanese with duck confit ($18), which also includes sundried tomatoes and the flavor of red wine—Sangiovese, to be specific.

Without my cheaters, I thought I read “peasant’s lasagna,” and so ordered the $18 dish, wondering at its relatively high price. “Pheasants lasagna,” it turns out to be, although I’m still thinking my first guess was correct. There’s no pheasant in it, but it’s filled out with shredded chicken, veal and duck meat, with added mascarpone cheese, leeks and wild mushrooms. A rich and filling dish that puts your old sausage-and/or-beef lasagna to shame.

Entrées are served with an excellent house salad, but the appetizer list may be too tempting to resist. We sampled the artichoke hearts sautéed with anchovies ($10) and asparagus wrapped in prosciuto with a shaved parmigiano cheese and a cream sauce ($9), and they were worth the take-out containers they cost us at the other end of the meal.

Lorenzo’s is a welcome, welcoming place that stretches the dining boundaries in an area long overdue for such a gift. Good thing family loyalty can be so strong.

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