PHOTO: B.A. Nilsson

At Home With Pizza
By B.A. Nilsson

Fresco’s

569 Route 20, New Lebanon, 794-9339.
Serving Sun-Thu 11:30-10, Fri-Sat 11:30-11. AE, D, MC, V.

Cuisine: pizza and pasta

Entrée price range: $6 (pasta with marinara)
to $14 (large smoked-seafood pizza)

Ambiance: neighborly

Midway through our meal, an Applebee’s ad flashed on the widescreen TV that hangs over the bar. The selling points—happy people, colorful food—were in evidence around us. But Applebee’s is a suburban, anti-neighborhood phenomenon, whereas Fresco’s is very much intended to serve—and bring together—the locals.

And, in my case, a hungry passerby. An errand in Pittsfield, Mass., on a brutally cold day—when my daughter suggested pizza for lunch I couldn’t argue against it. On Route 20 in New Lebanon, we spotted Fresco’s both from its sign and the crowd of cars, and were lucky enough to be seated right away.

“Kids are off from school today,” owner Gary Knight later explained, “and we’ve been nonstop busy.” Which meant that during most of the early afternoon, the eight dining room tables, three hightops and eight bar seats were filled and turning, with a thicket of people waiting by the door.

Fresco’s opened in 1995, after Knight put in time at such nearby restaurants as Sassafras and the Shaker Mill Tavern. He upped the casual-dining ante by installing a wood-fired oven, and the pizza business is a mainstay of the restaurant. But it certainly isn’t all.

“We developed the menu over the years,” he explains, “to feature items that our customers look for. And we’ve done very well. I’m always asked why I don’t expand the place, but I think the size is part of its appeal. I’ve seen too many places get overambitious and fail.”

Although we visited when the outside was a snow-covered deep freeze, a gazebo and picnic tables suggest that warm-weather service gives you Fresco’s al fresco options. But it’s certainly a comfortable winter venue. Just don’t sit too near the door.

I could spend the rest of this review just describing the tchotchkes and gewgaws adorning the place. A few examples should suffice: a chairlift, complete with skier; a zeppelin; several biplanes; and Santa’s leg; all of these hanging overhead. Among the wall decorations are a vintage sled, a working traffic light and a poster of the most protean of the (Three) Stooges, proclaiming “Legalize Shemp.”

The menu boasts that the dough and sauces are made daily. Right there you know you’re in for something better than many a pizza joint. A page of wood-fired pizza choices allows you to built your own red or white pie ($5.75 for a 10-inch, $8 for 14-inch; add a buck or more for each extra item), with a cornucopia of toppings to work with. (Smoked mussels! Pineapple! Gorgonzola!)

Nine specialty pizzas allow the unimaginative, like me, to avoid choice-making. Florentine adds spinach and bacon; Fresco’s Combo mixes mushrooms, sausage, pepperoni and peppers. My progeny is a barbecue fan, who counts barbecued-chicken pizza as her favorite.

Above the big TV a sign reads “When in Doubt, Order Pizza.” Excellent advice. We have another strategy to attach to that: order the largest size available and enjoy leftovers later. The $10 barbecued-chicken pizza sported a white sauce, chicken chunks and a tangy sauce that didn’t overpower the rest of it—first time I’ve found this combo so nicely proportioned. The crust was thin and crunchy, and scented with wood-fire smoke.

Want a different arrangement? Calzones and stromboli start at around six bucks, the price increasing per ingredient. Subs ($5 for eight-inch, $6 or more for 12-inch) are available cold or baked depending on your preference.

A cup of hot soup always gives a good start to a winter’s day meal, and cream of broccoli, the day’s soup when we visited, would seem an excellent candidate ($2 cup, $4 crock); this one bore the signs of a congealed thickening agent, which lumped up its texture.

Other starters include bruschetta ($6), wings ($5.75 for a dozen, $10 for 25), a $10 smoked-seafood plate and fresh mozzarella with tomatoes for $7.75.

A typical array of salads is offered; I enjoyed a Greek salad ($6 or $8, the smaller of which will feed two) that was the usual mound of romaine, feta, kalamata onions, olives and tomatoes.

Here’s a smart move: The page of pasta offerings notes that most of them are available in a smaller portion for $2 less than the regular price; were I not a fan of leftovers, I’d have taken advantage of that. And you get your choice of penne, angel hair or linguine, dressed with an Alfredo sauce ($8), broccoli aïoli ($7), pesto ($8), Bolognese ($7) and more, many of which can be enhanced with chicken or shrimp for an extra charge.

Baked items include ziti ($8) and the parmesan family (eggplant $9, chicken $10, veal $11). Among the more exotic sautés are smoked salmon Alfredo ($11) and what was described as the most popular pasta dish, chicken Ricardo ($10), which I discovered to be a heaping bowl of pasta (angel hair for me) tossed with chicken chunks, julienned ham, mushrooms and broccoli in a sweet cream sauce, the leftovers of which my wife swiped for lunch when I wasn’t looking.

The crowd never eased during the hour of our visit; the servers kept hopping and pizzas flew in and out of the little oven with surprising efficiency. It was a wonderful, warm sanctuary we look forward to visiting again.

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