East End Eats: Basilico

Basilico

10 Windmill Lane

Southampton

283-7987

Open for lunch Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and dinner seven nights. Reservations re commended for dinner.

Everyone, it seems, was taken by surprise by the flood of people who descended on the East End for the long weekend. Stores were as busy as in mid-July, there wasn't a parking place to be had, and, on a cold Sunday night in February, Basilico, a Southampton restaurant now entering its ninth season, was bursting at the seams.

They handled the onslaught with aplomb, the only clue being a basket of chilly bread, obviously grabbed from the freezer and insufficiently nuked in the microwave.

Basilico has a regular menu of rather less expensive appetizers, pizzas, and pastas, and a long list of daily or weekly specials. The wine list is interesting but with very few inexpensive choices. There is a large bar area with - a surprise, given the elegance of the dining room - a television on the wall.

Pizza To Begin

The majority of the appetizers are between $10 and $15 - Caesar salad is $10 and fried calamari is $12.50. On the other hand, you can get a huge basketful of juicy deep-fried breaded zucchini sticks (with a rather acid tomato dip) for $7.

The house salad, at $8.50, was a beautifully arranged selection of immaculately fresh ingredients, lightly dressed with just the right amount of a good vinaigrette.

Two of us shared a tomato and basil pizza, which was good value at $14 and would have done as an appetizer for four. It was pleasant but unmemorable.

The pan-seared radicchio stuffed with smoked mozzarella and basil and served in a tomato sauce is a concept that needs a little work. While the strong, smoky flavor of the cheese melded very well with the other ingredients, it makes one of the sorriest looking dishes around.

Good Attitude

Now this is really a compliment about the service. The maitre d' was stationed near our table and saw the diner's dismayed look when he received what looked like a very small drowned mouse.

He came over to our table, inspected it, obviously judged it D.O.A., and shortly thereafter brought out an extra portion. That is the sort of detail that sticks in diners' minds and turns them into regular customers.

While on the subject of service: We had heard from several sources that Basilico was a restaurant with "attitude." I'm happy to say we found quite the opposite, from the friendly guy who whisked away our coats and then brought the reclaim tickets to us at our table after we were seated, to a chef who passed by our table to see if everything was all right.

Rigatoni A Winner

Entrees range from $14 for a pizza to $28 for filet mignon, with the majority of dishes over $20. We tried two pasta entrees, one from the regular menu and one from the specials.

The rigatoni alla buttera - with sausage and peas in a light cream sauce - was delicious, both peppery and smooth, full of flavor, and surprisingly light.

The linguine with white wine and clam sauce came with fresh Little Necks and was also very good. Not really as good as the rigatoni, however, which cost $16 compared to the linguine's rather steep $24.

The perfectly grilled salmon is served on a bouncy bed of field greens, which made one feel healthily virtuous if a little nostalgic for new potatoes with loads of butter.

Pasta BBs

More in keeping with the February winds blowing outside the door was the beef and mushroom casserole. This certainly counteracted the salmon, being rich, calorific, heart-warming, and rather too heavy on the cream.

It came accompanied by little tiny pasta BB pellets which, being al dente, bounced around in the mouth in a most amusing manner and would not allow themselves to be bitten into. Tasted good anyway.

The final entree we chose was in fact a $12 appetizer of chicken liver and sage risotto. It turned out to be quite adequate for an entree and was judged the winning dish.

Divine Risotto

By chance, risotto had been among our dining choices at two other places recently. The first was well-flavored but swimming in fat, and the second was a sorry, overcooked, watery mess with some seafood on the top.

At Basilico we had better luck. It wasn't watery or greasy, the rice glistened and cohered without being gluey, it was cooked to the second, and the flavor was divine.

Just as we'd begun to think risotto had gone the way of the piping plover and the lesser six-toed salamander, we discovered it alive and well and hanging out at Basilico. It can be ordered as a $19 main course if you're very hungry.

Great Desserts

Basilico's desserts are $7 each and worth every penny. Not only are they very good, but they have the originality that can only come from an in-house pastry chef doing his or her own thing in the kitchen.

Instead of arriving in the customary rolled-up-rug format, the delicious banana crepe had its pancake thinly sliced. The Italian cheesecake's stimulating taste and texture took it many miles from the slabs of sweetened spackle that you find at your corner deli.

The brownies with chocolate sauce were gently warmed and about as good as a brownie can get. The tiramisu was light and moist with a strong coffee flavor.

It All Depends

As they tend to be a weak spot on East End menus (at our last port of call, they were so bad as to be inedible), Basilico's desserts deserve a special mention.

To sum up: Basilico has fine food, but not quite as fine as we were expecting - some dishes were great while others were pedestrian. It can be good value or too expensive, depending on what you choose.

It is pretty and welcoming and extremely professional, though rather too noisy for comfort.