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Piatti opened in the Danville Livery shopping center 30 years ago. With a brightened interior, the Italian restaurant is an excellent place to meet friends and order ciabbata bread with herb-olive oil dipping sauce, then move on to wood-fired pizzas, house made pasta, entrées and to end, tiramisu.
One friend consistently orders spinach and fresh ricotta ravioli in lemon cream sauce. Another recently applauded a new menu addition, pork sugo pappardelle. Though I usually have no regrets on my Piatti meal, I look forward to ordering tempting selections on others’ plates next time.
The first time I visited the Danville Livery, I drove around the circular, multi-sectioned center attempting to find a certain coffee shop. As a recent transplant from small-state Delaware to the East Bay, I was familiar with upscale, suburban shopping centers. But the Livery’s curvy layout with so many restaurants and shops seemed like a maze. The country style architecture did imbue homey ambiance to each set of buildings.
My next trip to the Livery was easier because I headed for Piatti with its porch-like entrance directly off Sycamore Valley Road West. The menu has largely remained the same though dishes such as spinach salad, the ravioli and rigatoni Bolognese never cycled off.
In December I ventured to Piatti with my frequent dining partner who had not dined there since a series of work dinners several years ago. Upon entering, we noticed how bright and open the main dining room and bar appeared.
Piatti closed last July and August for extensive renovations. As we sipped excellent Negroni cocktails, General Manager Giovanni Joris overviewed the changes designed to relay a more modern ambiance. The restaurant has new lighting, paint and flooring, stained walnut-topped tables, and green velvet banquettes. The pizza oven is the same, burning sustainable almond wood which imparts a neutral flavor to the many dishes cooked there.
During our dinner, we noticed guests ranging from families with special occasions such as a four-year-old’s birthday to date nights and friends’ gatherings.
Though most guests approved of the refreshed décor, some, said Joris, were nostalgic for the former décor. To reflect the Italian theme, shelves display large cans of Italian products. The ambiance of the side patio with a large fountain harkens to a Tuscan courtyard.
When I dined last year before the renovation, I learned that Piatti was a chain of restaurants. After moving to the Tri-Valley, Piatti was convenient to meet friends from Benicia or Pleasant Hill or join local pals for dinner at what seemed to be a neighborhood place to dine. There are four Piatti restaurant in California, two in San Antonio and one in Seattle. To emphasize the unique features and culture of each Piatti, the name of this one changed from Piatti Ristorante and Bar to Piatti Danville. The group owner, Palisades Hospitality, also owns the Roundhouse Market and Conference Center at Bishop Ranch, San Ramon, additional restaurant brands Camp Outpost and Due West, and several hotels in wine country.
With extensive hospitality experience, Joris has worked at Piatti Sacramento, and briefly, at the Danville venue before Covid.
“Coming back here recently, I was struck by the number of long-term staff and returning guests,” said Joris. Given the recent investment for renovation, I asked Loris how Piatti has remained successful. “It’s the staff. Take Norberto Garcia, who has worked here for 20 years. Guests ask for him. Other servers have extensive experience here and at other high-end restaurants.”
Garcia served our meal and shared stories of invites to customers’ weddings. I remembered that Garcia was our server with I met friends from Pleasant Hill for lunch a month before the renovation shut down. During that visit, long-time Piatti customers Mary Jane Alpaugh and her husband David told me, “We always order the ciabatta bread with Piatti dipping oil, though rosemary is one of the herbs. I hate rosemary, but somehow it works in the dip. We order the olives, too, with a good mixture of both green and black, large and small.”
From that previous visit, Garcia recalled our happy table. He wasn’t surprised that I ordered the bread and again, asked for seconds of the dipping oil.
Guests trust that Garcia knows the ingredients and techniques of the food and cocktails. His description of the fritto misto with calamari, zucchini, lemon, olives and spicy Calabrian chili aioli was accurate. I hesitated to try it, but he said the spice was balanced by the mix of ingredients. He was right. We thoroughly enjoyed the dish, especially the lightly battered lemon mixed in with the calamari.
The skillet prawns exemplified the trend for “swicy” foods that are sweet and spicy. The prawns, bacon, and garlic atop the slightly sweet cornbread were bathed in a tasty mix of butter-wine sauce spiked with hot sauce.
We shared the funghi pizza with king trumpet and maitake mushrooms, ricotta, cipollini onions, mozzarella and saba, a syrupy reduction of cooked juice from freshly pressed wine grapes. We smiled at what we considered a perfectly charred, thin crust. The gobs of fresh ricotta and the dash of slightly sweet saba balanced the hearty umami elements of the mushrooms.
When my gin aficionado-friend tasted the cocktail, he exclaimed, “Now that’s a good Negroni.” During a chat with the bartender, he learned the Italian accompaniments to the City of London Dry Gin: Cocchi Vermouth di Torino and Campari. The cocktail list leans Italian with options such as La Roma, a mash up of several classic cocktails with rye, Italian aperitivo, vermouth, and amaro. There are zero proof cocktails such as Arancia ginger soda, several ciders and beers. The wine list beyond the sparklers is evenly divided between Italian and domestic wines.
Having visited the winery in Piedmont, Italy, I opted for the 2021 Oddero Barbera d’Alba to pair with my squid ink linguini with Manila clams, chili flakes, preserved lemon and gremolata, a topping of minced parsley and garlic with grated lemon zest. The black linguini, prepared with squid ink, was half served with regular linguini, which for many, would make it appear more palatable.
On recommendations from server Garcia and me, my friend chose the pork sugo pappardelle. A slow simmered red sauce with tomatoes, onion, garlic, and red wine, sugo is enriched by extra olive oil. The dish, he said, paired well with the 2020 Castello della Paneretta Chianti Classico.
Speaking of red sauce, I know why my friend Mary Jane of Italian heritage always orders the ravioli in lemon cream sauce. “Why order red sauce, or what we call ‘gravy,’ when I love cooking it my way at home?” Her husband always orders fish. After seeing his generous portion of petrale sole in the spring, I ordered it on my next visit. The chicken Marsala with creamy, herbed polenta is another favorite.
Following my tradition of seeing what others order on the table, I coveted my friend’s white chocolate bread pudding with bourbon caramel sauce and gelato. I ordered torta di ricotta with pine nuts, amaretto crumbs and blueberry compote. It was the light, right way to end the meal.
