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Old World with a progressive edge
The Laughing Cat's decor screams modern, but its Italian fare is a throwback to heartier times.
By CHRIS SHERMAN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published October 24, 2002
[Times photo: Toni L. Sandys]
Fresh fettuccine with shrimp in a white wine and cream sauce is on the menu -- along with 136 other items -- at the Laughing Cat in Ybor City.
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YBOR CITY -- Time was when trolleys rumbled into Ybor City. Oops, as of Saturday, they are rumbling again. So make that, time was trolleys rumbled back when working folks rode them and lived and worked in Ybor.
In the glory days, when the marquee of El Encanto Cleaners shone brightly on Eighth Avenue, locals sustained themselves with heaping plates of ropa vieja, or spaghetti; they were too poor to call it pasta.
Some of that hearty Italian flavor has returned to Ybor at the Laughing Cat, which now sits under the Encanto sign (the cleaners remains next door). From here, you can watch the TECO Line clang past.
The Laughing Cat calls itself "New Progressive Italian," but don't hold that against it. The exuberant staff is inclined to exclamation points, but the Cat's charm lies in the opposite, older direction, when Italian food was hefty and lusty.
To be sure, the Cat is young and early in its second life. It graduated from a tiny take-out shop across the street four months ago, and its new home is blazingly painted red, green, black and Xterra yellow.
With its high ceilings, big windows, exposed brick and staff in art-student black, it feels like it could be progressive. But you don't get pretty presentation, trendy dishes or great bread, just heaping platters spilling over with sauces that are perfectly at home on the table's floral oilcloth. The crowd mixes new Ybor stylistas with old-timers who have bellied up to the Tropicana.
What they all get is a big helping of the personal cooking of Franco Lo Re, who spends his days making pasta, baking desserts, cutting meat, trimming fish and cooking sauces. He cooks with generosity and a dash of passion rare in a city where too much Italian food is either name brand or plain bland.
He also deserves credit for not pretending to "Northern Italian" snobbery, although he does make a sturdy risotto and he's not afraid to charge $30 for his steaks or $150 for a 3-pound lobster pigout.
I got the flavor of a fishing village -- and my best meal at the Cat -- in a plate of swordfish and pappardelle. Lo Re makes those inch-wide noodles himself (along with ravioli, tortellini, agnolotti and most flat pastas), and they're perfect for spreading around a salty fish sauce.
Because the menu lists more than 150 dishes, it's hard to characterize the style except as too much. There are probably too many dishes to do well, and there usually is too much on the plate and often too many ingredients. Some will luxuriate in never-ending combinations of meats and seafood garnished with cheeses, stuffed mushrooms, baked oysters, artichokes and the like. Even a veal chop can come in a cheese batter.
There are a few simple items, a salad of fennel and Parmesan, but a straightforward veal picatta came out with a fairly routine brown sauce and no distinct bite of lemon (upon complaint, the kitchen reworked the sauce).
Some odd combinations do work. Escargot, shrimp and mushrooms in a champagne sauce sounds too rich, but it was light and fragrant.
Others are too much. I liked the cheese ravioli, but the mixtures of vegetables, including broccoli, mushrooms and green beans, was clumsy, and the pesto was more of a cheese cream sauce with basil. An order of homemade mushroom gnocchi became a plate of mushroom, tomato and spinach dumplings in a sauce of mushrooms and tomatoes, spoiling my hopes for a purer taste.
At dessert time, Lo Re's whims of the day are more enjoyable, like the night he had made pistachio mousse. Loved it on a chocolate brownie.
This open-handed style is at its best at the Laughing Cat's $7 lunch buffet. More than a dozen dishes are laid out on steam tables right in front of the kitchen where Lo Re and his crew are banging pots and filling pans.
There could be fresh snapper with red pepper, tuna, chicken drunk with sherry, hand-shaped meatballs, risotto with peas, and various salads. And it won't be the same tomorrow, so help yourself. Here, too, I found a classic authentic taste of Italy, great cauliflower (yep, cauliflower), cooked so long it almost caramelized and spiked with capers.
The Cat's wine list includes barely 10 labels, mostly Italian, but each is carefully chosen, and most are priced close to $20.
I'm glad to find an Italian restaurant with a difference, but I'd like to see it keep the food simpler. The Italian flavors of old would be stronger and fresher.
That would be great progress.
The Laughing Cat
- 1820 N 15th St. (at Eighth Avenue), Ybor City
- (813) 241-2998 Hours: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday; 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 11 a.m. to midnight Friday; 3 p.m. to midnight Saturday.
- Reservations: Suggested.
- Details: Most credit cards; no smoking; beer, wine; handicapped access; no smoking.
- Prices: $7 to $31.
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