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First bite: A little uptown in downtown
By CHRIS SHERMAN
© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 18, 2001
Alberto's Fusion Bistro
Downtown St. Petersburg's salad days are full of arugula, mizuna and even the Italian punch of fresh fennel now.
A corner that was once a Chicago hot doggery and then a flash in the pan-Asian trend is further upscale now as Alberto's Fusion Bistro, complete with panini sandwiches, blue-bottle water and $11 lunch entrees for those who dare.
Owners are Vince Fortunato, who owns the SRO pizza lunch spot a few doors away, and Alberto Mastromano, formerly of the Colony on Longboat Key, and it's the best new effort on the block.
Bistro's dinner menu samples the world from filet with Port and Madeira to shrimp with feta, but lunch is a fresh helping of simple Italian, much of it in olive oil and plucked from an antipasto bar. While not Armani's, the selection is far ahead of the usual cold cuts and peppers; $7.95 fills a small plate with the chef's or your choices. My favorites: prosciutto and fresh figs, long stemmed artichoke hearts, tender white anchovy, roast eggplant and a marinated seafood mix with melt-in-your-mouth scallops. You can skip the small balls of mozzarella in mushy tomatoes.
Lettuces with licorice-y fennel and lemon is a great light dish for the Florida heat, but the fennel was scant and $6.95 is too heavy on the wallet for a no-protein salad. Sharp-looking panini run from bland chicken breast to more exciting stuff.
It needs fresher bread, moderation in prices and tweaking, but the bright and tart tastes of this bistro need not be too uptown for downtown.
277 Central Ave., St. Petersburg, (727) 502-0433. Prices: $6.95 to $11.95, lunch; $13.95 to $25.95, dinner.
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