Covering the food scene in western Massachusetts, from its farms to its kitchens to its restaurants.

I first tasted Mauro Aniello’s food in Cambridge in the mid-1970s when he worked at a pizza place in Harvard Square. Later, he had his own restaurant in Boston’s North End. By 1983, he’d sold that and moved to this area, where he opened Pinocchio’s in North Amherst. I live nearby and my wife and I dropped in regularly, following its progression from a pizza place to one of the best restaurants in town. We got to know Aniello there, and watched the departure of Pinocchio’s to downtown Amherst in 1986 with regret.

Aniello later sold Pinocchio’s and opened the Monkey Bar and then Bistro 63. Under the new owners, Pinocchio’s declined, and a fire in 2004 closed it for good. Aniello took back the restaurant, gutted and redid it, opening in September 2007 as LA PIAZZA RISTORANTE (30 Boltwood Walk, Amherst, 253-5444, http://lapiazzaristorante.us). He wanted to start from the ground up, he explained to me, so he picked a new name.

After two years and some false starts, the restaurant is up to speed. La Piazza makes its own orecchiette and gnocchi, as well as its own bread. The stocks and sauces are from scratch and the meats are butchered in-house. Aniello splits his time between the Monkey Bar and La Piazza, but he’s trained the crew at La Piazza well.

One night, we sat at the bar with our friends Betsy and Stephan. The bar had a cozy feel, and we felt as if we were just dropping in for a quick bite, not committed to a formal meal. Still, we managed a complete meal and then some. I started with a mushroom soup finished with cream and truffle oil. It had a deep, rich flavor that still allowed the truffle oil to come through. A tomato bruschetta arrived with a creamy streak of cheese – asiago, I think – that offset the rest of it nicely. A homemade tapenade accompanied the basket of bread.

My wife tried the seafood pescatore, a tasty seafood stew filled with mussels, clams and a good-sized piece of fresh cod, in a tomato-based broth infused with the juice from the clams and mussels. Betsy had the gnocchi Trieste, light, flat disks of dough in a creamy sauce dotted with pancetta and sausage bits. A touch of asiago added a pleasant bite. Stephan and I had the veal special, two cutlets rolled around herbed spinach and mozzarella. A side of mashed potatoes and a spinach and root vegetable sauté accompanied the veal.

We finished with tiramisu. A cliché in other places, this is homemade by Aniello’s wife, Claire, and has the ladyfingers crumbled into the custard for a much lighter texture and a rich taste. The restaurant offers a home-steeped flavored grappa, but Stephan went for a snifter of plain grappa.

On another night, we took my stepson out to dinner. We started by splitting two orders of pasta, the orecchiette Bolognaise in a long-simmered tomato stock, studded with chunks of veal and finished with a little cream. We also had the shrimp puttanesca, four large shrimps, olives and capers in a smooth tomato sauce that had a bit of anchovy. Cooked into a sauce, the anchovies provided nice background flavor without the salty, fishy taste that many people do not like. You can order the dish spiced on a scale of 1 to 4. We got the 3 and it had plenty of heat, although not so much that it masked the other flavors.

I’ve been researching veal, so this time I selected the veal chop, split and stuffed with fontina cheese and herbs. Aniello wraps the large chop in prosciutto before sautéing it, which adds saltiness and crispness. The chop was accompanied with a risotto drizzled with truffle oil and a mix of spinach, eggplant and green peppers sauced with a demi-glaze.

My wife got chicken piccata, two cutlets in a white wine and demi-glaze sauce studded with capers. Caleb had sole stuffed with shrimp. The sole was a little past its prime, but the dish was otherwise tasty. The same sides accompanied their entrees.

Aniello, who grew up in Turin, Italy, is a third-generation restaurateur, and he says his first memories involve the smells of food cooking. La Piazza is his seventh restaurant.

Looking around during my meal, I noticed that each table seemed to be getting attention from its server. Aniello says he has a number of principles that go into making a good restaurant, including hiring servers who are professional and pleasant. “The most important person in the restaurant is the customer. And then the dishwasher,” he laughs.

La Piazza is open seven days a week, from 5 to 10 p.m. on weekdays and until 11 on weekends. Salads and appetizers range from $6 to $12.95. Pastas are available in half and whole portions for $9.95 to $14 for the half and $14 to $17.95 for the whole. Entrees range from $15 to $25. The tiramisu is $8.

Originally published in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, February 19, 2010

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A clean, well-lighted place. Hemingway was talking about a Parisian cafe filled with late-night drinkers, but the term can easily apply to MOSAIC CAFÉ (78 Masonic St., Northampton, 585-1155). For one thing, it is a clean and well-lighted place, recently redone from Bill Streeter’s Silver Maple Bindery, which formerly occupied the spot. For another, given the Edith Piaf-like music that wafts through the room and the French accents in the North African cuisine, it feels like an authentic café.

Mosaic opens for breakfast at 8 a.m., serving eggs, omelets, baguettes and dessert crepes. There is a full espresso setup in addition to coffee and sweet mint tea. The omelets can feature asparagus in tarragon sauce, merguez (lamb) sausage, or various combinations of tomatoes, onions and peppers. There are a lot of vegetables in Moroccan cuisine, and Mosaic makes use of what is available locally.

A word about the mint tea. It is sweet tea, poured from a teapot into a small glass garnished with a mint leaf. It is delicious and highly addictive and because of it, I have never tried the coffee or the various sodas and fruit drinks that Mosaic serves.

At lunch and dinner, appetizers include chicken or spinach briswats (phyllo wraps), hummus, vegetable sigars and an olive plate. The salads are stunning. An avocado version consisted of thin slices of avocado draped over a mound of artichoke hearts, cucumber, lettuce and tomatoes. It was garnished with sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and zaatar (an herb and spice seasoning mix), and drizzled with a vinaigrette dressing.

I’ve eaten lunch at Mosaic often, forcing myself to try new things instead of sticking with the dishes I know I like. Among my favorites: the Casablanca pizza, a small, four-slice pie served with Kalamata olives, tomatoes, roasted green peppers, capers and anchovies, and drizzled with a little olive oil before serving. They’ll leave off the anchovies if you ask, but don’t. Sandwiches, available as wraps or on baguettes, come in many varieties: chicken, turkey, ground beef, merguez sausage, eggplant, tuna and sardines. All are accompanied with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and a Dijon or sesame vinaigrette. I got a sardine baguette on one visit. The sardines were canned, but, as they say, “they’re from the right cans.” On another occasion, I had the eggplant sandwich, with thin slices of fried eggplant, greaseless and well cooked. In my opinion, many of the sandwiches work better on the baguettes since the wraps can be a little flimsy.

Crepes are light and lacy, and since the kitchen is open you can watch them being made. Mosaic will fill them with grilled chicken, Swiss cheese or a goat cheese/sun-dried tomato mix. There are dessert crepes, including a peach crepe that is on my list to try. Most dishes are accompanied by two slices of cucumber and a small mound of shredded carrot.

The dinner entrees are stews that feature a combination of chickpeas, green peas, zucchini, carrots, green peppers, olives, capers and a slice of lemon, plus either chicken, beef, fish or slices of hard-boiled eggs. You can have the stew over rice or accompanied by slices of baguette. Soups include white bean, lentil or fish.

Hafie Assad, Mosaic’s manager, co-owner and main cook, is a gentle, pleasant man, and the seasoning of the dishes reflects his style. Moroccans tend to use generous amounts of harissa, a hot pepper condiment, but Assad has toned it down for the American palate. He will season dishes more aggressively if you ask.

Born in Casablanca, Assad came to the United States in 1997. He had worked in his father’s shop in Morocco, but learned to cook, he says, by helping his mother at home. His older brother, Abid, owns Amanouz on Main Street in Northampton, and that’s where Hafie Assad learned the restaurant business. The brothers are co-owners of Mosaic, with Hafie assuming the main duties of running the café.

In the summer, they set out tables in front and in the back courtyard. The courtyard is a shady and thoroughly enjoyable place to eat. The vegetation is New England, but you can bring your laptop (there’s free Wi-Fi), order some mint tea and an appetizer or some desserts and indulge in a 21st-century Paul Bowles fantasy. But you’d better clear out at lunch; the place gets crowded.

Desserts include baklava (walnut and sometimes pistachio), homemade bread pudding and various other homemade baked goods including fakas (like biscotti, but more crumbly), ghriba (almond cookies) and vassma (a small square flavored with pistachios). The cookies can be a little dry, but the baklava is sweet and not too sticky.

Mosaic is open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. and until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Appetizers range from $3.95 to $4.95. Salads and soups are mostly $6.25 to $8.50; trout or salmon salad is $11.95. Sandwiches and crepes are $5.25 to $6.95. Entrees go from $7.95 to $12.95. Desserts are $1.95.

Originally published in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, February 5, 2010.

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You always wonder whether a restaurant is consistent or has changed since you wrote about it. I’ve been sending people to Venus in Easthampton, calling it, “perhaps the best restaurant in the area.” Mostly, the feedback is good–no place is perfect, after all–but I was talking with a friend the other day.

In my first review, I called her “the young woman about town,” and mentioned how she liked Apollo Grill, Casey Douglass’ first restaurant. She’s now a young mother, less about town perhaps, but still eating out. She said she and her husband had eaten at Venus last weekend. “I kept saying, ‘I don’t like…’ whatever it was and then I tasted it and it was wonderful.”

Someone else I sent there told me it was a great choice. So, Venus is holding its own.

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