When Toscana closed a little over five years ago, it left a bit of a hole in the independent restaurant scene in the region, at least as far as Italian food goes.
Pizza is everywhere, and covers that particular segment of Italian cuisine from fast food takeout to the more sophisticated wood-fired options. But as a slice of what might fit on an Italian menu, it’s pretty narrow. The 84 Italian Steakhouse is a bit more of a steakhouse than it is Italian and it covers a lot of the basics, but hotels must do their best to meet a rather broad range of expectations as to what qualifies as dinner. The Olive Garden cranks out a lot of recognizable old favorites.
A lot of other restaurants have a few Italian dishes in an otherwise diverse menu. Spaghetti Western did a decent job filling some of the empty space Toscana left when it opened shop just four blocks north of the literal empty space Toscana left. Despite a name that nods to the peculiar relationship Italy has with the American western, it keeps to a menu more Italy than America.
The braised ribeye risotto ($26) features delicious prime rib among the flavors of porcini mushrooms and fresh herbs.
Contributed / Eric Daeuber
So what qualifies as Italian-American cuisine? At a wedding reception I went to on the island of Sardinia once, I was introduced to ziti which shows up at almost all Italian weddings usually somewhere in the first course. When ziti made it to America, someone baked it into what amounts to a hot dish and Italian-American cuisine was born.
Ziti’s is an Italian-American restaurant and that gives it a little leeway in designing menus that reflect American ingredients, tastes, seasons and times. A good example: the braised ribeye risotto ($26). Most Italians will tell you that risotto can be taken to a lot of different places but only so far. Ziti’s makes it the base of a slow braised cut of there’s-nothing-more-American-than prime rib. Then it adds a litany of flavors like the slight char of roasted peppers to brighter vegetables all in front of the umami background of porcini mushrooms and forward-facing fresh herbs.
The baguette mozzarella ($13) is a cheesy appetizer served with its own dipping sauce.
Contributed / Eric Daeuber
In many ways, Ziti’s is an exercise in more being less. Fresh herbs — rather than long-stewed dried spices — like the basil in the heavily textured creamy tomato basil soup make a warm winter dish that’s a reminder of warmer summer days ($8).
There are appetizers that could easily be meals in themselves. We could well have spent a good deal of time with a bowl of that soup and the baguette mozzarella ($13) dipping the multi-cheese version of an Italian classic directly into the soup rather than the sauce the bread is served with. Northern Italians, not being Austrians anymore, can do that sort of thing.
The creaminess of the tomato basil soup ($8) is brightened by the generous fresh basil.
Contributed / Eric Daeuber
Going farther south, if you’re in Italy, and much further east, if you’re in West Fargo, the linguini pesce ($23) is all about the seafood, not the pasta or the sauce. The broth is light on salt, light on fat and bright with lemon and fresh tomatoes leaving the fish and mussels to flavor the broth themselves.
In the end, the menu is about building flavors, some of which are right off the boat and some of which have been in the country for quite some time. Perhaps the item that says this best is a tiramisu cheesecake ($12) which doesn’t need a lot of explaining. It’s culinary assimilation at its most obvious.
The tiramisu cheesecake ($12) is a tasty culinary assimilation.
Contributed / Eric Daeuber
The atmosphere is warmly lit and comfortable if a bit tight in places which makes it seem quite a lot like a traditional trattoria. Service is friendly and servers know the menu. It can be busy and service can seem a little stretched, but you won’t be forgotten.
Food is overall excellent and its popularity reflects this, so you might want to make a reservation in advance. Walk-in wait times can be long. All that said, Ziti’s is a bit of an island in the West Fargo dining scene given our region’s tendency to sow the edges of our cities with bar/grills that sprout up most everywhere. Instead, it’s slow food at its best and free of big screen TVs and lo-fi, corporate music.
Ziti’s in West Fargo is warmly lit and comfortable with a distinct lack of big screen TVs and lo-fi, corporate music.
Contributed / Eric Daeuber
3150 Sheyenne Street
West Fargo
Cuisine: Italian American
Hours: Tuesday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 to 9 p.m.
Phone: 701-532-0477
Reservations accepted: Yes and recommended
Alcohol: Full bar
Food: 4 stars
Service: 3.5 stars
Ambiance: 3.5 stars
Eric Daueber has been reviewing the culinary arts for the Forum since 2004. A seasoned traveler, he has eaten roast suckling pig and sebadas in Sardinia, schnitzel and kaiserschmarrn in Vienna, bangers and mash in London, dumplings in Shanghai, and Peking duck in Peking, to name a few. Eric was raised in a culinary household; his father was a baker and his mother a cook who emigrated from Austria after WWII. Both grew up and worked in the heart of Austrian culinary art’s in Styria. He can be reached at food@daeuber.com.
Dining and Cooking