Where Good Food Plus Good Prices Equals A Great Dining Experience

By Kaaren Valenta

A new restaurant and bar, Sal e Pepe — Italian for “salt and pepper” — has opened at 97 South Main Street at the site of the former Compass restaurant.

Sun-drenched colors — terra cotta, deep blue, golden yellow — welcome diners who come to enjoy the contemporary Italian cuisine or simply to have a drink in the bar.

Comments like “delicious” and “wonderful food” drifted through the restaurant Monday night when owners Angelo Marini and Carlos Hernandez held a grand opening celebration.

“Our philosophy is to offer delicious food at reasonable prices and good service in a warm and inviting atmosphere,” said Mr Marini. “I think we’re being well received. In the three weeks that we have been open, we had had absolutely no complaints about the food. That’s unheard of in this business.”

The two business partners have worked together for nearly 20 years. They met when both worked at Monica’s, a restaurant that was owned by Mr Marini’s parents in Stamford.

The two men own The Galley, a popular Westport restaurant that specializes in northern Italian and Mediterranean cuisine. Mr Marini, 41, also still owns his first solo business, What’s Cooking, a gourmet breakfast and lunch sandwich shop on the Post Road in Fairfield, and they operate the What’s Cooking At The Beach, the beach concession at Penfield Beach in Fairfield.

“It has been our dream to open a restaurant with a bar in a great location,” Mr Marini said. “So when the opportunity presented itself here, we took it.”

They brought in chef Frank Altomare, who formerly worked at Emeril’s in New Orleans and at Avellino’s in Fairfield, to put together a menu that offers something for everyone.

Dinner entrees, $14.95–$21.95, include a 12-ounce New York strip served in a porcini crust with wild mushroom risotto, spinach, and truffle sauce. Pan-roasted salmon is served with a Yukon potato puree, haricots verts, butternut squash, and a red wine fumet. There are three veal dishes including Vitello Toscano, medallions of veal with mushrooms, roasted red peppers, caramelized onions and mozzarella.

Pollo Rustico, served at Monday evening’s event, is a chicken breast topped with artichoke hearts, mushrooms, tomatoes, and prosciutto in a sauce that incorporates a touch of cream.

A half-dozen pastas include a wild mushroom ravioli made with lamb ragu, tomato confit, white beans, red pepper, and fontina cheese. Rigatoni Nuovo Paese features eggplant, mushrooms, onions, and peas with a light marinara sauce and fresh ricotta.

There are also grilled individual pizzas, called pizzettes, $5.95–$7.95, plus salads, $5.95–$8.95, and appetizers, $7.95–$12.95. A warm butternut squash salad combines arugula, frisee, and mache with a pumpkin seed vinaigrette and ricotta toast. There are also small house and Caesar salads available with the meal for $3.99.

Bruschetta is served three ways in one appetizer — with tomato and young sheep’s milk cheese; with beet and parma proscuitto, and with ricotta and wild mushrooms — that drew raves. Perfectly cooked calamari was topped with a flavorful, well-balanced tomato sauce.

The luncheon menu is similar to dinner, but also includes eight sandwiches, $7.95–$10.95, and a half dozen daily $6.95 entrées.

There are lunch and dinner specials, too, such as seared rare tuna served with rosemary white beans and spinach; a warm goat cheese salad that incorporated spiced walnuts, dried cherries, and pears; and a brioche French toast dessert made with sautéed pears, almonds, fresh berries, and vanilla gelato.

Sal e Pepe is now open for an a la carte Sunday brunch, 11 am to 3 pm. Entrees, $7.95–$14.95, include omelets, frittatas, eggs Benedict or Florentine, steak and eggs, pancakes, french toast, and the Rigatoni Nuovo Paese. There are also salads and several sandwiches including the Bellagio, which features sliced grilled chicken, avocado, bacon, lettuce, and tomato on Artisan bread with basil aioli.

There is a happy hour from 5 to 7 pm Monday through Friday. The restaurant is available for private parties and offers catering, both to-go and in customers’ homes. There will be a special menu for New Year’s Eve.

Although Angelo Marini now admits to having “food in my blood,” he had not intended to go into the restaurant business when he studied finance at the University of Connecticut. But his parents opened a restaurant soon after he graduated and he wound up working there for the next ten years.

There he met Carlos Hernandez, who had immigrated from Guatemala when he was just 16 and worked his way up from dishwasher to cook, waiter, and bartender in restaurants in New York City and Fairfield County before winding up at Monica’s. After the restaurant closed in 1995, the two men embarked on a successful business partnership that eventually brought them to Newtown.

Mr Marini’s wife, Renia, helps as a hostess at Sal e Pepe. The couple, who live in Trumbull, have two children, Matthew, 8, and Benjamin, 6. Carlos Hernandez and his wife, Sandra, live in Stamford with their son, Gian Carlo, 6.

Located in the South Main Marketplace, Sal e Pepe is open for lunch Tuesday–Saturday from 11:30 to 2:30; dinner, Tuesday–Wednesday from 5 to 9 and Thursday– Saturday, 5 to 10. Sunday open for brunch, 11:30 to 3 and dinner 5 to 9. Closed Mondays. Reservations are recommended; call 426-0805.