When Casa di Campagna, the new Italian restaurant on Columbia and Kane Streets in Brooklyn, started setting up for business, its look was clean and dramatic, if oddly north-woodsy. I kind of like the odd log cabin feel. Since then, however, the owners have added more and more layers of stuff to the facade, at the rate of about one new thingee a week. The place is started to look like a gas station offering a desperate sale on tires.
It started with things like this cross saw. Which was fine. It was part of the woody aesthetic.
But then they added the kind of kitschy Hallmark signs seen above. Which I loathe. They belong in your grandmother's home and on the wall of Applebee's and nowhere else.
Then this gentleman arrived. Which confused me, since I thought Casa di Campagna was meant as a nice, sit-down place, not a slice joint.
After paper signs like this started being affixed to the facade, I started to despair. Casa was beginning to look like a bulletin board. (It may be the only place in the area, outside Marco Polo, to offer valet parking.)
Recently, these ribbons were added. In anticipation of the Fourth, I guess.
In a final graceless touch, a string of plastic, colored flags were hung. Do these things ever work? Do they ever attract customers? I wonder.
I wish Casa well. I do. But they gotta take down some of that crap so people can see there's a restaurant behind it.
Brooks, you're right - it looks exactly like a gas station from the 1960's with those colored triangular flaglines flapping all over. Gee, will they give me a free set of steak knives if I buy ten dinners?
ReplyDeletei had been meaning to go there.
ReplyDeletenow I definitely won't
how tacky
Please don't write it off yet. I still plan to go and try the food.
ReplyDeleteThis from carrollgardens.patch.com:
ReplyDelete"But while the menu may lack za za zoom, the restaurant itself makes up for it. The interior, exterior, outdoor patio and tables are all made from salvaged wood from a 100-year-old barn in North Carolina."
and from later in the story....
"Owner Anthony Matrone's first had the idea for the restaurant six years ago, Renna said. A timeline of the restaurant's story will be on the wall, along with other tchochkes, oil paintings of landscapes, quart size tomato sauce cans and bottles of A1 steaksauce.
"The creation of Casa di Campagna started as a vision back in 2005 and was set in motion during a discussion with a friend who had an opportunity to obtain the special materials required to construct our vision," the timeline reads."
Six years? Really? Six years to create a vision of a red sauce/pizza joint that looks like this? I'm thinking that the owner is really taken with the look of TGI Friday's and wanted to create his own version.....
The article also mentions that the restaurant does indeed serve pizza, along with....wait for it....
"your standard Italian fare - caprese salad (homemade mozzarella, tomatoes, basil), baked clams, calamari, puttanesca, baked ziti, shrimp scampi"...
But hey, I haven't eaten there yet so I'm not going to knock the menu. I think of it as Italian comfort food....if it's not daring neither does it sound like an attempt to make Italian food into some kind of ultra-fussy, uber-gourmet experience. It should be rustic and simple....
And in any case, my hat's off to any and all small business owner these days. Hope this place succeeds.
Sodden thought.....since Casa di Campagna translates to "Country House"....maybe the whole point of the 100 year old barn timbers is to marry Italian food to an interior/exterior that's emblematic of American "country" style
We ate there yesterday and I have to say it was great and quite the bargain. We had the: antipasto Casa Di Campagna, the Salad Casa di Campagna and the pasta Casa Di Campagna. I thought we might as well try their signature dishes. First it was way too much food for two and we tried the pasta which was delish but brought most of it home. the kids had it for dinner and loved it. The salad was excellent and the antipasto was an incredible deal for 9.95. It had three great cheeses including a parmigiano, italian ham, roasted eggplant and zucchini and lots of olives on the top. That with the salad would have been enough. My hubby got 1 beer and the whole bill came to $42.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear the food is good.
ReplyDeleteDon't order the pasta with sausage and broccoli rabe. It was soupy and tasteless. The caesar salad was drowned in dressing. The tagliatelle was okay. I think they have too much on the menu. Would rather just see the items they make well. Might try the pizza some day since it's close. Otherwise I'll stick with Fernando's.
ReplyDelete