An Italian Evening

A new restaurant opened in Peters in the end of October, so tonight Guy and I decided to check it out. Here's what I thought of Franco's Trattoria.

Appetizers ( Or First Impressions):
When we walked in the door, I got an immediate whiff of seafood. Now, this is an Italian restaurant with quite a selection of fishy items on the menu, but to have that be the first odor we were overwhelmed with was a little off-putting.

The decor was very nice -- all cool blues and grays with dark wood tables and accents on the walls. It definitely made me feel like I was in a classy place.

We put our name in for a table for two and were told there would be a 20-to-30-minute wait.

The Main Course:
After a mere 10 minutes or so, we were led to an intimate (and by intimate I mean super-tiny) table in the middle of the dining room. While at first glance it seemed fine, as the meal progressed, I grew to hate our seating arrangement. The dining room was arranged with a bench seating along one wall with tables and chairs, then 4-person tables along the other wall, and an awkard column of 2-tops running right through the middle. Not only was there nowhere to set my purse or coat that wouldn't be in someone's way, but if I jutted my elbow out just a tad too far, I got slammed into by passersby (none of whom apologized or even stopped to take notice -- they must be used to it). Not only was the placing of the table poor, but it was way too small for dining in an Italian restaurant. There was barely enough room for the bread basket, let alone a candle, parmesan-cheese cup, and water glasses. But since I work in a restaurant and know the nuisance it is when people ask to switch tables, I decided to grin and bear it.

On to the food -- after Guy stopped flipping out because he couldn't understand the menu (the headings were in Italian), we ordered the fried zucchini appetizer. It was a hearty portion for seven dollars and was fried nicely without being overly greasy. My only complaint was that it was a little salty, but overall it was decent. For my main course, I ordered a bowl of minestrone soup and a Julianna salad. The minestrone soup surprised me by being chicken-based, but it was tasty nonetheless. For a $3 bowl of soup, it was a good size despite the fact that its lack of hearty ingredients (it consisted mainly of broth, carrots, potatoes, and cabbage) left me wanting more. The salad was the best part of my meal -- spring greens, feta cheese, red onions, pine nuts, and tomatoes topped with balsamic vinaigrette. Nothing new or extremely different, but still tasty. Guy ordered the meat ravioli with tomato cream sauce. I didn't get to taste it, so I can't comment on the quality, but one thing that struck me was the extremely small portion size for a $15 meal at an Italian place. Usually it's inevitable that you'll need a to-go box from the Olive Garden and Pasta Too. Not so at Franco's.

We chose not to even look at the dessert menu since neither of us were very hungry anymore, so after our meals it was time to wait for our waitress to return with our check. It took her what felt like an excruciatingly long time, but eventually we made it out with a grand total of $34 plus tip. Not too shabby.

Dessert (Or Final Thoughts):

I love the look of Franco's, and it's obviously popular with the townies so far, but the service wasn't excellent and for the prices, I think I'd rather get more for my money. I'd recommend checking it out at least once, but I don't think we'll be becoming regulars there anytime soon.