Design isn’t everything, but it helps, and is especially effective when it’s out of place. Life still holds good surprises, like stepping out of Torrington’s five points and into a 100-year-old Italian osteria.
Alright, Geppetto Osteria e Bisteccheria is only three years old, but that’s part of the magic of seeing barnwood topped with dark bottles and ceramic jugs, hung with old world cookware, brick arches and copper bar top spread with glasses, fruit and pastry. Can something feel old and young at once?
Geppetto is the work of Carlo and Michelle Pulixi, both refugees from an overpriced Manhattan who met in a then-affordable neighborhood in Brooklyn called Park Slope. Carlo had just left Il Bucco on downtown Bond Street and the pair opened New York City's Convivium Osteria in 2000 to excellent reviews, government and celebrity regulars and perennial appearances in the Michelin Guide.
“We didn’t have a lot of money and Park Slope was cheap. Rent was $1,500 month,” she laughs. “Then it was not.”
Carlo, who grew up on a farm in Sardinia and left at age 14 first to live with brothers who were chefs in Rome, and then for New York in the early ‘90s before moving to New Hartford in 2010. Michelle, being from small town in California, immediately gravitated to Connecticut town life. Now they run Geppetto with their children Eliza and Kiko.
My companion and I were seated on Geppetto’s mezzanine, a raised area one step up from the main room, where an old iron stove is sunk into a brick arch, facing a snug table. A few glasses of montepulciano were quickly joined by roasted quail stuffed with sausage, almonds, mortadella and radicchio. I made sure to drag out every bite of the crisp, savory little bird in its drizzle of port wine reduction with halved figs.
An antipasti special of sardines lightly fried seasoned with an herb blend of celery leaf, mint, parsley and olive oil was served on house baked bread.
Eliza and Michelle are the family bakers responsible for the rustic bread and tarts, while Carlo and Kiko are the minds behind the kitchen.
“We’re a very close family,” Michelle told me a few days later. “My son has incredible talent for pasta and sauces." The mention immediately reminds me of the time I spent staring at an entree of agnolotti di Brasato, filled with short ribs and leeks, served with mushrooms in a procini double cream sauce and a brown stock called fondo Bruno.
Michelle describes the menu as central Italian menu, but not exclusively. My entree of garganelli pasta with mozzarella di bufala, tomato, basil and n’duja was decidedly Sicilian, despite the fiery (they’ll warn you) sausage being much more rough ground than the dark, nearly viscous variety I’ve seen before.
24 E. Main St., Torrington
860-618-0712
Wheelchair accessible
The Vibe
Geppetto is a little storefront with a transportational effect upon entry. The space is old-world and well attended without being tight or cluttered.
The Food
Sardinian-Italian New York restaurant veteran Carlo Pulixi and his talented family of cooks and bakers have created a delicious and unusual menu in Litchfield County, pulling influences from multiple Italian regions, with an in-house baking program.
Fall dishes will include carciofi alla Romana (Roman braised artichoke), a Sicilian style swordfish with pine nuts and raisins, northern Friuli style green apple ravioli with duck ragù polenta with Taleggio and mushrooms, and rabbit dishes.
“I love sardines, and was shocked because we didn’t know if the town would like them, but they do,” Michelle says.
She makes a caramelized pine nut honey tart people can pre-order and take home. A tart with almonds and plums flambéed in cognac ended our evening before the check arrived, tucked into Pinocchio, printed in the original Italian.
The couple chose Geppetto as a name because the iconic Italian story was one they often read to their children and it evoked a place in their minds. A hand painted replica of the 1972 poster for "Le avventure di Pinocchio" produced for Italian national television hangs in the doorway. Carlo, who learned woodworking as a child in Sardinia, refurbished cabinets, made benches and sourced the barn wood from Cook’s Antique Lumber in New Preston.
“The reception has been exceptional,” she tells us. “We have a lot of regulars from around town, and we’re getting people who are regulars from Hartford and Massachusetts. They’re traveling to get here.”
“We want people to feel like they’re transported to Italy, away from modern life," Michelle says. "If you do something good people will come to find you.”
Geppetto was a surprise to me, and maybe less of one to you now, but I’m not here to break the spell.