Name: Amano Trattoria
Contact: 9 Church St., 647-349-7297, eatamano.com/trattoria, @amano.trattoria Neighbourhood: St. Lawrence
Owners: Michael Angeloni, Yannick Bigourdan, Dan Kennedy and Adam Teolis (Open Concept Hospitality)
Executive chef: Michael Angeloni
Seating: 220
Covid-19 safety measures: Frequent sanitization, mask policy, hand sanitizer station at the door, proof of vaccination required, and contact tracing.
Accessibility: Ramp available for entrance steps
The food
Unlike the more fast-casual Italian served at Amano’s Union Station and Newmarket locations, Amano Trattoria features slightly more refined dishes, like a roasted squash risotto with sea urchin and a 40-day-aged rib steak cooked in duck fat. There’s pizza, too, though—or rather, pinsa. The Roman-style pie (a lighter and airier precursor to the popular Neapolitan kind) comes topped with things like fior di latte, white anchovies, pistachios and ‘nduja. Desserts include a hazelnut and dark chocolate torte, pavlova (made with all the leftover egg white from the house-made pasta) and cannoli.
The Tuscan crostini tops a trio of toasts with chicken liver, pickled pearl onions and a drizzle of balsamic agrodolce. $9.
For this salad, baby gem lettuce is tossed with truffle vinaigrette and finished with a mountain of shaved aged pecorino and a sprinkle of chives. $14.
Thinly sliced beef carpaccio comes topped with a hazelnut emulsion, arugula, parmesan and mushrooms. $16.
Wild fluke crudo is dressed with pickled mussels, green pepper, crème fraîche and shallots. $17.
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Pinsa-maker chef Francesco Vetrò, at his station.
A closer look at the super-airy pinsa crust.
Funghi pinsa is topped with taleggio cheese cream, thinly-sliced Yukon Gold potatoes and roasted mushrooms. $19.
This one comes covered in stracciatella cheese and topped with white anchovies, parsley and caper berries. $19.
Angeloni preparing the tagliolini.
The fresh tagliolini is tossed with P.E.I. mussels, white wine, chili and garlic, then topped with pangrattato (bread crumbs). $16.
The seasonally changing agnolotti (inspired by chef Maurizo Verga, who Angeloni worked with at Splendido and F’Amelia) is currently filled with roasted squash and topped with crushed amaretti, parmesan and fried sage. $18.
Angeloni puts the finishing touches on the pork shoulder.
For this dish, pork shoulder is brined and cooked sous-vide for 7 hours before being grilled. It’s sliced and served with braised Swiss chard, cauliflower purée, and apple mostarda. $26.
Mangiate!
Chef and co-owner Michael Angeloni
The drinks
Regional Italian wines, plus a few bottles from B.C. and Ontario (around a dozen of which are offered by the glass; house and classic cocktails; a selection of beer, both on tap and in cans; and a cart stocked with amari, including a few hard-to-find bottles.
A selection of bottles from the current wine list.
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The Pick Me Up is a blend of Dillon’s gin, sweet vermouth and coffee-infused Campari. $8.
The Cynar Negroni is made with Ungava gin, Cynar, vermouth and gentian liqueur. $10.
The Sbagilato is a mix of Campari and sweet vermouth. $9.
And here’s the amaro cart.
The space
The cavernous space is divided up into a few areas: a main dining room (that can itself be curtained-off into three zones), a front dining space flanking the main entrance and a central bar area. There’s also Amano Notte, the late-night cocktail lounge, which is accessed through the main dining room as well as a separate entrance.
The central bar is the focal point of Amano’s main dining room. The Projector Room has access to a private washroom. The front semi-private dining space. And yet another section of the dining room The entrance to Amano Notte, the late-night cocktail lounge. And inside. Note the Dean Martin mural.
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