By Damien DiPaola of Ristorante Damianos – Photographed by Jazz Martin

Next door to Les Zygomates is their sister restaurant, Sorriso. Sorriso is the Italian word for smile, which is the how we were greeted by the lovely bartender with the attractive British accent. The room is very comfortable and not over stated. Part rustic Italian trattoria and part old Boston warehouse, Sorriso’s décor and ambiance provide for a nice low-key and relaxing setting. With hands-on owner Ian Just and Chef John Paine over-seeing both restaurants, there is a guarantee of that “personal touch” that one doesn’t find in absentee owned establishments.

We were greeted with a lovely spiral cone full of crusty and fresh Italian bread. Baked Prosciutto and Buffalo-milk Mozzarella, was served in a terra cotta bowl with thinly sliced Prosciutto di Parma wrapped around milky, sweet Mozzarella di Buffala. A dab of surreally good pesto on top made for a solid traditional antipasto. Next we enjoyed a generous portion of Tuna Crudo. The owner of both restaurants, Just, prides himself on the fact that he purchases all the seafood for both establishments at the auction on the fish pier. The delicious, meaty and juicy Blue Fin tuna, handpicked by the boss nonetheless, tasted like a piece of prime filet mignon, delicious. Atop a Sicilian inspired caponata, (a traditional cold, sweet and sour eggplant stew) the combinations of the sea salty tuna and the sweet and tangy eggplant are explosive.

Of course, when eating Italian, one has to order pasta. We were told the house favorite was the Fennel Sausage and Rigatoni. Normally I wouldn’t order a tomato sauce that had pickled cherry peppers, but let me tell you, this was one great dish. The fennel sausage had just the right amount of fennel without blowing the whole dish up. The tomato sauce was delicious, sweet and basil scented. The specks of vinegar peppers and the spicy bite of sausage, along with the aromatic and so-Italian sauce, made that bite of firm rigatoni a bite to remember.

For a Secondo we ordered the Beer Briased Kurobota Pig Cheek. A large portion of “Black Pig” cheeks were served over savory braised Savoy cabbage with chewy rustically sinful bites of salt pork. The cheeks were glazed with a zippy sweet cider sauce which was complimented by tangy prune mustard. Juicy, savory, sweet, and very satisfying, I envisioned many ways this pork could be prepared, and this dish was at the top.

Monday and Saturday night, from 5 p.m. to close you can get half price pizza at Sorriso. With seven pizzas to choose from and an impressive beer and wine selection, this is a high-end cheap night out with the boys or the girls. The pizza crust has a nice balance of salt and yeast, is crispy and crunchy, and evenly cooked top and bottom. The pizza sauce was as good as the rigatoni sauce, tomato and basil, a little evoo, what else does one need? Oh yeah, the toppings are all fresh and neither skimpy nor abundant, but just perfect.

To end my dinner with a sorriso we decided on a buttery and flaky, Amaretti cookie filled Apple Crostata, served with homemade Mascarpone gelato. The sinfully good crust was laced with apples and crushed Amaretti cookies. The creamy and sweet neutrality of the mascarpone with the rich Crostata made for an extremely satisfying ending to a great meal. We left Sorriso with a big sorriso.