On the day that Coperta opened eight years ago in Denver, a customer approached chef Paul C. Reilly after his meal to tell him that he wouldn’t be returning. When Reilly asked what he had done wrong, the man said: “No lasagna. No garlic bread. It’s not Italian food.”
Reilly understood his point. Coperta specializes in authentic Roman-style cuisine – like cacio e pepe, carbonara, bucatini all’amatriciana, cavatelli ragu and ricotta gnudi – which is just one of many regional styles of cooking in Italy. But there is no sign of the “Italian” dishes that generations of people in the United States grew up eating, like spaghetti and meatballs, fettuccine Alfredo, stuffed shells, chicken parmesan, and ricotta-slathered lasagna.
Most of these Americanized dishes have their roots in Italian cooking, but the immigrants who brought them to the United States in the 1800s and 1900s had to change the recipes to suit their finances and the different kinds of ingredients they found here. Eventually, these hybrid meals became synonymous with Italian food for many people here, even Italians themselves.
“Take meatballs. They don’t have them in Italy the way we know them,” Reilly said.
But traditional or not, they are all delicious. “I was taught as a kid that this is Italian food,” said Reilly, who grew up in New York’s Westchester County, eating ricotta-stuffed shells and fried mozzarella at big family events or celebrations. “It brings back this huge nostalgia for me.”
So, while Reilly loves and respects the Roman dishes he cooks and serves every night at Coperta, 400 E. 20th Ave., he also wants to bring back “Little Italy-style” comfort food, especially now, when so many of Denver’s old red-sauce joints have closed up shop.
On Tuesday, Oct. 24, he’ll host the restaurant’s third Little Italy night (it’s a new monthly series) complete with red-and-white checkered tablecloths; giant pepper grinders; dim lighting; straw-laced chianti bottles; servers dressed in all black; Frank Sinatra, Billy Joel and Dean Martin on the playlist; and red-sauce restaurant classics like pasta fagioli, cheese ravioli in butter sauce, linguini with clams in white sauce, sausage and peppers, and a meatball “wedge” sandwich.
Previous menu items have included chicken parmesan, fettuccine Alfredo, stuffed shells, penne alla vodka, spumoni, tiramisu, and “the kind of garlic bread that makes the roof of your mouth hurt,” Reilly said. Future ideas include stromboli, veal, shrimp scampi and chicken piccata.
That’s what was served at “wise-guy” joints in New York — Mulberry Street restaurants in New York City’s Little Italy, in particular — and New Jersey when Reilly was a kid. And in spite of the fact that his family isn’t Italian, many of the recipes were handed down through the generations.
“It used to be a knock on Italian restaurants when regional Italian cooking styles became popular,” he said. “It’s comfort food that went out of style.”
That trend has been evident in the Denver area over the last 15 years as many old-school Italian restaurants closed. These included institutions like Pagliacci’s, Longo’s Subway Tavern, Dino’s Italian Food, Patsy’s Inn, Valente’s, Little Pepina’s and Carbone’s Italian.
“The disappearing red-sauce joint of Denver. People keep telling me about it,” said Reilly. “So Little Italy night has gotten a reception that I had no idea how popular it would be.”
And if that man who couldn’t find any “Italian food” at Coperta ever attends Little Italy Night (make reservations at opentable.com), he will surely be back in his element.