It is a thing of beauty when the “To Eat” lists of friends overlap. On a recent double date with fellow food lovers, we all wanted not only to catch up but also to cross a spot off our ever-growing lists, which led us to Superba Snack Bar in Venice.
Superba Snack Bar is the brainchild of restaurateur Paul Hibler (Pitfire Pizza) and chef Jason Neroni (Osteria La Buca). The restaurant, which has large cut-outs exposing the main dining room to the open air, feels a bit like an auto repair shop …if your mechanic were to serve up housemade charcuterie, fresh takes on veggies, and handmade pasta, that is.
We began by delving into Superba’s boozy offerings, ordering three of the restaurant’s four cocktails.
The crisp, fizzy Elder combined elderflower syrup, Cocchi Americano, citrus and a splash of prosecco ($12.00).
The Pepino Fresco with Dolin Vermouth, Bonal, lemon juice, cucumber, ginger and a splash of prosecco ($12.00) was dry but refreshing.
In the Superba Sour ($12.00), Cardamaro was tempered with simple syrup, fresh lemon juice and egg whites, yielding a rich, frothy drink with a hint of sweetness.
As is common with small plates restaurants, a glance at the tables around us confirmed that our server was overstating the number of dishes that our party of four should order. As such, we settled on four smaller plates and two pastas.
To start was the Porchetta di Testa Pastrami ($10.00) from the “Cold Cuts” section of the menu, in which head cheese was cured pastrami-style and served thinly shaved atop a slice of rye bread and topped with dill pickles. While I don’t normally give head cheese a second glance on a menu, I appreciated the inventiveness of this take.
Off the “From Our Backyard” portion of the menu, we selected two items– first, this cool, crunchy combination of grilled watermelon cubes, whole basil leaves, bao crumbs, fried chicken skin and pickled ramp dressing ($15.00). We found the flavors to be balanced and refreshing but all agreed that the bowl could have used more fried chicken skin and couldn’t explain the pretty steep price tag on this simple dish.
Our second veggie plate was the Cauliflower T-Bone ($16.00), a steak-like slab of cauliflower dressed with avocado puree and topped with pickled beets and castelvetrano olives. While this is undoubtedly one of Superba’s breakout dishes, our group felt that the cauliflower didn’t wow when eaten without the other components on the same forkful.
This simple plate of charred figs, housemade ricotta, opal mustard and shreds of porchetta ($14.00) from the “Snacks” portion of the menu was a winner. Each bite was simultaneously salty, sweet, tangy, creamy and delightful.
Cacio e pepe may seem unadventurous, but the simplicity of this al dente whole wheat rigatoni bathed in pecorino and black pepper ($14.00) hit the spot.
Our final savory course was also my favorite, a plate of pillowy sweet corn agnolotti spiced up with jalapeno butter, ancho powder, and fresh lime ($18.00). Crumbles of creamy sheep’s milk cheese finished the plate. These kicked-up accompaniments were way more exciting than the brown butter which is usually paired with corn agnolotti.
To finish, we dug into the menu’s two desserts.
This grown-up take on s’mores with graham cracker crumbles, creamy chocolate pudding and a mountainous toasted marshmallow ($9.00) didn’t bowl me over but was perfectly enjoyable. We also missed the cute lil’ jar that we’d seen house the dessert in pictures (#InstagramExpectations).
Noms Not Bombs 