When Enzo’s La Piccola Cucina in Lawrence first opened 37 many years back, it only served takeout.
Now, since of the COVID-19 pandemic, the well-known conventional Italian cafe is back to principally relying on takeout to get by, at minimum by means of the wintertime months.
“Everything dropped way down since Thanksgiving,” explained owner Anna Scozzari, other than for takeout, though she stated that just lately vaccinations versus the virus have served strengthen her clientele.
Indoor and outdoor dining are obtainable, mentioned Scozzari, but most shoppers are picking out to decide on up their food items to take property. They stay faithful, returning all over again and yet again, but are worried about dining indoors or in the tent established up outside on a heated patio.
Insert to that the state restrict for indoor dining, which is 35 per cent of capability. “We can only seat 12 persons now,” she said. In addition to restricting how lots of people today who can eat at just one time, it place an conclude to her common Sunday supper menu, when she would offer you regular Italian specials. The overall menu has remained very considerably the exact, she reported, apart from for providing much less specials.
Scozzari is grateful for her longtime clients who return for her extended menu of pastas, seafood, chops and steaks. “Our loyal buyers have been absolutely unbelievably supportive,” she said.
They continue to keep coming again for the restaurant’s farm-to-table cuisine, which the Scozzari household provided just before it turned a culinary craze in The united states. Farm-to-table eating is the coronary heart of common Italian delicacies and it is not unheard of to locate Scozzari procuring for make at local farm marketplaces.
Scozzari’s family members evening meal offers to go are performing properly. Her “comfort food” pasta dinners include salad, tacky garlic bread, and the choice of variety of pasta and sauce. Solutions consist of Bolognese, champagne cream sauce, broccoli rabe with sausage, vodka rigatoni, lasagna and eggplant parmigiana. Hen dinners involve bread, salad, a facet of pasta and a preference of a 50 %-dozen chicken entrees. All those contain francaise, parmigiana, garlic sauce, and vermouth product sauce.
A middle slice veal chop is served with bone in at Enzo’s La Piccolo Cucina, a preferred Lawrence restaurant for 37 decades.Enzo’s La Piccolo Cucina
All the family members meals are well known, Scozzari said, specially a sautéed salmon meal.
The vital to terrific takeout, she claimed, is employing major-shelf packaging to retain the meals clean and heat, though making every dish to buy. It can help that the chef at Enzo’s is great at preparing dishes that journey and reheat well.
Enzo’s reputation has been for exceptional classic Italian entrees, but Scozzari explained the cafe has noticed an uptick in the quantity of pizza orders. “We are creating more now than we have in decades,” she stated. As a result, “We have gotten far more creative” and present an substantial checklist of conventional and gourmand toppings.
Scozzari stated she and her team are scrupulous about cleaning the cafe, following all state protocols additionally a little more. She reported she functions to guard the two her customers and her staff members.
The most vital message she can ship, she mentioned, is the one particular that pops up in the subject matter line on her emails to shoppers. “We’re nevertheless right here!” it reads.
Enzo’s La Piccola Cucina
- 1906 Princeton Ave., Lawrenceville, 609-396-9868, enzoscucina.com
- Hrs: 3-9 p.m. Tue.-Wed., 1-9 p.m. Thu.-Fri., 3-9 p.m. Sat., 2-8 p.m. Sunshine.
- RERSERVATIONS: essential for indoor and patio eating (confined seating).
- Credit score Cards: Most big.
- Food items: Conventional Italian entrees and contemporary dishes.
- Value: Meal entrees $25-$44, family dinners to go (serves 4-6) $75-$90.
- BYOB