Creative Loafing Critic's Choice - Best Italian Restaurant - 2004

In five years, SOTTO SOTTO has transformed from a see-and-be-scene carnival to one of our city's culinary treasures. Nowhere else in Atlanta can you melt in your seat as you slowly spoon risotto with caramelized onions and aged balsamic vinegar into your mouth. The freeform lasagne is sublime -- hell, every pasta dish here is sublime. The wine list provides a sound education in Italian vino. Oh, and the frightful din? Chef/owner Ricardo Ullio recently added sound-absorptive panels to the dining room. Now you're talkin'.

Creative Loafing Critic's Choice - Best Italian Restaurant - 1999, 2000, 2001

Yes, we consider this controversial eatery our best Italian restaurant. We like the frenetic style, the sometimes goofy wait staff, the intense and passionate demeanor of owner Riccardo Ullio. We think the risottos are usually better than Viagra for stimulating erotic interest. We love the pheasant with mostarda and just about any of the seasonal dishes. We hate the parking situation.

Creative Loafing - 3.27.99

Rave On - Elliott Mackle

Can't keep quiet about Sotto SottoA perfectly prepared risotto is a glorious thing. It is also a lot of trouble. Short-grain Italian rice must be tracked down, sautéed with fat and onions, simmered in broth and stirred almost constantly while additional hot broth or wine is gradually added. Eventually when the rice had absorbed and unimaginable amount of liquid, assorted seasonings such a grated cheese, mushrooms and seafood are folded in.

The result? Grains of rice that are soft and honeyed words yet imbued with a suggestion of wet, sexy hardness at the center.

Although this second cousin to a pilaf is best prepared at home - few American restaurant chefs can delegate one cook to stirring a single pot for perhaps 30 minutes - excellent versions are often encountered in the trattorias and ristorantes of Northern Italy.

First rate risotti may also be found in Park, South of Ponce, at the extraordinary Sotto Sotto (313 N Highland Ave. N.E., 404-523-6678). Chef Riccardo Ullio's three-cheese risotto took me happily back to the dining room of a traditional country inn near Aviano Air Base, Italy, where I was stationed some years ago. The creamy firmness of Ullio's dish was admirable, and the chesses - Taleggio, Gorgonzola and Parmigiano-Reggiano - where as balanced as a dancer's step ($12). I have seldom eaten better.

On another night, the grains in a wild mushroom version had slightly more texture than the ideal ($12). We lapped up every morsel of that one as well ($12).But, pastas are the medium by which Ullio made his name locally. As founding chef at Midtown's influential Pasta da Pulcinella, the Italian-born, Conyers-raised Ullio upped the affordable noodles ante significantly, then kept on moving - first to Pricci, then to the doomed Coco Pazzo.

Of the three pastas I tried at Sotto Sotto, two were memorable, the third (and most expensive) a bore. Ravioli de melanzane - pockets stuffed with eggplant and walnuts, sauced with tomato-basil sauce and topped with cheese grated at the table - is essentially a holdover from Pulcinella ($12). The combination of vegetables, heat and imagination still works wonders and is as delicious a combination as might be imagined. Tortelli di Michelangelo - minced chicken, veal, lamb and pork in thing-skinned ravioli moistened with butter and sage leaves - is adapted from a recipe in the artist's journal ($12). This may be the closest one can get to touching the "Pieta" or "David" on the side of the Atlantic.

On the other finger, spaghetti del pescatore - pasta strands tossed with shrimp, scallops, mussels, clams and squid in tomato broth - was bland and utilitarian, entirely without defining flavor save for a peppery kick ($15). Pastas I haven't tried at Sotto Sotto include tagliatelle with wild mushrooms, tortelloni stuffed with sausage and apples and spaghetti alla bottarga - with sundried Sardinian mullet roe, lemon and parsley. In any case, and whether fascinating or forgettable, pastas and risotti can be ordered in half portions, as appetizers or small plates.

Pepper was the culprit in the one disastrous starter I tried, Impepata di cozze, described as mussels steamed with fresh lemon, parsley and black pepper ($7). Though the mussels themselves were fresh and sweet, the portion was clogged with what seemed like a half cup of ground pepper. After several bites, my tongue went into shock. Wiping down the wounded taste buds with a napkin, I called for the waiter and sent the blackened bivalves back.

That didn’t work either. Someone in the kitchen heard "too much pepper" as "use no pepper." And the second try came forth bland and unseasoned, mussels as Pablum. (In the end, we went away mollified if not pleased. The mussels were taken off the bill, and complimentary desserts offered in recompense.)

Other appetizers may better suit tongues not addicted to the berries of piper nigrum. Seared scallops with truffled white beans and wilted arugula posses a "wow" factor similar to Ullio's stuffed pastas ($8). Salads, though perhaps not marvels of creativity or consistency, are cool and refreshing. Shaved fennel with orange sections and winter lettuce, a pleasant mouth cleanser, contained exactly one of the advertised Ligurian black olives ($5). Sob.

Ullio, who opened the restaurant in January, offers but three main courses per night. Most customers so far, he said, want pasta and risotto. That may be true, but after trying examples of all three, I found that only the wood-roasted whole fish - yellow tail snapper when we tried it - was up to the level of the pastas and risotti. Boned at the table, and accompanied by roasted potatoes, wilted spinach and a bowl of extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and oregano, the moist delectable fish is large enough for two people to share ($19).

The same can be said for the somewhat dry roast chicken with rosemary, lemon and white beans ($14.50). Tough, over-heated and over-peppered hanger steak presented on a sizzle plate with spuds and wilted greens needs a make-over ($17).

Better to drink another glass from the short, smart wine list (a 1996 Dolcetta D'Alba at $36 was lovely - full flavored and balanced) or move right ahead to dessert (all $5.50). The smooth, creamy panna cotta, served with caramel sauce and a sugar cookie, is subtle and elegant. Chocolate soup, a combination of cold-hot and crunchy-smooth elements - from sugared croutons and walnuts to liqueur - makes for fun, witty finish.

Unless you arrive early or with a reservation, the finish line might be a long way away. Sotto Sotto (which means quiet or hush-hush) is composed of three storefronts. Light brown woodwork on distressed white walls, enormous windows, a small bar and an open kitchen with plates of food and ingredients laid out combine to give the space an urban, Murray Hill ambiance. A young, hip neighborhood crowd - most with great haircuts and dressed in trendy black - has discovered the placed. Please to see each other, and feeling lucky to score seats at one of the hottest intown restaurants, they yell, laugh and cry out. The consequent noise level matches the high-energy factor.

They got there first. You'd better be next. As a place to dine well, see friends and plug into what people will be talking about for months to come, Sotto Sotto can hardly be beat.

Creative Loafing - Grazing Cliff Bostock

Hunting a good restaurant in Atlanta on a Monday night is usually futile. But last week, after getting off a plane from Los Angeles, I was not in the mood to cook. So Wayne and I headed up North Highland in hopes of finding a semi-competent meal in Virginia-Highland.

Halfway there, though, Sotto Sotto ("hush hush"), the new Italian café at 313 N. Highland Ave. (just north of Elizabeth, 404-253-6678), just caught our eyes. We were surprised to see it open - until 11 p.m., no less - so we decided to try it out. We'll be going back. A lot. Constantly.

Your first inkling that you are going to have an extraordinary experience here is just walking up to the restaurant. Located in a row of former retail spaces, the big glass window in front of the kitchen had been left intact. This is no less than daring. Although dining room kitchens have been in vogue for some years, architects have skillfully obscured the madness that actually occurs in a busy restaurant kitchen. Here, you can watch every move - a comical ballet, really - as chef and owner Riccardo Ullio performs the magic that made him locally famous at his earlier venue, Pasta da Pulcinella.

I quite honestly have not had such a good meal for the money in months. And I am here eagerly pointing the attention of all other purveyors of low-down chic, from East Atlanta to Cabbagetown, to give notice to Ullio's remarkable achievement. Not a dish on the menu hits $20. Most are about $14, including risottos that require 20 minutes of preparation. And not one dish missed the mark. Dare I say that Ullio's arrival amid the warehouses of SoPo (that's "south of Ponce") brings the same mark of éclat that the original visionaries brought to SoHo?

The room itself is a marvel. A sandblasted wall, across whose mottled history of colors the owner runs his eyes and palm, is pure pentimento. A long banquette requires the sort of intimacy with strangers you find in New York's bistros. High-quality woods, mosaics, serio-comic black dressed waiters with locks of hair falling in their faces…well, it's drama.

Start by sampling some olive oils, $2 each. A waiter brings them to the table, caressing them with a sublime gaze I haven't seen since Rome. (You'll giggle.) Each of the three oils is a transit to its own grove of origin. One is light and full of sunlight, fruity. Another has a slightly bitter aftertaste. The third is more complex than wine and you'll beg for a bottle to buy.

Then you can order a larger antipasto. My favorite so far is the flawless sea scallops - seared and glazed - over warm truffled white beans with some wilted arugula. Sex, That's all I can think of. Pure sex. Get you fingers into it with a big antipasto platter ($10). Cool the passion with a salad of shaved fennel and oranges with ligurian black olives and lettuces ($5).

Pastas are flawless. You'll find Ullio's signature dished from Pulcinella: the spaghetti with sundried mullet roe and the ravioli with eggplant and walnuts. I ordered tortelli di Michelangelo, the artist's favorite ravioli made with lamb and veal ($12). The risottos are extravagances of carnaroli rice with seafood, cheese or wild mushrooms ($12-15).

There is a wood oven on the premises to roast baby chickens served over white beans ($12) and a whole fish served with potatoes and spinach, boned at the table by your waiter ($19). Sliced hangar steak, mainly unavailable in our city, is served with wilted arugula, rosemary and garlic potatoes ($17).

Desserts, too, are killer. Choose chocolate soup, mascarpone or as I did, panna cotta in caramel sauce, as deliciously soft and springy as the pillow where your head lands after terrific sex.