Cassarino's is one of those places smack in the middle of Federal Hill that have been around for years and people just enjoy coming to for drinks, laughs and lots of heavy Italian food.
We caught up with jack and Pat F. from Vermont the other night and after they watched their son perform at a concert at Providence College, the three of them met Susie and I at Cassarino's. It's literally a five-minute drive for us to Atwell's Avenue and we had the good sense to park on a side street and walk a couple of blocks to the restaurant. (Parking on weekends in particular can be challenging.)
When we arrived Pat and Mike were just inside waiting for jack to park the car -- he soon arrivbed and we all sat down int he middle of the room, bracketed by two tables of half dozen people each, sharing stories, laughing and just having a grand time generally. If nothing else it was wonderful to see so many happy people in such a small space.
Anyway, the food is tasty: the fried calamari was scrumptious, very tender and with the lightest of batter; on the other hand the Cassarino specials were large, lots of layers adding to the bulk and very filling. The wines were mostly non-Italian (odd we thought), but we did manage to find a Primitivo from Puglia for $25. We skipped desserts (everybody had doggie bags already.) The meal was very reasonably priced ($176 for five of us).
Service was the one weak link. When Jack asked our server, "Angela," about a particular wine, she remarked that it tasted like raspberry, fruit and "stuff like that." Of course her black nail polish gave her away but we tried to give her intelligence the benefit of the doubt.
We were unsuccessful.
Otherwise I suppose we could recommend this place but there are so many others along Atwell's. . .
Cassarino's, on Atwell's, just off the corner of Dean Street.
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