Authentic Italian

Bella Gioia—Italian for “beautiful joy”—is a new restaurant located in the Pearl District.

Most regard this area of Portland to be a yuppie locale, full of expensive stores and restaurants that are not really worth the extra money. And this statement is usually correct.

However, I was fairly charmed with this particular addition to the neighborhood. Not that the area needs any extra Italian restaurants.

There is Fratelli, Piazza Italia, Café Allora and Café Umbria, among others. Having lived in Italy myself, I love seeing the Italian community of Portland gathering at these cute local joints that serve up espresso and various dishes from the homeland. However, are any of these places close to authentic?

Bella Gioia certainly has an authentic charm, due mostly to the fact that Italians own and operate the restaurant.

The family has brought with them family recipes, beautiful floor tiles and a wood-burning oven. The layout of the restaurant is quite modern. It is completely open, no partitions or stands, no host, a visible kitchen full of Italian chefs and a full bar. With 3,000 square feet of earth-toned walls, however, one tends to feel swallowed by the massive space.

The menu mainly sticks to northern Italian cuisine with handmade pastas such as pappardelle, linguine and spaghetti, all topped with delicious sauces such as wild-boar ragu.

I had the lasagna alla Bolognese, a gorgeous dish, baked to perfection, with thick noodle, béchamel cream, gooey cheese and boar instead of pork in the ragu. It was an excellent lasagna dish, although the lasagna of my Italian friends and family is hard to surpass.

Other dishes on the menu include simple Italian pleasures with an elegant edge. For example, there’s Cozze Alla Pescatora, a steamed mussel bowl with garlic and white wine. Another spectacular dish is the “burrata” cheese, served with prosciutto and tomatoes.

These are very humble dishes but still flavorful and sophisticated. An aspect of Bella Gioia worth noting is that they thankfully do not slather their dishes in vinegar and olive oil, as some Italian places do. This allows us to really taste the food.

Now, they do boast a wood-burning oven, as so many Italian restaurants do these days. This oven is used mainly for making pizza. As most know, it is impossible to make a truly Italian pizza unless you have a wood-burning oven, but even with one, the difficulty is not over.

It’s important to hand toss the pizza, not overdo the sauce and cheese and slide it into the oven for just the right amount of time. While it’s next to impossible to replicate the taste of a pizza in Italy, Bella Gioia does a pretty good job. No ingredient is overdone and the pizzas are not drowned in oil. The crust is thin, and the pizza menu serves up all the classics, from anchovies to hot sopressata. 

As one could expect, this place is a tad on the expensive side. However, for a nice Italian dinner out, it is not unreasonable. The service is friendly, and the food is quite good. For any Italian missing home, it’s nice to have a place owned by fellow countrymen, where one can order a simple dish from home.