Main Street spot focuses menu on fresh pastas
Plates of perfectly-twirled linguine and tricolor ravioli sit in the front display case as the inviting aroma of fresh Alfredo and marinara swirl through the Italian villa — right in the middle of Columbia’s Main Street.
Cooks, outfitted in black chef coats, boil, broil and sauté, all in plain sight of the dining room’s rich paintings and cozy four-top settings. A line of students, families and professionals gather at the front of the restaurant — Brioso Fresh Pasta — weighing their choices of every fresh, homemade pasta, from rigatoni with red sauce to lobster-filled ravioli.
Brioso — which already has locations in Clemson, Asheville and Ohio — opened on Main Street, right next to Yoghut, Dec. 26. Its expansive list of Italian favorites, mixed and matched with a menu of organic and flavorful in-house creations, offers a “fresh casual” experience to the just-off-campus dining scene.
And it’s that “fresh casual” that defines the Brioso experience. It’s part Panera, part Carrabba’s. The restaurant’s menu of pastas, flat bread pizzas and paninis is posted above the front cash register, and diners place their orders as they walk through the door. Waiters and waitresses then take care of the sit-down dining experience, filling drink orders and delivering food to the nicely-set tables — they even upgrade from the table-top number system, sending pepper grinders as order markers.
It’s a good idea — the balance between the casual, order-your-own setting and a night out, sit-down dinner. But when it gets busy, the storefront order line can get backed up and deciding on a tip before meeting your server can pose a bit of a problem.
But any flaw in the dynamics is more than compensated in the homemade dishes, which stress freshness with an assortment of locally-grown and organic ingredients.
Gemelli, fusilli, gnocchi and tagliatelle: it’s like Columbia’s very own, health-conscious Little Italy. The pasta menu is divided into pasta corta (short pasta) and pasta lunga (long pasta), with a separate showing of mouth-watering ravioli. And that’s not just an expression — Italian sausage, butternut squash, smoked gouda and lobster all make the list of equally-delicious fillings, just $5 ($6 for the lobster) before your choice of sauce.
Brioso’s 14 sauces, which range from a simple bolognese to truly delicious aragosta — cream sauce with lobster, shallots and sherry — compliment each of the pastas. And the restaurant offers select noodles in egg, whole wheat and spinach.
The choices are seemingly endless, with each pairing sounding even better than the last. But, just to narrow down the selection, the spinach gemelli with aragosta sauce, $11, and gnocchi with wild mushroom funghi, $10, are each wonderful picks.
And pasta’s in the name, but it’s not all Brioso has to offer. The flatbread pizzas — which include the pizza pollo, with chicken breast, red onions, barbeque sauces and shredded Gouda — range from $9 to $11 with gluten-free options available.
The prosciutto and mozzarella panini, piled high with bocconcini mozzarella and tomatoes, also sticks out as a menu favorite for just $7.
An appetizer menu packed with bruschetta, fig preserves, hummus and calamari screams “sofisticato,” and beautifully prepared caprese and salmon and arugula salad only builds upon Brioso’s high-class menu. But it all stays under $10.
It’s a fine Italian dining experience on a dime — complete with mid-meal chats from the chef himself and a dessert menu with everything from fruit and cheese-stuffed crepes, $5, to caramel-covered gelato custard, $4.
Everything’s affordable, fit for the college or office lunch budget, but the setting and staff ensure the complete out-to-eat afternoon or evening — while living up to its Italian namesake, which translates to “lively.”
Brioso is at 601 Main St. and is open Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., Friday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.