10 Kings Road
Ph. 739-7999
People are always telling me about restaurants to review. A friend recently told me about a pizza restaurant I should check out. He raved about it saying they served great pizza and a mean mango crème brulee. It was the mango crème brulee that did it for me. Let’s face it, how could any restaurant reviewer worth his or her salt take a pass on a pizza joint that served its own crème brulee – mango with chocolate no less. You will find pizzerias in the Italian countryside with eclectic menus like Giovanni Cabot’s - although panna cotta might replace the crème brulee - but for St. John’s this was a rare find.
The first time I met owners Jason Burgess and Meghan O’Dea they looked bushed. It was after two pm. My companion and I had stopped in for a late lunch. They’d been busy - apparently I wasn’t the only one who’d been tipped off about the place. They were both in aprons and wearing tees and funky tight-to-the-head cook caps. Jason is the primary pizza and pasta maker. He hails from Ottawa and used to work for an Italian family of restaurateurs. That’s where he got Giovanni Cabot’s pizza dough recipe that they claimed was 150-years-old. Meghan - the former baker of a rival restaurant and creator of its famous gingerbread recipe - also handles desserts, like her Giovanni Cabot’s gingerbread, cheesecake, peach cobbler, mango with chocolate crème brulee and many others.
Inside, the restaurant’s look was similar to what it had been - as I recall it was a decent fish and chips/seafood eatery before this recent incarnation. A small amount of floor space had been sacrificed to accommodate Meghan’s baking room - apparently she kicks up billows of flour dust in the run of a day that needed to be contained. The walls, containing a very eclectic mix of posters, prints and photos have been given a lick of red, gold and blue paint that really helped me notice - for the first time - the fireplace in the corner. You’ll also find a fairly well executed mural behind the cash featuring a rendition of a world map from Giovanni Caboto’s time. However the restaurant still had the same tired floor tile, the same faded red and white-checkered tablecloths and many of the same ornaments. The place had the look of a restaurant that was decorated by jumble sale. Still, for me, the inexpensive motif just added to the ambience and charm of Giovanni Cabot’s. Besides, when the food is good, when it transports you, everything else about a restaurant seems to magically fall into the right place. I think there may have been a tiny bit of transporting happening for me at Giovanni Cabot’s.
Jenny Gear of Jenny Gear and the Whiskey Kittens - our server - recommended the artichoke dip starter. A plate quickly arrived containing several small triangles of golden crispy foccacia.
I’m tempted to call them foccacia chips because of their crunchy texture. They were perfect for spooning up glob after glob of delicious dip. It was cool, slightly tart - from the addition of lemon juice I think - with tender pieces of artichoke heart concealed in a creamy mixture of two or three different cheeses.
My companion and I needed no help in deciding on pizza. However, we did give some thought to exactly what kind to go with. Giovanni Cabot’s offers traditional pizzas - we’re all familiar with the various combinations and permutations of pepperoni, peppers, mushrooms and etcetera - as well as two categories of thin crust “gourmet” pizzas. Pesto or olive oil and garlic-based pizzas comprise one category. I chose a pizza called “The Cabot” - it contained pesto, small bits of chicken breast, Parmesan, feta, sweet peppers and banana peppers. The crust from the 150-year-old dough recipe was thin and tender-firm, a perfect edible platter. The toppings added lots of “temporary” flavour, temporary in my case because I found the flavour was quickly beaten into submission by the hot banana peppers.
My companion toyed with the idea of ordering from the opposite tomato-based category. In the end he was lured by the description of “The Mediterranean” from the pesto/olive oil/garlic list.
I enjoyed the Mediterranean pizza even more than the Cabot because of the absence of banana peppers. The crust was the same but this time the toppings consisted of artichoke hearts, oil and garlic, black olives, red onion, sweet peppers, zucchini, mozzarella and Parmesan. Some of the toppings looked a bit dry even though the taste was fine. It might be worthwhile for Giovanni Cabot’s to lightly drizzle olive oil over their pizzas when they come out of the oven. That way they’ll glisten and look even more scrumptious when they arrive at the table.
On a subsequent visit I tried Giovanni Cabot’s tasty roasted vegetable samosas filled with flavourful roasted sweet peppers, mushrooms, soy Parmesan, celery, carrot and curried spices. The baked calzones were equally tasty with contents of basil, tomato sauce, a mix of cheeses and spices. The calzone came with a Caesar salad that was creamy but could have used much more garlic. I also tried Jason Burgess’s signature dish called “Tortellini Hayden” named after an Italian artist I’d never heard of - Hayden sounds English to me. Nevertheless, the tortellini was delicious. The tortellini pasta was filled with veal and was tossed in a delicate, velvety tomato sauce seasoned with bacon, red onion, sweet peppers and basil. Jason Burgess’s tortellini was tender and rich and his sauce was conservatively spiced which allowed wonderful Mediterranean flavours to come to the fore.
Meghan Odea’s new baking room must be a magical place because within it she was able to conjure-up many temptations to bring a sweet ending to our meal. Her chocolate cheesecake had a crisp and crumby crust underneath a firm wedge of milky chocolate sinfulness. However it paled in comparison to her mango with chocolate crème brulee. The brulee part - the top - was melted, slightly scorched, amber coloured Maui brand premium turbinado cane sugar that had hardened to a thin sheet of glass. Giovanni Cabot’s imports the sugar from Hawaii. It had a lustre to it that you don’t find with most brown sugars as well as a flavour that fell somewhere between brown and white sugar. I easily cracked the golden barrier of hardened sugar and scooped up spoonful after glorious spoonful of creamy, yellow pudding - laced with bits of fresh mango - that sat atop a bed of melted dark chocolate. The combination of all these elements made this dessert quite spectacular and I’d happily go back to Giovanni Cabot’s just for Meghan Odea’s mango with chocolate crème brulee.
Giovanni Cabot’s already ranks among the better small eateries around St. John’s. Very enthusiastic folk who obviously enjoy what they’re doing operate it. For example, Meghan O’dea said this to me during my last visit, “We put all our love into the food.” With that kind of passion I’m sure they’ll do well.
Best Points
Giovanni Cabot’s makes outstanding pizzas and desserts.
Areas for
Improvement
New tablecloths
and bright flooring would help a lot.
Ratings Category
Giovanni Cabot’s
gets 8 points out of 10.