“You already had lunch? You’re not hungry?” asked Michael DeCola incredulously of the idiot reporter who showed up at an Italian restaurant on a full stomach. “Let me get you something. A meatball. I’ll get you a meatball.” He brings out a large garlicky meatball in a paper cup. In mid-September, DeCola opened Piatti di Pasta in Stone Plaza (Stone School and Ellsworth roads), selling simple, home-cooked Italian meals. At first, DeCola seems too young and trim for the “mangia, mangia!” Italian granny routine, but it’s genuine. And it turns out he’s not that young–he’s a boyish forty.
DeCola grew up in the tile business, but says there’s not much demand for the Old World “wet bed” ways his father taught him: “Everything is cement board now.” He installed the tile floor at his new eatery, but after that, his tiling days may be over.
All of DeCola’s recipes are from his father’s village near Naples, and he’s kept the menu simple: three versions of a large Italian sandwich, a short list of mix-and-match pastas and sauces, and three kinds of lasagna. DeCola is “connected”–not in a Sopranos way, but with local food producers, connections made when his brother Ricco worked at Kerrytown’s Sparrow Market. All his meat is from Sparrow, his coffee is Roos Roast, and his cured meats are from Detroit’s Eastern Market.
For a first-time restaurant owner, DeCola is a gracious natural at customer service. A customer who announced he “used to be married to a dago” complained that his Italian sandwich tasted “like it had anise in it.” DeCola explained that it was fennel seeds but patiently heard him out and offered him a loaf of bread as compensation. (The customer had already eaten the sandwich.)
Like any strip-mall restaurant, DeCola’s is equipped for take-out, but he wants people to eat in too. In early October, he wasn’t completely finished tweaking the details of his little five-table dining room. Artist Audrey Garrett was painting a wall mural of Roman statues. The espresso machine was still being hooked up: “They’ve been here two days–who knew it was so complicated?” As soon as the coffee is in place, he’ll roll out an Italian breakfast menu–“not bacon and eggs, but meats, cheeses, and pepper and egg sandwiches.”
Piatto di Pasta, 4079 Stone School Rd. 369-6540. Mon.-Sat. 7 a.m.-9 p.m. Closed Sun.
This article has been edited since it appeared in the November, 2011 Ann Arbor Observer. The spelling of Piatto di Pasta and the street address have been corrected.
