Sorrento Ristorante Italiano

Where: 430 Legion Way, Olympia, (360) 352-9915

Hours: 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday, and 4:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday

Cuisine: Classic Italian with a flair.

Scene: This small, Tuscan color restaurant has a warm feel with an open kitchen and an owner who visits patrons personally.

Drinkies: A quality list of Italian wines and two Italian beers.

Damage: Standard for a place serving handcrafted food.  Entrees between $9.95 and $20.95.

ANNOUNCER: Dinner theater isn't so much the craze anymore, but it still exists in Olympia at a new restaurant called Sorrento Ristorante Italiano.  OK, maybe it's not Shakespeare, or even "Cats" for that matter, but owner Franco Cannava is performing to rave reviews.  Besides delivering show-stopping food, Cannava also visits tableside for his own version of a dramatic reading - mainly the menu in one act.  This little round Italian gentleman is hilarious.  He's the genuine article.

JASON: Cannava is a laugh-riot.  On my first visit, he spent most of the time directing his staff like a frustrated father - telling them how to handle the menus, where to put the water, how to open a bottle of wine.  When not performing that role, he was tableside with a soliloquy regarding the freshness of his ingredients and exactly when the ravioli was made earlier that day.  On my second trip two weeks later, he was joshing around with the regulars in between reciting the fresh sheet to customers as if reciting Keets.

JAKE: I heard this bon vivant bark at the staff to crank up the Italian opera background soundtrack so he could think more clearly. When you add every seat occupied in this tiny corner restaurant and a line (more like a grouping) inside the door, I half expected a visit by Olympia police for noise ordinance violations.

Cannava welcomes customers to his restaurant as though he were welcoming them into his home. And in a sense, Sorrento is Cannava's home. He's put his heart and his passion into the place. And couldn't we all use a little more passion?

JASON: I am amazed at how quickly this place has caught on, but I suspect anyone who meets Cannava is eager to return for a chat.  He takes great pride in the place, and that shows up in both the food and the service.  I started with an Italian beer.  Sorrento offers two brands (total) on the menu - a light and dark Moretti and a light Peroni.  The Moretti dark was sensational - smooth and sweet.  These beauties went down quickly. 

JAKE: Like its seating capacity, the wine list at Sorrento is limited - just Italian, but an impressive array of delights, especially from the northwest region in Piedmont - Barbarescos, Barberas and Barolos - and a few Tuscany Chiantis.  They have wines by the glass too.

JASON: The bread is baked fresh each morning at Sorrento and is served as a mini loaf with an olive oil and herb dipping sauce.  The olive oil mix is excellent - sweet and nutty with a nice collection of Italian spices.  The bread tastes spongy and fresh and, quite frankly, can be a hunger buster if you aren't too careful.  I started with the Caesar salad, which, frankly (or Franco), was the only thing I found disappointing.  The lettuce was fresh, but the dressing lacked punch. And I had only two croutons .

JAKE: The spinach salad arrived with so much spinach that it would have freaked out Popeye.  The three plump, buttery scampi seemed lost.  If I don't receive at least five scampi next time I'm sending Brutus to visit Cannava.

JASON: Cannava would kick Brutus's butt - or sweet talk him into trying the Tiramasu.  On another note, I don't like lamb, but my wife adores it, and she said Cannava's lamb is some of the best she's ever had.  The full rack arrived with a nice color and texture - so she said.  In fact, on my second visit, despite the standing order that we try different things each time, she rebelled and ordered lamb again.  I suppose that's the best compliment one could give.  The lamb is on the special list so call ahead to ask Cannava if he has it that night.

JAKE: If you love ravioli, pray that Cannava recites his Dungeness crab ravioli as part of the day's specials.  I was lucky.  Eight pasta pillows - with a born on date of a half hour - stuffed with cheese, each wearing a Dungeness hat, dressed with extra-virgin olive oil, basil, garlic and diced heirloom tomatoes, topped with fresh mozzarella. I cursed when they disappeared.  I pondered entering the ridiculous, ordering other fresh pasta dishes like Penne Campagnola or the Linguine Pescatore, but my dinner pal, Olympia attorney/comedian/musician Rob Hill, would have used me as material.

JASON: The veal was sensational.  Cannava serves five varieties, but I settled on the veal with onion, olives and sun dried tomatoes in a wine gravy.  Magnifico!

JAKE: His cioppino special contained enough mussels to cover a pier, plus clams, shrimp, halibut, and scallops in a tomato-based broth.  Comic Hill described the dish as "provocative and tasty, yet served in a portion perhaps a tad too close to appetizer land. Which was okey-dokey for me, since it left room to soak up the stock with the homemade bread that uses the actual amber waves of grain referenced in the song ‘America the Beautiful' and topped with grated provolone cheese so fresh it moos in your mouth."  Nice.

JASON: Cannava made us try the Tiramasu, claiming it was the best south of Seattle.  I concur.  The dessert melted in my mouth.