Copyright Providence Journal/Evening Bulletin May 11, 2005

PROVIDENCE - Why would Joe DeQuattro, owner of the successful Pane E Vino restaurant on Federal Hill, open a second eatery just blocks away on Atwells Avenue?

"Someone was going to take over the space, and it was going to be a restaurant," he said. "So I thought I might as well be the one to compete with myself."

Of course there's no lack of competition on Federal Hill, with restaurants on both sides of Atwells Avenue and more tucked away on Spruce Street and in DePasquale Plaza.

Now, with Zooma Bar Ristorante in what was the Eclectic Grille, DeQuattro has a presence on both ends of the Hill. Pane E Vino is toward the upper end, past Tony's Colonial Market and near Gasbarro's Wines. The new Zooma is next to Scialo Bros. Bakery and nearly across from restaurants Renaissance and Siena, down on the lower Hill.

DeQuattro said the "premier location" with lots of foot traffic attracted him and partner and cousin, Dr. James Cardi, a Cranston internist. While Pane E Vino takes many reservations, Zooma is more likely to have walk-in diners.

Zooma is an airy, modern restaurant bathed in shades of eggplant and mango. With a wood oven and Neapolitan dishes, the aromas waft from the back dining room with the open stainless-steel kitchen to the front-room bar. Despite the slick plasma TVs in the bar area, it has the soul of a trattoria.

While Pane E Vino serves a similar Southern Italian cuisine, dishes there are served "American style," said DeQuattro, with meat accompanied by starch and vegetable.

Zooma, on the other hand, is designed in the style of a traditional Italian trattoria, and everything is served a la carte. Diners order small portions in several courses, perhaps starting with a pizza crafted by the pizzaiolo, the pizza maker, and then opting for an appetizer or salad, a first or second course.

That's how I dined when I stopped in for a recent lunch. After a margherita pizza, a companion and I each had ordered another course. She had a mix of sausages with potatoes and onions while I had the four-cheese gnocchi.

Both were cooked in clay dishes in the same wood oven as the pizza. The portion size -- four ounces of pasta, for example -- was just right.

Zooma is open for lunch and dinner and serves late at the bar. Pane E Vino, which DeQuattro opened nearly three years ago, serves dinner only. It has an all-Italian wine list. Zooma's list is mostly Italian, 60 percent, with the rest coming from California, Australia and other European countries.

Executive chef for both restaurants is Johnson & Wales graduate Giacomo Iannelli. Matt Jaffe is the sous chef at Zooma. Rich Maggiacomo is the pizzaiolo, making the pizzas in the wood oven, which is heated every day by between 30 to 40 logs. The fire is started at 9 a.m., heating the floor of the oven all day long.

When DeQuattro and Cardi were planning the restaurant, they put out a call for a pizzaiolo. No one answered.

Cardi's girlfriend, Courtney Griggs, had worked in a trattoria in Italy named Tramonto in Sperlonga, a town near Itri and Gaeta. She called the owner and asked if he knew anyone who could be Zooma's pizza maker. He said he had a relative who had trained at Tramonto and was working in the States.

"He said he didn't know if he was anywhere near us but we should call him," said Cardi. "He was in Cranston."

That would be Maggiacomo, who was working in a Papa Gino's shop. He thought he had died and gone to heaven when he walked into Zooma, heard the mission and saw the wood-fired oven. Right away he began ordering his fine grade of flour from Naples, as well as his buffalo mozzarella. He also found a favored brand of San Marzano tomatoes to import.

"He had all the recipes to make a real Neapolitan pizza," said Cardi.

Beyond the pizzas, the cooking is kept simple, DeQuattro said, with garlic, basil, salt and olive oil as the main ingredients.

Some of the recipes come from the owners' mothers. Then's there's Iannelli's contributions. He went off to Italy to study in Sperlonga at Tramonto for a month after he was hired as executive chef. There he found the chefs' passion for the food impressive, as was the manner in which everything was made to order.

Zooma's menu includes some classic dishes, such as rigatoni served in a Neapolitan ragu, a pork-based meat sauce and a whole roasted sea bass prepared with potato, tomato and rosemary.

There are also some twists. Veal parmigiana is made with the seventh rib chop for a different presentation.

Dessert chef Jackie Robinson's offerings include tiramisu, an Italian cookie plate, and a golden-raisin bread pudding.

A food bar with five seats stands before the open kitchen. Nearby is a high chef's table, also with five seats. In contrast to the rest of the restaurant's sleekness, one wall of the dining room is dedicated to a replica of a fresco from Palazzo Te in Mantova, Italy.

There are plans to open a rooftop garden - and, with warm weather, sidewalk tables -- as the full glass doors from the lounge are opened.

As for that name, Zooma comes from a Louis Prima song, "Angelina/ Zooma Zooma." DeQuattro and Cardi liked it for the fact that while sung by a classic Italian singer, it has a modern flair. That makes the name just like the trattoria.

Details: Zooma Bar and Ristorante, 245 Atwells Ave., Providence, (401) 383-2002.

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