💙 | $$ | The saddest thing that’s happened to the Northampton restaurant scene in the last two years has been closure of Sylvester’s, a restaurant that I recommended in my first Gazette column ever. The good news, though, is that the owners of Sylvester’s also run Roberto’s, just a bit further down King Street, so not all of the greatness is lost. It’s just re-focused. So if you were a Sylvester’s lover, like I was, then you can still support the family.
Roberto’s is a baby by Joe’s standards but a local stalwart by any other, founded in the 1960s. The place is simple and folksy inside, with a balanced bustle of activity that puts you in the mood. They’re good at accommodating big groups. Roberto’s is also a sleeper hit for outdoor dining: you can sit out on a gracious patio next to the big old house and watch some hipsters across the street sell outrageous vintage clothes. They might even sing or rap.
The antipasto is a necessary way to start. It’s a generous spread, a massively tricked-out Italian-dressed salad with marinated mushrooms, ham, cheese, nicely acidic banana peppers, and pepperoni fried to a delightfully chip-like crispness.
A well-coated Caesar salad is straightforward, and just what it should be.
Cheesy garlic bread and thin-crust pizza are two more eternal favorites here. They’re both in the greasy, pile-it-on school of culinary art in American pizza and garlic bread, which was really flowering in the Northeastern U.S. around the time of Roberto’s birth in the 1960s.
But the best thing on the menu is what my grandmother, Nonnie, would order every time: eggplant parmigiana, crispy outside and melty inside and absolutely addictive. Most mains, including the eggplant, come with a choice of pasta, of which cavatappi (squiggly, mac-and-cheese-like noodles) are the best by far.
Ravioli are another strength of the kitchen: butternut squash ravioli comes lusciously sauced and generously layered with grated cheese, while buffalo chicken ravioli is stuffed with minced chicken and served with blue cheese. These are hardly 1960s dishes, but they too may live long lives.
