Sylvia Rector
Detroit Free Press
Published: Friday, March 25, 2005

The woman at the table behind us was loudly asking the waiter how to pronounce the restaurant's name.

"It's VEE-ah NOH-veh," he replied.

"VEE-ah NO-VYE? Like the name of the town?" she asked, seeming not to have heard him.

It's NOH-veh, the very patient waiter said again, adding that the word is Italian for nine. Via Nove is "road nine," and the restaurant is on Nine Mile Road in Ferndale. Get it?

Thank goodness that chef Joe Beato -- and that's pronounced bee-AH-toe -- didn't open on 14 Mile. The woman never would have mastered Via Quattordici.

Don't fret about pronounciations, though. Devote yourself instead to the pleasure of deciding which of the excellent housemade pastas you want to try first and which of the gorgeous desserts you're saving room for. Both are not-to-be-missed courses at this attractive, new Italian place on Ferndale's Restaurant Row.

You'll realize this isn't another family-style spaghetti house when you walk into the high-ceilinged main dining room painted almost entirely in black. Designer Ron Rea elegantly lit the space with soft, stragetically placed lights and the sexy flicker of candles from oversized votives, mounted in rows on one wall. Flashes of turquoise and white add electricity to the mood.

A shadowy bar, set like a mezzanine, overlooks the main floor. Climb a dozen steps to reach it and you'll also find an even larger dining room, this one done in white with a brighter, more casual style. A lime green Baby Grand piano and the bar's emerald-tinted glass fixtures add to its livelier feel. At one end of the room, balcony-like third and fourth levels offer still more seating, so while the restaurant -- formerly the Temple -- holds 180, every area has a different appeal and personality.

As much as I like the space, though, it's the food by Beato and his nephew, Joey Beato, that keeps bringing me back. The senior Beato, who won a gold medal in the 1988 Culinary Olympics in Germany, was chef-owner of Il Centro near Detroit's Fisher Theatre before selling it in 2000 and partially retiring. Joey, who was Joe's chef de cuisine, went off in the meantime to cook for almost a year at the Via Veneto Café in Rome, returning with loads of recipes and a deeper appreciation of how simpler food really is better.

"It's his menu. It's me behind the scenes, but he's running the whole thing," says Joe, who describes himself as Joey's consigliari -- the one he turns to for advice.

Meals here begin with delicious, warm foccacia, brushed with olive oil and dotted with halves of grape tomatoes made soft and sweeter by the heat of the oven. A saucer of extra-virgin olive oil surrounding a pool of fresh tomato sauce is provided for dipping and, with a glass of wine, the flavors are so satisfying the bread could almost be a meal.

The appetizers are quite appealing -- I liked the trio of bruschettas and the puff pastry with wild mushrooms -- but the pastas are so good, you really must not miss them. Consider, then, sharing a pasta as a starter instead of ordering an appetizer, so you can also have a seafood or meat entrée.

All the pastas except the linguine are made from scratch in house, Beato says. The kitchen spends hours a day making and forming the fresh dough, and its al dente texture after cooking is a reminder of how superior and different handmade pasta really is.

The house salad, which accompanies all the entrees including the pastas, is filled with terrific, distinctive flavors including fresh mint leaves, baby oak-leaf, mache, lots of peppery arugula and leaves of Belgian endive, dressed with a memorable reduced-balsamic dressing.

Via Nove's 13 meat and seafood entrees are made especially tempting by the thoughtfully chosen vegetables, starches, sauces and garnishes that accompany them. The lightly breaded sole is served with stewed Swiss chard, cannelloni beans and julienned vegetables, for example, the grilled salmon with fried risotto cakes and sautéed zucchini.

The only thing we tried that truly bombed was a special in which tuna, salmon, portobello mushrooms and various vegetables were stacked atop each other to create a dish with no dominant flavor or discernible identity.

Desserts by pastry chef Tom Hayden, an Oakland Community College culinary graduate, are unexpectedly creative and modern. The tall, pale orange cylinder of mandarin semifreddo is topped with a disc-shaped sculpture of pulled sugar and a tart-sweet scoop of grapefruit-white-balsamic sorbet. The ricotta crème brulee with lemon is different and delicious, and the warm, dark, liquid-center chocolate cake with pistachio ice cream and candied walnuts is a must for chocolate lovers.

This summer, look for the patio in front of the restaurant to sprout pots of tomato plants and fresh herbs, along with comfortable tables and chairs for outdoor dining. With the word spreading about the Beatos' new place, those extra seats will come in handy.

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