First Bite: Osteria Origano

Two Sicilian friends have created a twinkly but humble Italian osteria on the ground floor of Hillcrest’s Atlas condos: Osteria Origano.

As first bites go, what impressed me most about chefs/co-owners Francesco Basile (of Antica Trattoria) and Vincenzo LoVerso (of Osteria Panevino, Osetra Watergrill and Greystone) nouvelle Italian eatery was their portion size ... It wasn’t their backless cube chairs, although I can handle sitting without lumbar support now that I workout my core.

We got two hulking chicken breasts in a single Pollo Saltinbocca dish ($16.95), identical twin birds wearing appealing sheets of prosciutto and mozzarella. We finished its sautéed spinach bed. And took one breast to-go.

Because my companion and I both skipped lunch and skittered woozy with hunger into Origano’s warm, well-lit environment around 6 p.m., I think we over-ordered. Looking into an open kitchen with a brick-fired pizza oven probably encourages a lust for add-ons.

We fell on the complimentary bread, which I can remember nothing of. Soon we were pummeled with a Quaglie Piemontese (boneless and sweet-salty quail riblets over polenta cake in a Nebbiolo wine honey sauce, $13.95); a Caesar salad (my companion has a fish allergy: and yet his throat didn’t close over the small amounts of anchovy); some Fettucine al ragu di salsiccia (clumps of Italian sausage from Pete’s Quality Meat in Little Italy with shitake mushroom in a web of pasta, $13.95, that we also took to-go); the chicken breasts and – uncle! uncle! – cheesecake. Balancing upon all that was a $7 glass of Zinfandel, each.

Our waiter packed the leftovers in one box – companion and I don’t live together, though. And I won the right to eat chicken and fettucine for next day’s lunch. He wasn’t writing a “First Bite: Osteria Origano” snap shot, I may have said, and then lumbered woozy with food straight home to bed.