By hand’ credo lifts Michael Gibney’s entire Elmwood Village menu
At Inizio, Michael Gibney’s Elmwood Village restaurant specializing in fresh pasta, what gets people in the door the first time is, naturally, noodles.
A marvelous menagerie of pasta, tubes and cockscombs, priest-stranglers and guitar spaghetti, emerge from the kitchen dressed for the moment.
Spring brings basil pesto so aromatic you can enjoy it passing your table, to land before a neighbor. Cacio e pepe, pecorino and black pepper sauce, clings to mafalde, named “little queens” for its resemblance to ruffled robes of royalty.
Paccheri are smooth garden-hose-gauge pasta tubes that Gibney serves with borlotti bean stew ($26). Paccheri means “slaps,” which is what this dish does. Creste di gallo pasta, resembling a cockscomb, is resplendent in pink vodka sauce and fresh basil.
But it’s the rest of the menu, resplendent with grace notes, that makes people come back, and bring their friends. “Tutto fatto a mano,” everything by hand, is Inizio’s motto, a declaration of intent that Gibney and his crew carry out dish by dish. That’s how you get a “small plates” section, before the main event, that hits hard enough to carry a restaurant by itself.
Broccolini ($18) at Inizio has revelatory qualities. If you’ve never had the bitter crucifer simply sauteed with garlic, then accented with toasted almonds and Parmigiano-Reggiano, you’re in for a pleasant – and nutritious – surprise.
At Inizio, Caesar salad ($16) won’t leave you wondering why you bothered. Pristine romaine leaves, treated with respect and just enough resonantly briny dressing under a drift of toasty breadcrumbs
Hanger steak ($20/$39), served with smoky potatoes and saffron aioli, is offered in tasting and entree portions. So is the mushroom risotto ($18/$35), made with aged acquerello rice and roasted mushrooms. That way everyone at the table can have a bite, and still have room for the pasta course, of course.
Inizio has two classes. Pasta al bronzo includes extruded pastas, made by squishing dough through a bronze die. Pasta al mano are the dishes where a cook’s hands shaped every bite, or it wouldn’t come out the same.
The most fiddly are butternut agnolotti ($37), little ravioli filled with butternut squash, picked up with a brown butter sauce and brown butter and a sprinkle of crushed amaretto cookies. Gnocchi ($36), potato dumplings, are served in truffled porcini mushroom gravy.
The Inizio wine list has plenty of tried-and-true bottles, and a global selection of deep cuts. There’s also a section for “exciting” bottles, natural wines made with a minimum of human intervention, and small-batch curiosities that might teach you something new about a grape you thought you knew.
Catawba and Concord grapes may have certain associations with screwtop jug plonk. Filtered through the sensibilities of chëpìka in the Finger Lakes, dedicated to working with indigenous strains. The feral fruit aromas might leave you wondering what else you’ve been missing.
Desserts come in both homey and snazzy.
How about cookies baked just for you, served warm? Choose two from chocolate chip, sugar, or peanut butter ($8).
“Tiramisu” panna cotta ($12), coffee pudding with whipped mascarpone and ladyfingers, will keep the Italian theme going straight through to the end.
So far, Inizio survived a pandemic, then a 2022 fire that knocked it out of commission for six months. This summer, Gibney’s first restaurant made it past the five-year mark, a rare accomplishment that’s impossible in Buffalo without a dedicated following.
Skillful seasonally nuanced cooking is only part of the story. Another ingredient is how dinner at Inizio makes regulars feel. From start to finish, they know they’re in skilled hands.
534 Elmwood Ave., inizio716.com, 716-424-1008
Hours: 5 p.m-9 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Closed Sunday, Monday.
Prices: spuntini (snacks) $5-$10, piccoli piati (small plates) $16-$20, pasta $25-$42
Parking: street
Wheelchair accessible: yes
Gluten-free: dishes, yes, pasta, no
Vegan: all pasta egg-free
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