Since the 1940s, Vancouver's Commercial Drive has been considered the city's "Little Italy," and hub for Italian businesses and families. That rich cultural heritage is why to this day, you can still find pizza and pasta spots packed onto each block. Heck, you can eat at one Italian restaurant and from your seat see another across the street.
Sopra Sotto is a new-ish eatery that sprang from longtime neighbourhood business owners and friends and their desire to offer Italian fare with inspired traditional roots with contemporary panache.
Porchetta pizza (Lindsay William-Ross/Vancouver Is Awesome)
The kitchen is run by Executive Chef Enrico Fratoni, who came to Vancouver from his native Turin, Italy, with his skills in and appreciation of cooking like how his nonna did. Using just a few ingredients, and working painstakingly from scratch, Fratoni is behind a menu of fresh bread, antipasti, pizza, and pasta.
Shopping from local purveyors for seasonal produce--and often sourcing items from shops just down the street--Fratoni has created some noteworthy dishes. At Sopra Sotto they make focaccia in-house, along with a gluten-free version, both of which can be ordered as an herb-and-garlic dusted side or as the bread for their lunchtime sandwiches.
One of their sandwich specialties is the low-and-slow roasted porchetta, but the meat also makes an appearance, along with rapini, on their pizza menu, for a slice of something different. Here, the pizza dough follows the two-day method for the ultimate in lightness and chewiness, and is crisped up and deftly blistered in their wood-fired pizza oven, which you can see from the dining area.
Chitarrine Al Ragù (Lindsay William-Ross/Vancouver Is Awesome)
Pasta is also made on-site, and you'll see shapes and styles here you may not see many other places, like the squared spaghetti strands called chitarrine, served with a purist's meat ragu that may have red sauce joint fans wondering where the tomatoes are. The answer, by the way, is that this kind of meat ragu is simmered with wine and stock, hold the tomatoes, and that is simply that.
It's also simply delicious, especially with few nice twists from the fresh pepper grinder.
Also on the menu are a couple of other house-made pastas, fresh salads, charcuterie, and a dozen pizza options. Look for daily specials made with ingredients they'll just get in, like a puttanesca spaghetti dish crowned with just-delivered local mussels.
Inside Sopra Sotto (Lindsay William-Ross/Vancouver Is Awesome)
Sopra Sotto can also sub-in gluten-free pizza crust, made in-house, or gluten-free pasta (which they don't make themselves) though it comes with the caveat that, of course, as a pizza and pasta spot, it's a pretty gluten-y environment.
The room is also more bright and cheery than the stereotype--swap out the image of wax-striped chianti bottles and red checkered table cloths for floor to ceiling windows, colourful bird patterned wall paper, and sleek modern accents.
We can thank one of the co-owners, interior designer Janine Spartano, for the fresh and stylish vibe. Still, it's cozy, whether you're grabbing a beer and sandwich for lunch, pausing for a spritz and a nibble at happy hour, or settling in for a dinner date with friends or family.
Negroni (Lindsay William-Ross/Vancouver Is Awesome)
Punctuate your meal with a tipple from the bar; they've got wine, beer, house cocktails, and mocktails, including nice spins on the classics, like their Negroni, which comes with a hint of coffee liqueur--just a hint--on the finish.
Sopra Sotto, which translates essentially as "up and down," has been open on The Drive since late March, and are already prepping a second location, in Burnaby Heights, for a fall open.
Porchetta pizza at Sopra Sotta. Photo by Lindsay William-Ross/Vancouver Is Awesome
Inside Sopra Sotto (Lindsay William-Ross/Vancouver Is Awesome)
Spaghetti with mussels (Lindsay William-Ross/Vancouver Is Awesome)
Gluten-free focaccia (Lindsay William-Ross/Vancouver Is Awesome)
Sopra Sotto is located at 1510 Commercial Drive in Vancouver
