Parents, please don't send your kids down here to throw rocks on the bocce ball court. Sigh.
Lauren Drewes Daniels
The courts were still under construction when we visited in mid-August, but when the heat is down to DEFCON 3, we'll be back to try them out.
Trinity Groves was initially designed to be a restaurant incubator facility. Over the past 10 years, many restaurants have rotated in and out. The very popular Cake Bar moved out last March, but La Rue Doughnuts will open soon. Lexy's, a bougie Instagram-ready restaurant, closed earlier this summer. Mainstays include Saint Rocco's, Tex-Mex spot Beto and Son, and a Chinese food spot. The large ArtPark in front of the restaurants is a big courtyard that could be fun to hang out in.
Inside Oreste's on a Wednesday afternoon recently, the restaurant was empty, save for one other diner. So, we had the full attention of the server, which was nice. The space is bright, a white canvas with black and blood-red accents. Tablecloths are red-and-white-checkered and there are some big booths in addition to tables. Old photos of Italians playing bocce dot the walls. A TV over the full bar had sports on, and there are a handful of seats at the bar.
We started with a couple of appetizers. Fried ravioli ($10) had thick Italian herb breading and a nice slab of cheese inside. There were five large orbs to an order served over a marinara sauce. We took a couple of these home, and that night they were intensely better. These felt like a great value for the price.
We also ordered the three focaccia cheese bread, which was a gooey delight and also well worth the $10.
Salads are served in "buckets," which turns out to be pretty functional. You can pour the dressing on the salad, replace the lid and shake it up for an even distribution. The Caesar salad comes with, per the menu, a "white balsamic dressing," which feels like a grumpy old chef being like "I'm going to call it what it is!" and we're here for that. This was $7, and again, we're pretty happy with the prices here so far.
We skipped the pazzini section because we're purists: pizza bread, pizza pockets, pizza paninis and such are all nonsense.
We got the regular-size (there's only one other size, we'll get to that) pepperoni pizza with roasted peppers and sweet onions, and the char and cup-style pepperoni. The crust here is interesting: the outer rim is puffy but the flat part is thin and crisp. There's both crunch and bounce. This $16 pizza is easily a meal for two. The sauce has a sweet and smoky essence, a bit like a barbecue sauce.
There are 10 styles of pizza from a five-cheese (mozzarella, fontina, parmesan, ricotta and provolone) to sausage and peppers, chicken bacon and aflredo and a seven-vegetable medley.
Oreste's does have a fun challenge for you food-challenge fans called the Big Ass Pizza challenge: if three people can finish a 28-inch pizza and a pitcher of beer within 20 minutes, they get free slices of pizza for a month and a free T-shirt.
The place also offers pizza by the slice from those big 28-inch pies, which are $9 each and based on availability.
There are five flavors of cannolis for dessert, all of which are made in-house. We didn't get one, but sort of wish we had because everything else was really on point.
Oreste's has a full bar, which is nice for days spent at the bocce ball court. They're also serving breakfast in the mornings, perhaps for all the apartments across the street.
Oreste's, 3011 Gulden Lane. Sunday — Thursday, 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.; Friday – Saturday, 11 a.m. – 11 p.m.
