Donatellis

Food Network’s Guy Fieri has been all over the Twin Cities in 2008: Bryant Lake Bowl, the Weinery, Town Talk Diner, Victor’s 1959 Café, Emily’s Lebanese Deli, The Modern, and Donatelli’s in White Bear Lake. I had heard of Donatelli’s but not in a way that brought any sort of formed image to mind, so Fieri introduced me to a restaurant in my own backyard (or at least on the White Bear-Mahtomedi border).

The picture Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives painted was of a boisterous, family-owned, thirty-year-old Italian-American trattoria that makes everything from scratch (including pasta), never skimps on the meat or cheese, and sends legions of regulars home happy. Considering the dearth of good southern Italian or even Italo-American fare in these towns, a trip to Donatelli’s could not wait.

The place sits squarely in a remodeled strip mall across from another mall across from . . . just think a sea of tan stucco. Inside it’s 1979: There’s a big takeout counter, a cramped dining room with small booths (each containing an ancient, tiny TV), and at ceiling height a bounty of seasonal décor that must be a bear to set up but is quite impressive, even if Halloween was a week past.

The risk with any national media tout, especially televised ones, are that the rough edges are sanded off and only the positive is accentuated. I’ve been lead astray by the best of them, even Jane and Michael Stern, who sent me to some God-awful small-town diner in Wisconsin, which had me cursing their names the whole ride back. After two viewings, I would say Fieri gilded the lily a bit on the Donatelli’s front but only in that he didn’t talk about the downsides.

Donatelli’s pasta is fresh but overcooked in many cases. Its sauces are scratch-made, but some are over-sweetened. But by and large, Donatelli’s is a hoot and, like Cossetta’s and Fat Lorenzo’s, one of the rare joints serving big portions of pretty good, comforting Italian-American food.

What would I go back for? The pizza—a thin crust piled high with cheeses and meats—evocative of Red’s Savoy. Any of the baked pastas with the killer meat sauce. The soft, pillowy garlic bread (ask for a little extra garlic butter).

Nitpicks: I wish the texture-perfect Italian sausage and meatballs were more robustly seasoned, that the tomatoes in the bruschetta had been ripe, and that the butternut squash “tortellachi” were less doughy. I scowled when my mother-in-law suggested she might order the beef stroganoff, but from the American side of the menu, a burger on a neighboring table looked great.

Service is super-friendly, and the staff know the food. Oh, and they’ve got spumoni. Remember spumoni?

Would I drive across town for a Donatelli’s meal? Tough call. The place is a true original, lots of fun, and there’s some great comfort food to be sure. Yeah, I guess I would. Not everyone will want to go again, but a lot of you will. —Adam Platt

2692 E. County Road E, White Bear Lake, 651-777-9199