The Italian Country Table at

The Fire Down Below

Every night is 'Big Night' in Frank Pendola's kitchen

By Kristen Andresen OF THE NEWS STAFF

Source: Bangor Daily News Wednesday, 05/18/2005

In the classic foodie flick "Big Night," immigrant brothers Primo and Secondo run The Paradise, a struggling restaurant that serves elaborate, authentic Italian food. The future of their business hinges on one night - crooner Louis Prima is expected to visit, and the buzz has lured in dozens of diners. The crowds show up expecting a brush with fame, not the best meal they've ever eaten.

Though Tony Shalhoub and Stanley Tucci headline the film, the real star is the food - seafood-laden risotto, the elaborate timpano and a sauce so flavorful it leaves Primo's love interest nearly speechless. All she can do is exclaim "Oh my God!" over and over again.

"Oh my God is right," Primo says. "See, now you know, to eat good food is to be close to God."

On a recent Sunday night, a similar scene played out at Nostrano, a dining destination tucked away in the basement of Frank Pendola's Bar Harbor home. Don't let the "basement" part fool you; the commercial-grade kitchen and family-style dining room look like a Food Network set. It's the perfect stage for Pendola, and he plays the role of Primo so well you'd swear every night is "Big Night" for him - minus Louis Prima, of course.

Nostrano translates as "local," but it comes from "nostro," meaning "ours." For Pendola, the use of fresh, locally grown and raised ingredients is paramount. He tweaks regional Italian dishes to showcase the bounties of the sea and his garden.

"For us, when we say 'nostrano,' we mean all ingredients came from our little piece of Maine," Pendola, 48, said.

Laura Lindenfeld Sher of Bangor and her husband, Roger Sher, invited nearly 20 friends to Nostrano for the evening, and they hovered near the counter, nibbling house-smoked salmon and imported olives. Conversation flowed as freely as the wine, and Pendola's wife, Janice, 36, moved through the crowd, passing out Arancini, crispy fried risotto balls with a sliver of fresh mozzarella in the middle.

In between bites of bruschetta, Laura, a New York native, described the allure of Nostrano.

"Oh my God!" she said. "It's like being in Manhattan or something. I can't think of anything else like this in the state of Maine. I can't think of any other place I would take a group of 15 friends for dinner to have a food experience."

And that's what Nostrano offers: an experience. It's not a restaurant. It's more like Sunday supper at an Italian grandmother's house. Guests sit at a long farmhouse table or at the counter, and they interact with Pendola as he serves up course after course of fresh, homemade food. He's part actor, part chef, part teacher as he shares bits of culinary lore.

"When someone takes a bite of food, when someone sits down with a plate, when you eat, what does that make you think about?" Pendola asked, a smile crinkling the corners of his eyes. "When you think about all the memories, all the good times, they revolve around food."

As he poured a rich beef broth over a bowl of tortellini, he shared the tale of how the pasta came to be. As legend has it, Venus and Zeus were staying at an inn near Bologna, and their host instructed the staff not to disturb them. The chef, who was smitten with Venus, couldn't resist, so he peered through the keyhole of their room. He caught a glimpse of Venus' naked body, and ran downstairs to create pasta that mimicked her perfect bellybutton.

"Italians are very romantic about everything," Pendola said as the crowd laughed.

Pendola is no exception. Growing up in Niagara Falls, his family and friendships centered on food. He remembers Sunday night dinners at Nonni's, and his best friend's grandfather, who put any creature he caught in his garden into his Sunday sauce.

"It was all Italians all around me," he said, "I always cooked growing up. It was a normal thing."

In college, he made dinner for his roommates, because "I wanted to show them the right way to eat."

And when he moved to Bar Harbor in 1992 to pursue a career as a molecular biologist at The Jackson Laboratory, he rented a house and immediately planted a vegetable garden. His friends all knew if they wanted to see him on the weekends, they'd need to go to his house, because he started cooking on Friday evening and didn't stop until late Sunday night.

"Friends knew this was a place they could relax, hang out, they knew they'd be listening to Sinatra," Pendola said. "I thought I could offer something to people that maybe they didn't know about. Not just a meal, but a dining experience."

For years, Pendola's friends said he should open a restaurant, but he didn't want that lifestyle - long hours, late nights, financial risks. And he wanted it even less once he met Janice Noveroske, a colleague at the Jackson Laboratory who became his wife.

When she started work at the lab, Pendola invited her to one of his famous weekend food fests. Several weeks later, as he taught her how make prosciutto-mushroom ravioli, they both realized it was love. Pendola popped the question - then he catered his own wedding.

"I cooked and served," Pendola recalled. "People asked me, 'Don't you want to enjoy your own wedding?' I said, 'I am enjoying it.' I can't be on that side of the table. This is like a stage for me."

Last May, Pendola catered his first meal at Nostrano, a burial dinner after the death of a dear friend. A guest at that dinner booked Nostrano for a party, and it's been nonstop ever since. Sometimes, he takes his show on the road, and the results are memorable. Just ask Ryan Ross, 14, of Bangor, whose parents asked Pendola to cater his Bar Mitzvah.

"It was a great thing he did for us all from his own garden," Ross said in between courses at Nostrano. "I think it is the greatest dinner I've ever been to."

Ross has since visited Nostrano several times - he jockeys an invitation whenever he can, and since his parents are friends with the Shers, they made sure to bring him along.

"Everything is homemade," Ross said. "Everything is from his garden. He's just a great cook, a great chef."

Across the room, Pendola ladled a meatball with a bit of Sunday Gravy (garden tomato sauce) onto a plate, handed it to a guest and says, "This is the way it's supposed to be." In the corner, Janice washed dishes and asked if anyone needs water.

Frank worked quickly, intently at the oven, preparing a Maine twist on a Sicilian classic: braised salmon (instead of swordfish) with tomatoes, capers, olives and marjoram; along with seared Angus T-bone over a bed of wilted chard.

Then, all at once, the main course was ready and everyone took a seat. Janice moved through the room effortlessly, handing out plates full of food. For the first time all night, the room was quiet.

"This is the kind of thing we miss from New York and we have it right here," Jorge Gonzalez of Bangor said after finishing his salmon. He and his wife, Kathy, moved here from Manhattan nearly a decade ago. "This is like taking a trip to Little Italy."

Janice cleared the plates and began placing strawberries atop slices of Limoncello cake, made with the sweet Italian lemon liqueur - homemade, of course. As she walked away, Gonzalez turned to Pendola and asked, "Is she a pastry chef?"

"She's everything," Pendola replied.

A haze of happy fullness hung over the room. It was a scene straight out of "Big Night," minus the roast pig. And it was clear that many in the room had found Paradise - with Pendola, instead of Primo, at the helm.

"Frank doesn't love food. Frank lives through his food. That's the way our friends feel about food too," Roger Sher said. "To him it's about family. That's what food is all about. This is about love. This is a dining experience. There's nothing like it around."

Nostrano is located in Frank and Janice Pendola's home in Town Hill, a village in Bar Harbor. Guests should bring their own wine or alcoholic beverages. For information, call 288-0269. Kristen Andresen can be reached at 990-8287 and kandresen@bangordailynews.net.