Linda Falkenstein
Fabiola's
Rigatoni with Sunday gravy comes with its trio of meats on the side.
Regent Street’s heyday as the center of Italian-American restaurants is now a piece of Madison history. The last remaining O.G. “spaghetti house,” Josie’s (originally Jimmie’s), burned in 2004; Fraboni’s deli bowed to redevelopment in 2018 (although remains open at its Monona location). These days the Greenbush Bar serves a limited menu of mostly pizza.
So the opening of Fabiola’s Spaghetti House and Deli late last year, in a former Rocky Rococo at the corner of Regent and Orchard, created warm feelings. With the redevelopment of The Triangle with housing units that resemble neighborhood homes from the early 20th century, Regent Street seems poised for a historically intended, if not 100% faithful, renaissance.
Spaghetti houses were known for their big portions and low prices and served more than spaghetti. An old menu from Jimmie’s Spaghetti House also featured steak, ham and fried chicken. Fabiola’s has a clear focus: seven pastas, six “classics,” three steaks, a pork chop, and two seafood entrees. (A noontime counter deli menu has no overlap with the sit-down restaurant’s dinner menu.)
It seems reasonable to assume that at a spaghetti house, you should start with the spaghetti. Fabiola’s spaghetti and meatballs is a large plate with two nearly tennis ball-sized meatballs in a tangy, tart, San Marzano tomato marinara. The meatballs are mild and yielding and made from veal, pork and Italian sausage; there’s a hint of fennel. A closely related dish is the rigatoni with Sunday gravy, with a meat trio — beef short rib braciole and a Fraboni’s Italian sausage join one meatball — served on the side of the rigatoni, “Nonna style.” Eggplant parmesan is not breaded and fried, but a melty fire-roasted version that brings out the subtle flavor of the eggplant, and there’s plenty of mozzarella, too.
The house special is Chicken Vesuvio. My server nudged me into ordering this one, and I was glad. Chicken breast is sauteed until its skin is shatteringly crispy, and served with potatoes and peas in a white wine garlic sauce. This feels like Sunday dinner at grandma’s house in the best way. A restrained broiled whitefish comes in a similar presentation.
A nice touch: all entrees come with a side of sauteed market vegetables, usually carrots and green beans, and this is not just lip service to the notion of a side; there are plenty of both. The appealing carrots have been sweet and right on the line between crunchy and well done.
These entrees are delicious, and Fabiola’s takes the “big portions” part of spaghetti house history seriously. Every plate seems to be twice the size of a dinner serving, and given that the appetizers are also tempting and you might want to finish your meal with cannoli, and I always do, the prospect of the brown take-home box is almost inevitable. I would relish an option for portion downsizing, such as the possibility of ordering some dishes as a small or a large. By the time my table finished the bread basket and a friendly dinner salad — crunchy and well-dressed romaine with black olives, celery, tomato and parsley (big enough to split between two diners), I wasn’t very hungry. On another visit, skipping appetizers meant the table was sitting for too long with glasses of wine and nothing to munch.
One workaround is to small-plate it. The bread basket (featuring super fresh Italian semolina bread and Origin focaccia) and the antipasto platter, plus drinks and a good-bye cannoli, sounds just right.
Oh, and those cannoli. Housemade, their soft, not-too-sweet filling (Wisconsin-made ricotta with orange zest) is generously topped at one end with pistachios, the other with dark chocolate.
Fabiola’s looks the part of a spaghetti house, with red checkered tablecloths and red banquettes, and the dining room is cozy and convivial. The bar, which runs along the interior wall and is set off from the dining area with a partial divider, is also a pleasant space in which to divvy up the bread basket and maybe some warm marinated olives and explore the fun Italian wine list.
The menu helpfully lists which dishes are vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free, as well as which can be made so. Vegans have the least choice (salad, and the eggplant without cheese).
Fabiola’s opens for dinner at 5 p.m. and tends to be mostly full in about an hour. There are no reservations, but parties can put their name on a wait list before arrival at exploretock.com/leopoldsandfabiolas.
Fabiola’s Spaghetti House and Deli
1301 Regent St.
608-256-0600; fabiolasmadison.com
Dinner 5-10 p.m. Wed.-Mon. (Deli menu 10 a.m.-3 p.m.)
$7-$67
