I’m not a chain restaurant kind of gal. I don’t find them as exciting or innovative as local restaurants. That’s why I love the Knoxville food scene so much; every day, I find some new local restaurant to call my favorite. That’s not to say you’ll never find me at an Olive Garden, but if it were up to me, I’d always choose local places.
If I’m craving Italian, you can always find me at Dazzo’s Pizzeria on South Gay Street. The pizzeria has the freshest ingredients and the most casual atmosphere. The wait staff is incredibly cool and super friendly. The restaurant is decorated with really interesting posters and is always full of customers when I eat there on weekends.
Recently, I went to see Local Natives at the Bijou and my friend and I decided to catch dinner at Dazzo’s. Even though I’ve eaten there several times, I always try to choose something different on the menu. So far, I’ve had their calzones, pizza and manicotti. This time I was really craving pasta, so I ordered the chicken, capers and artichokes dish. Essentially, these are the ingredients in a traditional chicken picatta. I was really interested to see what unique flavors they brought to the dish.
The dish is made of chicken, capers and artichoke hearts sautéed with spaghetti noodles in a lemon cream sauce. All the other chicken picatta dishes I’ve tried used a lot of lemon juice. Dazzo’s version, however, used just the right amount of lemon. It highlighted the chicken and capers but wasn’t too overpowering. It is unusual to think of lemon with a cream sauce since acids don’t generally go too well with dairy, but somehow they found the right ingredient balance. The chicken was tender and paired well with the lemon cream sauce. The pasta also came with crustini bread brushed with hot garlic butter. Dazzo’s has really mastered Italian bread making, and their hot garlic butter is definitely a signature specialty.
The meal was amazing and I have no doubt I’ll be returning to Dazzo’s in the very near future.
Jessica Carr is a sophomore in journalism and electronic media. She aspires to be a professional food blogger and food magazine editor. She can be reached at [email protected] or followed on Twitter at @jcarr_94.
