We were out and about on Saturday trying to find paint, tiles, and god knows what else, for our house. Like Kim and Justin, we too are commencing the never ending battle to complete our home. Sort of makes you wonder why you ever thought it was a good idea to move out of a perfectly decent, moderately finished apartment. Well, not really; we know it is so the cats will have a better life than we did. But I digress. So we were out and about, working hard, and working up an appetite.

Lunch used to be great at the Gatto — and dinner not bad either. But this was my first visit to the new location about 6 doors further west on College Street. The new decor is certainly snazzier and is well laid out. They still have a tiny patio out front, but the new locale allows for a much bigger patio at the side. It looked like it might rain, and we settled in on the side patio under a nice umbrella. The menu isn’t that striking — some salad, some panini, some pizza and two calzone. We split the caprese salad and a pizza, and had a bottle of San Pellegrino.

Now just because I had the bubbly water, don’t think they don’t have good drinks. I normally have their Guinness — and they get surprisingly good kegs of the black stuff considering their College Street digs. They also have the Amsterdam family on tap, as well as a couple others. A full bar can whip up a good martini, and I have indulged in the odd G+T there. But the weather being what it was, and me needing to keep a clear head for the tile battle, we settled for the old bubbly.

Now the food came, and the tomatoes were fresh and the olive oil fruity. Also, lots of fresh basil. God, when it’s summer and the tomatoes are ripe, there is nothing like a good caprese salad. The pizza was hot with their usual thin crust which is always amazing. They were accommodating and took the spicy sausage off half of the pizza to accommodate Breese who doesn’t like that sort of thing. So all in all, the meal was great — just like at the old Gatto. The service and the environment, however, have gone way down hill.

We were plagued with a ditzy waitress, who was more interested in hanging over the fence talking to her friends than she was in taking orders, serving customers or otherwise doing her job. My frustration at such incompetence was only increased by the fact that she appeared to wander inside and then stand behind the bar and chit chat there too! Now this may not seem very generous of me, I know. But allow me to explain that my meal was further frustrated by a number of wankers whom the new Gatto seems to attract, who think nothing of pulling their SUV trucks and raked out BMWs (why do they feel the need to do that to a perfectly good car?) right up on to the sidewalk next to the patio, thereby blocking pedestrian traffic and my view of the world. But these things can be easily fixed by getting Dopey off of the smack and encouraging people to park lawfully. Don’t let my rant about the environment discourage you from trying the food — you’ll like it.