Annie's New Ponte Venture Bridges the Gap Between Home Cooking and Italian Fine Dining
As we reported last week, the team behind Annie’s restaurant chain has expanded their Italian dining purview in the capital with Ponte, a new fine-dining venture in Jiangtai.
They intend that Ponte – which means bridge in Italian – becomes the cultural and culinary bridge between China and Italy, but it could just as well be the stepping stone between for-the-masses Italian food, and well, the real deal.
We started with the Ponte Deli. Occupying about half of the venue's floor space, refrigerators display a large range of imported meats, including whole legs of prosciutto, and mortadella, speck, salami, and lard by the kilogram. Gigantic wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese dominate the cheese counter, stacked above a wide selection of Italian cow and goat cheeses such as Buffalo mozzarella, Burrata, Pecorino, and left-of-center Scamorza (traditional and smoked), as well as a couple of Swiss workhorse cheeses like Emmental and Gruyère.
This is a delicatessen that is not to be sniffed at, but unfortunately, the white tile flooring and fact that everything is wrapped up in plastic means you couldn't even if you wanted too. Whether this sterile vibe is a food safety requirement or designed to appeal to wealthy Chinese consumers for whom suffocating in plastic = sanitary, it doesn't exactly lend itself to the sampling culture that makes European delicatessens so much fun.
Over at the main dining room of Ponte, the appetizer of young spinach salad with Hokkaido scallop, smoked bacon, mushroom, crispy bread, and Modena balsamic vinegar (RMB 118) is prettily presented, but ultimately underwhelming. Given the hearty texture of both the scallops and spinach, the bacon felt unnecessary, and the use of white truffle oil as a 'secret ingredient' felt like overkill. This luxury item should be used as a center point, not an afterthought.
The spicy "angry" Rigatoni arrabbiata (RMB 22), however, was a return to good form. The al dente pasta, a beautifully spiced tomato sauce that clung to the rigatoni and freshly grated Parmesan on top, made for an uncomplicated dish that we were lucky to try, that's because it was actually intended only to be served at the adjacent Ponte Deli. Due to demand, a number of deli pasta dishes like this one will be added to the restaurant menu too.
Our secondi, grilled cod fish with orange and carrot puree and buttered peas (RMB 278) was the standout dish of all and proves that the Ponte kitchen is capable of turning out elegantly plated, white tablecloth-worthy dishes. The cod was fall-apart tender, with a crispy skin. It sat on an orange and carrot puree that added a perfect balance of sweetness.
Unlike the Annie's chain, which serves exclusively Italian wine, Ponte is stocked with bottles from around the world, including eight different regions of Italy, France, Spain, the New World (US, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile), and a nice selection of grappa to finish with.
Ponte may not have distanced itself quite as far from Annie's as they would have liked, but strikes the right note of fancy and accessible. While the execution may not always hit the mark, it should be praised for giving customers access to a sizeable range of quality food, wines, and delicatessen goods. If they trust their ingredients and keep their cellar and deli well stocked, they should be able to navigate some of the more rickety elements that have presented themselves initially.
Ponte
106, Bldg 15, Zone 1, 6 East Fourth Ring Road North, Chaoyang District
朝阳区东四环北路6号1区15号楼106号
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Photos: Anna Pellegrin Hartley
