i went to picco on saturday night with my parents, nora, and charles. picco is a pizza/pasta place on the first floor of the new apartment building at the east berkely side of tremont street – atelier 505, where nomar reportedly looked for an apartment before being traded to the cubs. it shares the first floor with a theater and another (larger) restaurant, sibling rivalry, where we went for nora’s birthday back in november.

the restaurant itself is pretty small – it seats probably about 30 to 40. it’s nicely designed inside, all warm colors in the dining area with a white-and-stainless steel kitchen area which is visible from the eating area. along one wall there is a counter and bar, and along the other parallel wall there are tables; the wall on that side has rows of small, clear glass votives with lit candles in them, reminiscent of a restaurant i went to in florence. the restaurant in florence had a rough-hewn ecru-colored stone wall on the inside that had candle-filled holes in it here and there, as if the holes were windows into a warm, firelit room on the other side. another detail from picco’s kitchen was a white tiled wall scattered with red (as in RED) tiles here and there, just on one small expanse of the wall. (more…)