Carl Alasko with his daughter, Ariele Alasko.
Photo by Deborah Luhrman.
“Our recipes are very simple…
We start from scratch everyday, so everything is fresh.”
A newcomer to the Pacific Grove restaurant scene, il vecchio restaurant has made sustainability something of an art form. The already popular trattoria, just opened in August, is decorated almost entirely with reclaimed and salvaged materials collected and artistically assembled by the owner’s daughter.
The first thing you notice on entering is the warmth that comes from old barn wood-clad walls, a gleaming oak bar, an enormous Carmel stone fireplace and glowing chandeliers made from rusted industrial mixers.
“We wanted to give the restaurant a patina, and the fact that everything already comes with a history adds so much,” says 24-yearold artist Ariele Alasko, the daughter of owner Carl Alasko—a local psychotherapist and columnist for the Monterey Herald.
Ariele is a graduate of Monterey High School. She moved to New York to attend Pratt Institute and settled in Brooklyn where she builds furniture from scavenged materials. The bar at il vecchio, for example, is built from old oak kneelers that she rescued from the basement of a Lutheran church in Brooklyn just before they were sent to the dump.
Last March, Ariele and a friend made a cross-country trip in a 16-foot rental truck loaded with her finds from Brooklyn. They collected more furniture and materials on the way. Then she worked for more than five months—day and night—to create the restaurant’s interior.
The menu was a collaboration with another daughter, Saroja, who lives in Rome, and her friend Luciano Flamini—owner of Rome’s renowned trattoria Maccheroni. It features pastas made inhouse with organic flour and eggs, topped with the highest-quality fresh ingredients. One of the favorites comes from the mountains of Abruzzo east of Rome, Pappardelle con ragù d’agnello, lamb slowcooked in red wine and served with house-made, wide-cut pasta.
“Our recipes are very simple. Nothing is pre-prepared, and nothing is frozen. We start from scratch everyday, so everything is fresh,” says Carl Alasko, whose last restaurant adventure was an Indian place in Rome some 38 years ago.
Il vecchio (the old one in Italian) also serves authentic Italian entrees and desserts, and has an exciting wine list that combines local and Italian labels—all with reasonable prices that reflect the restaurant’s ambition to be a fun, family experience.
il vecchio
110 Central Avenue
831.324.4282
ilvecchiorestaurant.com</p
About the author
Deborah Luhrman is publisher and editor of Edible Monterey Bay. A lifelong journalist, she has reported from around the globe, but now prefers covering our flourishing local food scene and growing her own vegetables in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
