Vescio’s Franklin Hotel

If you like red-sauce Italian food, Rome, New York, is a city for you. It’s replete with places to get fine pasta, meats, and homemade red sauce. I’m not sure how long the Franklin has been around, but I don’t remember a time when it wasn’t there, and when it couldn’t be counted on just such a meal.

It isn’t all red-sauce Italian food. A strip steak, ordered medium and just-right pink, is incredibly juicy and tender with a nice crust. It comes with roasted potatoes that are at once crisp and soft, a perfect match. It also comes with roasted butter-and-sugar-glazed carrots, but when I had it for dinner, the waitress told me they were out of the carrots (my favorite vegetable), so they gave me stewed zucchini with tomatoes. OK, but not my fave (and a little watery, to be honest). They could have used more flavor (salt, stewed in a stock perhaps). Beef minestrone soup is spicy and full of vegetables and bits of beef. A nice way to start a meal.

Chicken Parmesan looks and smells great with plenty of sauce and cheese on top. Sauteed veal with sweet sausage and green peppers over penne with red sauce is another “must order.” Stuffed rigate is similar to ravioli and comes with red sauce and a link of sausage.

For the sweet tooth, a counter up front offers very good, rich pastries, including the local favorite, pusties (filled sweet dough, formally known as pasticciotto).

Ambience is minimal; this place is all about good food. The staff is friendly, and the kitchen did a great job with the cake for my sister’s wedding!