Ristorante La Scala, St. Catharines

Tuesday June 24

Daylight hours of this week were devoted to running necessary errands, so it was natural to seek more pleasant diversions after business hours. At Stefan's recommendation, then, we sauntered out a couple of blocks to Ristorante La Scala, on Church Street.

There seemed to be only a single chef and a single waitress to deal with the Tuesday night crowd, but they were both eager to please, and it was pleasant to sit under the trees on the tiny back patio, especially with a bottle of Pillitteri unoaked chardonnay (2004) to keep us happy.

We started by sharing a big plate of steamed mussels, pleasingly dosed with limoncello, diced red onion, and parsley. Good idea, the limoncello, especially with the sweetness of red onion to echo it.

We then went on to grilled herbed calamari (both meaty steaks and tentacley tentacles) with what the menu called the "chef's starch" (in this case, a disc of mashed potatoes), broccoli rabe, and slices of grilled eggplant, zucchini and red bell pepper. The same starch and vedge appeared under the veal scaloppine alla marsala as well, which showed a certain lack of imagination and hands; but as I said, La Scala is eager to please, and on the whole it did.