“Electric Italian” Comes To Temple Street

Thanks to a new business venture by the founders and co-owners of Elm City Social, a new spot for ​“electric Italian” dining has come to the corner of Crown and Temple Streets.

That restaurant is Olives & Oil, a combination Italian kitchen, pizza oven, crudo bar and gastropub. After a soft opening last Saturday night, co-owners Matt Bailey, John Brennan, and Erick Williams celebrated its opening with a press conference and ribbon-cutting Monday afternoon.

Taking in an old-meets-new (or Stallone-meets-Nonna, perhaps) decor complete with Italian film stills, electric swing music, and a kitchen stocked with homemade Italian rainbow cookies, city officials Monday expressed excitement that something new — and hopefully with serious staying power, as Elm City Social has proven to have — has come to the lower floor of 124 Temple St., The spot sat vacant for months after Tavern New Haven closed its doors earlier this year.

“I’m really excited to see this corner come back to life,” said Elizabeth Herlihy, business development executive with the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce. ​“Certainly, it has had its ebbs and flows, and certainly this one seems like it is going to stick and stay. … I thank you so much for bringing life back to this corner.”

At its most basic, the story of Olives & Oil is just that: the rejuvenation of a corner, whose vacant property beckoned to the owners of Elm City Social just as they were looking to expand their super hip approach to eating and drinking. After looking at properties in Hartford and Middletown, Bailey, Brennan and Williams kept returning to New Haven, a city whose residents have embraced their chicken and waffles, boozy brunches, and rubber ducky cocktails over on College Street.

Nothing in the city was quite right for their culinary vision, though. Even another spot on Temple Street didn’t stick. When the three saw that the spot on the corner, already boasting a wood-fired oven, was available, they pounced — and haven’t looked back. 

“There’s an energy that’s growing here that we latched onto,” said Williams at the opening, framed by large, vibrant murals on exposed brick of a pig and an octopus by Hartford-based graffiti artist Claire Cronkhite. “‘Electric Italian’ means a play on a still-growing vintage vibe, a melding of widely accepted Italian food and something new. I think there’s enough room here to help us grow further.”

Growing further, he added, means ​“we can do traditional, we can do spaghetti and meatballs, but it’s going to be fun.” That was the idea behind menu items like fresh, prosciutto-kissed Capellini, jammy bone marrow and fragrant squid ink pasta, as well as wood-fired ​“everything bagel” pizza, pan-seared wild boar, and Fernet Branca on tap. 

The story behind the restaurant actually stretches decades back, to when partner and head chef Brennan was learning to cook Sicilian food from his mom in New Jersey. After watching her knead, dust, and crack eggs into just-yellow pasta dough, cut logs of biscotti, and mix thin layers of apricot jam into tri-color Italian cookies, he started to cook himself, longing for a venue where he could expose willing visitors to the flavors of his youth, and then to the entire country of Italy.

It was perhaps a risky venture in New Haven, he acknowledged at the opening, but one at which he was planning to succeed. He had a secret weapon: his mom was willing to give the kitchen staff a four-day tutorial in how to make traditional Italian fare, which she did last week.

“It’s just what I love to do,” he said. ​“And now I can share that.”

By 5 p.m. Monday, a swelling crowd at the backlit bar was digging that message. On one end, New Haven history buff Rob Greenberg and a friend were just finishing a meat and egg concoction, dipping their bread into dishes of glistening oil and deep red tomato sauce as they finished off the food before them.

“The food is awesome, and to have all four corners in business again is a great asset for Temple and Crown [Streets],” said Greenberg. ​“So far, it’s been very impressive.”

On the other end of the bar, partners Maria Vaspasiano and Chris Munk of Milford were preparing to head back out into the cold, having demolished a plate of roasted bone marrow, a fernet milkshake, and part of a dish of olives, the briney juice included. Behind them, mixologist Conrad Mpurice prepared to mix up another cocktail of what looked like could turn into a long evening.

“The food and drinks are phenomenal,” said Vaspasiano, who had ventured out to the new restaurant after several good experiences at Elm City Social. ​“We’ll definitely be coming back.”