Café Classico, Mulberry St., Scranton, PA

Café Classico is slightly upper middle-class, with a good-sized dining room with exposed brick. It is just off the campus environs of the University of Scranton, which might affect the slightly upscale quality. It is heavily Italian in flavor and decor, but I don’t think anyone there is Italian. The menu is all Italian, though, with English translations. The staff is young and friendly.
You had a choice of five or six kinds of pasta with your meatballs, so I chose spaghetti. It arrived in a pure white plate/bowl with a wide, 2” lip, with a decoration of little green flecks. The pasta was firm, and not overcooked – actually almost a little rubbery, but not too much. The tomato sauce was thin, with a tiny chunk or two of tomato – eminently edible. It tasted tomato-ey, but not too much. The meatballs were big and firm, and very consistent. They were blackened on one side – obviously spent some time in a frying pan. They were meaty, but not overly flavorful.
I chose the house salad, with a Caesar dressing. It arrived in a good-sized plate/bowl. There were two or three different kinds of lettuce, sliced cherry tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, olives, and a couple of tangerine pieces – strange. When I got it all mixed up with the dressing, each bite tasted of whatever it was that I happened to get a bite of that time, but nothing hung together. Finally I put a little Parmesan cheese on it so I could get a consistent flavor.
The bread consisted of a toasted small loaf of Italian, very flattened. It was very, very crisp, and warm when I got it, but it was almost too flat to put butter on it. So I tried olive oil, and that worked better.
The glass of Chianti was pretty mellow.
The price was more than most – and that didn’t reflect the quality. It was just a higher priced-type place - $11.50 for pasta, $6.00 for the wine plus tip.
Style/Ambience ***
Food ***