La Trattoria, Moosic St., Scranton, PA

La Trattoria is, on most nights, very busy with a mixed crowd, predominantly middle class. On a Friday night it is mostly reservations, but there were seats at the bar. Otherwise, you are on the waiting list.
The room is bright, with half-wood booths and tables, dominated by the brick oven used for baking pizza and other good things. At the tables there are young, uniformed waitresses; but handling the bar for the entire restaurant, and acting as maitre d’, cash register and waitress for those eating at the bar was an older, rude, unfriendly woman . When she said, after bringing a drink, “I’ll be back to take your order in 30-45 minutes”, she was only half kidding.
When it arrived the spaghetti looked very soupy, soft and sticky. When I tasted it, however, it wasn’t all that bad. It wasn’t al dente - but it wasn’t as soggy as it looked. The meat sauce had real meat in it. It wasn’t overly tasty, but, again, it wasn’t bad. The three meatballs were pretty good. They were firm, not too bready, fairly meaty. I would give them a B -.
The opening salad, however, was another story. It had lots of things in it, but I couldn’t tell you what they were, other than lettuce and onions. It was obviously pre-mixed – it was there in two minutes. It had just enough house dressing of oil and vinegar to make the whole thing soggy, and I couldn’t find any taste to it.
The bread was pretty good – two different kind of garlic rolls - both warm - and a butter concoction with avocado, spinach and basil, I think. It had the consistency of butter but I couldn’t find a taste. The glass of Chianti was ordinary – a little bland, not tangy or sharp, but slightly mellow.
Price –$16.15 plus tip.
Style/ambience ***
Food **