LOCAL Houston | The City Guide JULY 2016 | Page 18

DINE WRITE
SOUTHERN ITALIAN CUISINE

Scallops & Shrimp
IT IS 7:30 IN THE EVENING, AND WE ARE SEATED BY THE WINDOW JUST AS THE SUN IS SETTING AT
SUD ITALIA, A CHARMING ITALIAN RESTAURANT IN RICE VILLAGE. OUT FRONT, THE LARGE WOODEN
PORCH, ILLUMINATED BY STRING LIGHTS, IS AT CAPACITY. INSIDE, THE MAIN DINING ROOM IS SOFTLY
LIT BY WARM, DIFFUSE LIGHT – THE ENTIRE TABLEAU A LITTLE BIT FUZZY AND CHARMINGLY ROMANTIC.

We’ve just been greeted at the door by SHANON SCOTT, the restaurant’s proprietor. He’s wearing an immaculately cut black suit over a starched
white shirt open at the collar, a pressed handkerchief peeping out of his
breast pocket, and though it’s a little formal for the Rice Village neighborhood crowd, it fits the kind the experience he’s trying to give his customers.
“Welcome to my home,” he says with warm sincerity. “Relax. Enjoy. The
table is yours for the evening.”

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If you’ve never been to Sud Italia, be forewarned: The portions are
generous. I didn’t know this when I ordered three appetizers, each
large enough to feed four. There was the beautiful tower of an heirloom
tomato and burrata salad – thick-cut rounds of tomato stacked upon
each other with burrata in between. This was followed by one of the
most gorgeous platings of octopus carpaccio I’d ever seen, a work of
art made of paper-thin shavings of purple and white tentacles spread
out in an almost paisley pattern. An Italian sausage appetizer in tomato
sauce was too much, so we boxed most of it to go.