VANCOUVER SUN, Thursday, December 29, 2005
The word means 'good and fast' in Italian, and the Sciue Italian Bakery Caffe lives up to its name -- good food, fast service.

Signs that Sciue Italian Bakery Caffe was worthy of a write-up and recommendation were these: 1. Nice digs. 2. Staff who gave a damn. 3. Good food -- the shiniest of lures.

I first dropped in with a colleague for lunch when they were offering $2 slices of panini. You could order a few different kinds, measuring about two to four bites each, depending on whether one gobbles, or chews politely. I really liked the idea but alas, it was just their opening gambit. You can, however, still buy a half portion and if you wish, pair it up with another selection.

Sciue (pronounced shoo-ee, and is Italian for 'good and fast') is run by Davide Bonamici, who was with Torrefazione and Alessandro Fonseca, a master baker from Rome. Fonseca's 20 years of Italian baking shows in his rustic pane Romano, Italianate breakfasts, and dessert gems.
The interior is dolled up in mosaic tiles from Italy and dark woods; it feels spacey thanks to the high ceilings, glass-surround walls and clean lines. You order at the counter and the food is delivered to your table.

They're there for the earlybirds, like the stockbrokers a few blocks away, offering Panne Buongiorno, a breakfast pizza with scrambled eggs, pancetta, and cheese for $4.95 and a breakfast bun with a similar filling, only in a freshly baked bun. For a breakfast on-the-run, you might try the ciambella, a Roman doughnut flavoured with orange or lemon or the pane e fragole, mascarpone and strawberry on thin crust dough.

Bonamici works the coffee machine, turning out good coffee, and on occasion, I've had his matcha latte, which did not skimp on the expensive matcha powder. I'll believe him when he says he was the first to introduce latte art to Vancouver when he was working for Torrefazione.

The kitchen moves to panini, soups, salads and a couple of hot items for lunch. Panini fillings change but you will probably find lamb or chicken cooked in white wine and rosemary, pork tenderloin or tomato bocconcinoi. The cost is $7.95 to $8.95.

Hot offerings vary and have included eggplant parmigiana, chicken cutlets, lasagna with house-made pasta, spicy Italian sausage with fragioli (beans). The place is licenced as well.

I'm always enthralled by Italian pastry, more rustic and country than the perfectly poised French ones. It makes you want to growl as you eat, just like my long-gone dog Mose did when he tucked into something so pleasant and wanted to eat it all by himself.

For the sweet course, Fonseca makes apple, blueberry or marmalade crostata, sfogliatella (ricotta and cream filling inside what looks like the Shell Oil logo made of filo), fruit tarts, chocolate mousse, tira misu, 12 flavours of gelato, biscotti and canoli. (I have a thing for canoli and just spent the last 10 minutes surveying the newsroom for the source of a canoli-inspired quote that stuck with me: "Leave the gun, take the canoli!" It was one of the Godfather movies.)

During the holiday period, they also have pannetone and pandoro, which is like a pannetone but lighter, and without the fruit. What else do I appreciate about Sciue? They don't skimp on staff and when the lunch locusts descend, they're ready. With an owner at the front of the house, there's a palpable difference in service, a willingness to connect, even for the briefest of moments.

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