Despite their often-negative connotations, a good mid-life crisis does have its upsides -- after all, until her lawyer finds out you've got it, you do get to endanger yourself on that motorcycle. For a restaurant having fun with theirs, Panza.
Apparently bored with the monotonous wild success of 14-year North End vet Cibo, its four guy owners decided to "spice things up" by adopting a new name, reworking their moderately priced, tweaked Italian menu, and overhauling the 45-seat space w/ beige brick, giant wooden cooking implements, and iron lamps. New signature dishes include Tarragon Fettuccine and Grilled Lobster, a breaded/fried tomato Caprese Salad, and the namesake sundried tomato and balsamic Marsala-smothered Veal Panza, which means "paunch" in Italian -- even though you know better, its deliciousness will make you a believer in its Ponza scheme. Other memorable grub includes Linguine alla Pescatore (shrimp, scallops, mussels, clams, and calamari in a red, white, or fra diavolo sauce), Red Wine Tomato Braised Beef Short Rib w/ crispy polenta, and red pepper/crumbled goat cheese Sausage w/ Baby Rigatoni, which seems like a real sweetheart now, but'll probably end up in juvie like its punk brother Penne.
While Panza does sport a red-focused, Italian-heavy wine menu, much like Cibo it's still just saying no to desserts, a move allegedly designed to "get people to sample desserts around the North End", which is the entire reason for that divorce in the first place.
