Pasta and Panini in Over-the-Rhine: Panino

For the past several years, the foyer of what used to be The Warehouse nightclub at 1313 Vine St. has hosted Panino, an unassuming restaurant and bar serving up pressed sandwiches, cured meats and pasta dishes. It's run by Nino Loreto, a charcuterie aficionado who'd for years manned a food truck under the same name.

From what I understand, there isn't much left to remind older patrons of the long-defunct Warehouse, which was also known as Cosmopolitan Hall and Tivoli Beer Garden. More than $17 million dollars were invested in the circa 1855 building that once served as a beer garden, dance hall, bowling alley, speakeasy, prize fight arena, concert venue and more. Most of the guts of the place are now inaccessible to the general public, as a couple private companies now occupy the massive space. That leaves the outer periphery and Panino as the only means by which former Warehouse regulars may return to reminisce.

We visited Panino a couple times to try both their rotating pasta dinner menu and their sandwich selections. The interior is bright and open, with plenty of glass counters and a long bar extending down the back length of the dining room's southernmost wall.

Panino currently offers ten panini-style sandwiches and five pasta dishes on its menu. While the pasta and starters are available only during dinner hours, the sandwiches, salads and soups are available all day.

Cheese and pesto ravioli

Orecchiette with kale and sausage

On our dinner visit, my girlfriend tried a seasonal, house-made ravioli with cheese and pesto filling topped with Brussels sprouts and mushrooms ($12). I selected an orecchiette dish with kale, sausage and prodigious amounts of shaved pecorino cheese ($12).

All was quite tasty, with particularly the latter dish reminding us of a number of similar pasta plates we'd enjoyed in Sicily. The portions seemed a tad smaller than we would have liked, but only because with pasta this good, we want to lustily devour a whole lot more of it in one sitting.

Our second visit came during a weekend lunch hour in which I chose a soup and panino combo while my girlfriend opted for a sandwich with the accompanying seasoned, kettle-style potato chips and pickle spear.

Cuban

Truffle honey and mozzarella panino

Mine was a classic Cuban with roast pork, ham, Swiss, mustard and pickle, all pleasantly pressed and toasty and melty and gooey ($11). My "Soup of the Day" pick was a potato soup featuring ample chunks of potato, corn, carrot and topped with crispy, smoked bacon and cheddar cheese ($2).

My girlfriend's selection was a vegetarian truffle honey and mozzarella panino ($8). The sandwich was substantially heavier and richer than expected, and the honey flavor was lost to the overwhelming amounts of cheese. Some added greens would have been welcome to offset the richness.

Panino is a great alternative to many of the other more popular (and more crowded) eateries in Over-the-Rhine. There's a panino or pasta dish to suit nearly every fancy or dietary requirement, with an air of Italian authenticity similar area establishments often lack.