A fine-dining Italian restaurant navigates the takeout-only world of the pandemic.

What Maurizio Cutrignelli has in mind when he opened Osteria Al Mare in the second floor of a building at the base of the Coast Guard Pier was a simple tavern with Italian staples and classics, a hidden gathering place that’s all about good food and good company.

The company for now is gone, but Cutrignelli decided early on in the pandemic to reopen for takeout. “When the wheels stop, it’s really hard to start pushing again,” he says. “So this way, the wheels keep turning.”

It’s an analogy he invokes often to describe the strange experience of a slow, nearly empty restaurant that’s typically packed at meal times, seeming to justify the 15-20 orders a day he’ll do, a normal weekday night that would be packed at capacity with 80 diners, starting with cocktails then working their way through multiple leisurely courses to dessert.

Orders come in from the website, or Uber Eats or Grubhub. It’s easy from a cooking standpoint, with 30 minutes notice and relatively few changes.

Chef Armando Jimenez says the big difference now is that time moves slower; he prefers busy weekend nights with a full crew – four in the kitchen, two on dishes and prep – but he’s adapting.

“It’s just slow and a little bit quiet, but what are you going to do?” he says. “I’m trying to make the best things for the people.” He shows a piece of raw swordfish, bought that day from Robbie’s Ocean Fresh Seafood on Wharf 2, which he’s seasoning with just salt and pepper. “I cut this today. It is beautiful,” Jimenez says.

On the stove, meanwhile, he makes a white wine and cherry tomato cream sauce to serve over cappellini alongside the fish, which will cook quickly on a super-hot pan next to the bubbling sauce.

In just a few minutes the fish is ready, and Cutrignelli leans in to plate it – only it’s in a to-go box.“It’s always beautiful,” Cutrignelli says as he garnishes with capers and pours on the sauce.

A Grubhub delivery driver, Frances Shyanguya, is waiting to pick up the fish. Shyanguya has never been to Osteria before – while he waits, he enjoys the view out the window of the Coast Guard Pier, and wonders aloud whether the sea lions perpetually flapping on the rocks are mammals or some kind of birds. He’s also new to Grubhub, and started delivering on his birthday, just weeks before the pandemic started, which he takes as a sign that things will be OK.

He won’t even see the meal Cutrignelli has just lovingly plated then boxed, but it’s the first order of the night that came in before they even opened – a hopeful sign for business.

And indeed, within about a half-hour it gets relatively crowded, with several masked customers waiting around the perimeter, standing far apart from each other. One couple has ordered two entrees; she ordered the halibut from the online menu. Cutrignelli comes out from the kitchen to say the catch of the day has changed; he offers to show her a piece of the swordfish he bought that day, and carries out a slab on a tray into what would normally be the dining room.

“Nice! OK!” she says, and her fish entree is swapped in for what’s fresh.

“We’re buying way less food [than normal],” Cutrignelli says. “We use everything, still. We use the bones for stock, and we use the small pieces in a pasta. So we make it be the order.”

That Jimenez is the one who’s still working in the kitchen is no accident. He was Cutrignelli’s first employee at his first restaurant, called Maurizio’s in Morgan Hill, when he was 15 and had recently immigrated from Mexico. Jimenez did everything – wash dishes, cut salami, and eventually he rose up the ranks. He relocated to Monterey to work at Osteria, which opened in 2018.

Cutrignelli got his culinary start in Bari, Italy, then moved to Morgan Hill in 1993, where he learned English and worked as a server at his friend’s Italian restaurant. Now he and his wife and their three children live in Monterey, though his wife, Sara, still keeps bees in Morgan Hill, so they travel there to collect honey.

But Cutrignelli’s roots are still in Italy, where his dad lives – and where Covid-19 surged early in the global pandemic. Luckily, at 89, he’s stayed healthy during the pandemic, but canceled a trip to visit Monterey. Now, Cutrignelli is just hoping things have calmed down enough that he can visit Bari for his dad’s 90th birthday party in September.

OSTERIA AL MARE is located at 32 Cannery Row, Monterey. Open 4-7:30pm Wed-Fri; noon-7:30pm Sat-Sun. 920-2833, osteriaalmare.com