It wasn’t until I finished dinner at Pomelia, a new Sicilian restaurant in Brunswick, that it hit me: Almost everything I’d eaten was vegetarian.

It’s easier than you might think for an omnivore to do this unwittingly here. Pomelia chef and co-owner Tony Bickford estimates that 70% of the menu is meatless, though these dishes aren’t explicitly listed as vegetarian on the menu — accompanied with a “v” or some kind of little carrot icon.

While he finds himself leaning flexitarian these days, Bickford isn’t anti-meat. But he crafted his menu bearing in mind that meat prices are climbing ever upward. “The question was,” he said, “‘How can we make hearty dishes without relying on a big hunk of meat?'”

The cuisine itself supplies the answer. Italy is rich with centuries-old “cucina povera” (poor kitchen) dishes that rural peasants traditionally made from inexpensive, available ingredients — bread, pasta, legumes, produce, and in Sicily’s case, some seafood — with meat used sparingly, if at all. Many of the Sicilian greatest hits on Bickford’s menu like sfincione, panelle and pasta alla Norma employ this ethos.

It’s a testament to the soul-satisfying nature of these dishes — and to how deftly Bickford and his crew coax the utmost umami from produce like tomato, eggplant and mushrooms — that I didn’t miss meat for a minute.

At times I even thought I tasted meat that wasn’t there. I figured Bickford used chicken or beef stock in the sauce for his Marsala Porcini ($19), which is cradled in scroll-shaped grooves of al dente casarecce pasta. But nope: It’s an intense veggie stock reduction laced with porcini powder and subtly sweet, nutty Marsala wine. Roasted lion’s mane, coral, chestnut and oyster mushrooms from Wild Fruitings in Augusta lend steaky chew and even more meaty flavor. You can add chicken or shrimp to any salad or pasta (an additional $8-$12), but in a dish that tastes this complete, it’d be superfluous.

A better pairing for the earthy pasta: Sicilian Nero d’Avola from Luna Gaia ($12), a darkly fruity, zinfandel-like red with soft tannins. Bickford’s wife and co-owner, Chelsea, who oversees front-of-house operations, developed the bar program with an eye toward value. Pomelia’s 14 wines are almost all Italian, and budget-friendly at $11-$14 for a glass, $36-$44 for a bottle. Cocktails ($13-$15) include an assortment of spritzes — Aperol, Campari, Maine-made limoncello — Italian standards like Negronis and Sicilian-ized classics such as a Manhattan with herbaceous Amaro Averna liqueur.

Italian cuisine is in the Bickfords’ wheelhouse. They served an Italian-influenced menu at the former Little Village Bistro, which Tony launched in his hometown of Wiscasset in 2015. By 2021, though, he was burned out by the constant pandemic-era challenges of making the business work, so the couple closed the bistro and took a break from restaurant life.

This winter, when the space at 16 Station Ave. became available, the Bickfords were ready to get back in the game. But Scarlet Begonias had been a Brunswick mainstay for pasta, pizza and sandwiches for 30 years, and the couple didn’t want to jar the community with a dramatically different concept.

So they decided to offer pasta, pizza and sandwiches, too, along with street food, all Sicilian-style, to distinguish themselves from other Italian restaurants and pizzerias in the area. And they’d serve a smash burger — the only beef on the menu, from Pineland Farms in New Gloucester — as a gesture to fans of the Bisson’s burger at Scarlet Begonias.

They even stuck with the floral theme: Pomelia is the Sicilian name for the plumeria flower, which symbolizes new beginnings. Where Scarlet Begonias’ string-lighted look was funky and kitschy, Pomelia is clean, bright and understated, with splashes of color from wall hangings that depict fruiting lemon tree branches.

“You should feel like you’re being taken care of” is how the couple repeatedly sum up their approach to hospitality. A friend and I enjoyed pleasant — and conscientious — service: After a staffer delivered our mid-course of pizza before we’d finished with our starters, our server quickly stopped by to apologize and assure us they’d wait to fire the entrées.

We appreciated her mindfulness, because the thoughtfully interwoven tastes and textures in the Cauliflower Fritto Nnuddu ($14) appetizer deserved our full attention. Bickford hints here at Sicily’s North African influences by coating the fried florets in coriander, paprika and other warm spices. Punchy pickled onion and agrodolce with golden raisins and capers hit sweet-sour-briny notes, chopped almonds offset the cauliflower’s creamy tenderness, and Calabrian chili aioli added even more spark to this electric dish.

The pleasure of the Panellicchi ($10) lies in their soothing comfort. They’re a pair of slider-sized panelle, a traditional Sicilian street treat of chickpea flour fritters served in buns. Crisp and salty as good french fries, the herby, lemon-zested fritter squares come on squishy, butter-griddled brioche rolls dressed with a dollop of cream-thickened ricotta. Sicilian Grillo ($12), like a citrusy pinot grigio with fuller body, did the fritters justice enough, though next time I’d try them with a glass of the bar’s draft prosecco.

The basket of fluffy, sea-salted focaccia with olive oil-crisped crust that came before the meal gave us a good idea — too good — of what we could expect from Pomelia’s focaccia-style pizza. It took real restraint to save room for dinner.

Long-simmered pomodoro sauce infused with anchovies and caramelized onions is the star topping on the Palermo Sfincione ($16) pizza, accented by provolone-like caciocavallo cheese and a sprinkling of crunchy bread crumbs. The white anchovy flavor is forward, but not overpowering, though the sauce could benefit from more caramelized onion sweetness. Fresh, lively flavors in Siracusano Fennel Salad ($12, $6 as a side) — a crisp tangle of shaved fennel and red onion, juicy orange segments and mild Castelvetrano olives in bright, lemony dressing — balanced the savoriness of the sfincione and reset our palates.

Roasted eggplant in Pasta alla Norma ($19) retains some beefy firmness, and Bickford tops the dish with tender slices of fried, breaded eggplant for contrast. But an abundant dusting of finely grated, feta-like ricotta salata soaked up moisture from the thick tomato sauce, leaving it pasty — though tasty — by the time I was halfway through.

Bickford uses mezzi rigatoni, a dried imported pasta for the dish, as he does for all the restaurant’s pasta except the cannelloni; he explained he lacks the kitchen space — and staff — to produce the necessary volume of fresh pasta. But he does reserve a separate fryer to make the bubbly, delicate shells that encase a lush ricotta filling in Pomelia’s cannoli ($9). The sweetness is pleasantly subdued, but too much lemony zing topples it out of balance with the dish’s drizzle of Callebaut dark chocolate ganache.

Chelsea Bickford said she and her husband regularly tweak things at Pomelia based on customer feedback. Indeed, they write individually tailored responses to every Google review Pomelia receives, showing appreciation for criticisms as much as praise (though they’ve received overwhelmingly more of the latter to date). “We’re hoping to continue improving everything,” she said, “because it can always get a little bit better.”

For a restaurant that’s been open not quite four months, they’re impressively calibrated already. Chef Bickford plans to offer hyper-seasonal special dishes this summer, when the kitchen can avail itself of a wealth of fresh and fleeting local produce, which should also make their cucina povera cooking all the richer. I suspect it won’t be long before Pomelia comes into full bloom.

RATING: ***1/2
WHERE: 16 Station Ave., Brunswick. 207-203-6593. pomelia.restaurant
SERVING: Lunch 11 a.m to 2 p.m., dinner 4-9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday
PRICE RANGE: $10-16 for appetizers; $16-24 for pasta, pizza and sandwiches
NOISE LEVEL: Medium
VEGETARIAN: Many dishes
GLUTEN-FREE: Many dishes
RESERVATIONS: Yes
BAR: Yes
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: Yes
BOTTOM LINE: Like its namesake flower, Pomelia represents a new beginning for Chef Tony Bickford and his wife, Chelsea. The couple ran the Italian-influenced Little Village Bistro in Wiscasset for seven years before closing in 2021 and taking a break from restaurant life. They took over the former Scarlet Begonias space in the Brunswick Station complex this winter, and chose to home in on Sicilian food this time around. The island’s cuisine is loaded with classic Italian “cocina povera” dishes: hearty, frugal cooking that uses meat sparingly. You’ll still see ricotta meatballs, spicy sausage pasta and even a Pineland farms smash burger on the menu. But vegetarians can live large at Pomelia, and omnivores may find themselves surprisingly sated by Bickford’s renditions of classic Sicilian plant-based dishes. Don’t miss the Marsala Porcini pasta, loaded up with meaty mushrooms in an umami-packed sauce. Appetizers like panellichi — chickpea fritters in brioche slider buns — deliver squishy-crispy comfort, while Cauliflower Fritto Nnuddu offers a dazzling dance of flavors and textures. Fresh, crunchy Siracusana Fennel Salad offsets the intensely savory Palermo Sficione pizza and its anchovy sauce. Pomelia’s Sicilian-style pizzas are made with Bickford’s outstanding spongy, light crisp-crusted focaccia. The bar program includes accessibly priced Italian wines, classic spritzes, draft prosecco, cocktails spotlighting Italian liqueurs and a selection of mocktails. Off-balance components in some dishes, such as pasta alla Norma and the cannoli, need a little rejiggering. And it’d be great if Bickford could find a way to make more pasta in-house. Regardless, the unassuming restaurant is off to a strong start, and poised to flourish as local summer produce becomes available.