Read Drink & Be Merry

Thanks to Matt Marinara I managed to score a prime-time Saturday reservation to the soft opening weekend of RVA’s newest pizza joint, Stuzzi’s.  Here a few thoughts….

The bad – let’s just get it out of the way…  It was hot.  Meltingly so.  They enlarged the 1N Belmont dining room, raised the ceiling and added a wood fueled pizza oven to the middle of the space – then kept the same AC unit that had been used by Fritz.  Add maybe three times the number of people that used to occupy the old space and it became harder to tell if it was hotter inside or out – and this last weekend in Richmond was set to braise.  Of course, if I had a nickel for every time a Richmond restaurant open only to realize their AC unit was insufficient I would have at least a couple of bucks.  To their credit they realized the problem early on, added some ceiling fans before service on Saturday and told me they are getting a larger unit this week.  With a little luck, and hopefully minimal interference from the City, this should be a short term issue.

The not so bad….  Opening weekends can be chaotic for service.  I’ve opened several restaurants and it really doesn’t matter how experienced the staff or how much you trained – the best you can really hope for is it not to be a disaster.  Considering the circumstances – this staff did all right.  Between the heat, a packed dining room and bar plus a line out the door the wait staff kept things moving under trying circumstances and managed to remain gracious through-out.  Food and drink were served quickly, nothing had to be asked for twice, and when a couple of minor things went wrong they looked sufficiently horrified.  Service-wise, a good start under difficult conditions.

The good…  The food.  Only a limited menu was available and, due to the crowd and the heat, we really didn’t have a long drawn out dinner.  What we did have was quite good.  A basic caprese to start then pizza and pasta.  Finn selected the mussels over fettucini with red sauce – and then did what only a 5 year old can – sucked it all down.  He proclaimed it good with a big thumbs up and a huge pile of empty shells.

M and I ordered two of the pizzas.  A Margherita – basil, buffalo mozzarella and sauce – and a Sopresatta – the same but with thin slices of cured meat.  The crust, fire baked on lava rock from Mt Vesuvius, was perfect – simple, crusty and really unlike anything else served in Richmond today.  The sauce was equally simple – little more than crushed tomato and best described as ‘bright’ in flavour.  A real triumph of basic ingredients speaking for themselves.  Little Elias liked the sopresatta so much we asked for a couple of extra slices of the meat for him to chew on.  The only difficulty, if it can be called that, was, due to the intense heat, the pizza never really cooled down to set and remained a bit of a gooey, runny mess.  Regardless, it was quite good and will be worth many return visits.

All in all, a good opening and a valiant effort.  Looks like we have a new pizza player in the Fan and maybe, as this is their goal, a mention of Richmond as a pizza destination on the Eastern seaboard.

Recently there has been much debate about two eateries by the local blogging community. So much so that I am not even going to try to link to all them. Just too difficult with my nearly antiquated Mac that will not allow me to cut and paste links. So if you really want to read all of the reviews and subsequent discussions go here and read, I’ll wait…. OK, are you up to speed? Good. Now, let’s move on to our adventure….

Finn and I started the evening at Can-Can. After getting more wet in the freak thunderstorm than at his swim lesson we had arrived in a fairly damp condition. We pulled up to the bar and grabbed an extra barstool for the impending arrival of RVA Foodie and our discussion on the dangers of cutting onions. Seems both of us had damged ourselves. Myself while slicing where a slide of the outer ring of the onion sent the knife through the side of my finger down to the fingernail. RVA with the error all of us fear the most – a mandolin mistake. I’m still missing a piece of my thumb from my last careless use of this culinary death trap.

As I savored my Tanq 10 martini I pondered the discussion that had gone on over the last month or so about Can-Can. No real complaints about the food, really mostly raves, it was increasingly inconsistent service – mostly at the bar – that had everyone all up in arms. I quickly realized that I would be a bad judge of the bar service. The managers all know me, or actually they know Finn (I’m just the one who pays his bill), as do most of the bartenders – one is even a customer at my bookstore. Besides that, I tend to be a bit pushy. I won’t give them a chance to ignore me. I did notice they had one more bartender on then they usually did at this hour and that they were keeping much more busy than last we were in. Perhaps the scathing letter from In Vino Veritas had done the trick. RVA Foodie arrived, was greeted by the bartender and…. oddly, was not offered a drink. I’m guessing we should call that a fail.

At this point as Finn and I had been there an hour before Foodies arrival and Finn was making the transition from quiet, content and drawing to his strange need to circle the restaurant. The Can-Can staff are very indulgent of Finn and servers and managers played with him and helped me keep an eye on his travels. (Parental Note – Had there been any diners at the tables or had he disturbed anyone trying to eat I was prepared to remove him – as it was just after 5 everyone was at the bar.)

We noshed on some raw bar and one of the managers bent the rules and got Finn some gougeres off the dinner menu. Sensing Finn was ready to go we asked for the check. Although we had asked for separate checks it came combined. Sigh, fail. Honestly, we were never asked if we wanted to order anything, food or drink. Not once was there a spontaneous offer of a drink refill. I suppose if they are going for aloof French service they have achieved their goal. Personally, I think they have quite a bit of re-training to do as they seem to have drifted from their basic level of service they had when they first opened.

Saying good-bye to RVA Foodie, Finn and I took off for something more substantial to eat. Pizza sounded good so it was off to Tarrantino’s. Half the bloggers seem to love this new place while the other half have been completely unimpressed by it. Prior to Fridays visit we had eaten with them twice. Once at the restaurant and once by take-away. Eating in-house the crisp was perfect and I raved. Eating at home…. the crust had steamed to sogginess (not sure if that is there fault or the cities founders for building Richmond over a humid swamp…) and we had the most distressing of topping slides. Basically it was a wreck. IVV had eaten there last week and declared the crust soft and the pizza greasy. Time to recheck the in-house, superior in my mind, product.

I ordered two small pies. One a red Hawaiian, the other a seafood bianca. No puddle of grease on either and the crust was perfect. Disappointments? I had a couple. The pineapple on the Hawaiian contained so much moisture that there was a puddle of liquid in the center of the red pizza. That moisture may have been the driver of our topping slide that we had at home. The seafood on the bianca…. the scallops (bay) were firm and tasty, the shrimp were also bay and were lacking. Just this side of fishiness the pizza would have been better served using chopped jumbo shrimp rather than the bay. This was also our first try with the bianca – excellent.

We took the remainders home for snacks. Trying a piece cold that evening I found the crust to still be firm with a bit of crunchiness. So at least we know it travels well after being allowed to cool.

Bottom line – Can-Can needs more friendly engaging bartenders that are more service oriented. The current level of service is more nightclub than upscale restaurant. Pizza at Tarrantino’s needs to be eaten in-house, either in the main restaurant or back in the pizza parlor. Do not allow it to steam itself to sogginess. Not even out to the parking lot. They either need to put steam vents in the boxes or we can’t do carryout until Fall when the humidity drops down to a more pizza friendly level….

Restaurants change for any number of reasons. New chefs, management, or ownership. Flagging sales can be a driver especially in new restaurants who haven’t ‘discovered’ who they are. Sometimes, though, it can be a misguided attempt to be something your not.

Last February we went to Popkin on our way to the circus. The food was basic bar grub. Lot’s of fried items, sandwiches, and bits to nosh on. Nothing fancy, except for the ubiquitious cilantro pesto, but they knew what they were. A tavern serving the kind of food drinkers want. Nothing wrong with that and, to be honest, they did a decent job of it. Whoever was manning the fry station knew what he was doing – crispy and clean not greasy and tasting vaguely of something else. It was the kind of place that, in my younger days I may have hung out with friends or popped into eat at in between different clubs. It was with all this in mind that, after a swim lesson with Finn, that we decided to re-enter Popkin Tavern.

The first thing we noticed was a new menu, actually two menus. Uh-oh. I find it to be a bad sign when a restaurant cannot decide on a menu. Different menus for different times of the day, yes. Different menus because they are not sure who their diners are or what they want, no. One menu was a ‘Tavern’ menu the other a ‘Dining’ menu. It looked like they were trying to go upscale with moules frites (mussels & fries), fancy french fry combinations (one sounded vaguely like a beef bourguignon with cheese – sounds messy to me and, frankly, not that appetizing), small pizzas and a number of ‘hot’ entrees that you can find in every trendy restaurant in town that is lacking in creativity. OK, let’s see if they can live up to their new image….

Ordered a cocktail. I understand that not every bar stocks my favourite gin, Tanqueray 10, but a bartender should at least be aware of it’s existence and be prepared to offer alternatives. A blank look on the face does not inspire confidence in you knowing your product or how to put it together. If your moving upscale you need to have liquors that reflect the new direction and train your staff to do more than pour draft beer. Also, it might be a good idea if they wiped down the fridge doors and dusted the glass liquor shelves more than once a quarter. I nixed the idea of ordering fresh mussels based on the amount of dirt I could see. If you can’t even clean your bar how is your live shellfish storage?

The mess behind the bar caused me to look around a bit more. Little piles of dirt on the floor. Tables that looked un-wiped, some with a single salt shaker, some with two pepper shakers, some with none (nearly all in need of re-filling and a wash). Sugar caddies with or without sugar, or just the blue stuff, or just the pink stuff and sugar. All this sounds small until you are the guest trying to flag down a waiter during a rush because you don’t have what you need already on the table. Eating in a bar I have low expectations. When you start asking $20+ for entrees you need to justify that expense. These are all management issues. You cannot raise your food standard without doing the same with the staff. These was a lot of staff there. All doing sidework… ok, folding napkins…. ok, mainly just chatting with each other.

Speaking of the staff, the oddest interaction went on while I was there. Some twenty-something guy was there and the staff was fawning over him. Both boys and girls seemed to be hitting on him. Since they were all hanging on his every word and were in raptured silence I could hear him prattle on. Sorry, a long pretentious speech on the ‘unappealing esthetics’ of the ESPN2 logo on the sides of the widescreen TV nearly inspired me to fling my martini glass in his direction. But all these kids were jockeying to be near him, to put their hands on his shoulder, it was all very odd. I’ll have to ask Jack about this phenomena. Maybe he can clear it up a bit.

The guy was also the reason that we didn’t try an entree or some of the more upscale items. He had the Pan Seared Sea Scallops. Looking at the plate from distance it was a tinker-toy construction of asparagus and scallops held together by a blob of mashed potato. Beyond looking awkward, it smelled, bad. I know a shady scallop when I smell one and, at 10 feet away, it overpowered the tobacco smoke in the bar.

So, this brought us to our food decision. One of their gourmet pizzettes. Basically a 12 inch pizza. I selected the Pepperoni Tomato and Wild Mushroom. The crust reminded me of my baguettes last weekend where I had not kneeded the dough long enough leaving a strong flour taste. The extent of the tomato was the sauce, the pepperoni was unremarkable, the wild mushrooms were oven dried button. Basically, we should have gone to Tarrantino’s.

Every restaurant has a personality. The combination of the chef, the management and staff, the food and the decor all add to this. It doesn’t matter if you are a 5-star or a greasy spoon, you can serve a good meal when all these factors are in agreement. On our last visit I though that Popkin Tavern had a good idea who they were. The recent changes have upset that balance and I think they have lost their way.

Seems all the bloggers have been flocking to Tarrantino’s for the hottest new ticket to pizza in town. RVA Foodie and Brie weighed in and gave excellent reviews. What more could I add? Actually, a couple of things. With all due respect to RVA and Brie, they’re veg-heads, as an omnivore I require a bit more to my pizza pie. There’s also something to be said for pizza being eaten on the spot. I love 8 1/2 but doesn’t the pizza sometimes end end up more steamed than baked by the time you get it home? So, it was with these questions in mind that Finn & I entered the hallowed halls of Tarrantino’s after a canceled swim lesson.

The art on the walls is nice. The rest, kind of thrown together. Above it all, a huge flat screen. I despise TV’s in restaurants. I did, however, remember this was a pizza parlor in the making. TV’s may not be such anathema here. Besides, the channel was on the Food Network. Ugh, it was Rachel Ray. I looked around waiting for glass to crack and birds to fall from the sky.

The sole employee was a bit surprised at having sit down guests but adjusted quickly. Being cruel I ordered a gin and tonic. By my calculations an employee would end up walking nearly a full city block to go and get your drink at the main bar and bring it back to you. If this ever becomes a full blown sit down operation this could be an issue. If your ordering a cocktail (they’ll have a keg or two in the space in the near future) and it’s busy be patient and tip accordingly. That’s a lot of walking over the course of a six to eight hour shift.

The menu looks a like most other gourmet pizza places although it did make a point of saying that all the sauces and dough were made fresh daily. We (I) decided on one of their speciality pizzas, the Hawaiian. Basically your typical ham and pineapple with an addition of onion. The waiter/pizza man took our order and went to work. Out came the dough and after a few punches up into the air. Finn was enthralled. Cheese was liberally applied, ham freshly chopped as well as the pineapple (canned, but you really can’t expect fresh). The onions were sauteed in advance. I found out that onions, mushrooms, and peppers were sauteed and caramelized in advance to add flavour and to enhance their texture. This was looking good! Into the oven it went.

The wait was short and soon we had a rack with a piping hot pizza in front of us. I must reiterate here, eat it here at least once instead of taking it home. The crust was exquisite. The best way to describe it would be very nearly a pastry. Crisp and moist, the freshness of the red sauce and it’s spices, the caramelized onions and other toppings could not have worked together better.

Have you ever seen a child eat their favourite bits off a piece of pizza before eating the rest? Finn proceeded to pick off all the pieces of caramelized onion and the joy on his face as he savored each bite was a wonder to watch.

After half an hour the crust softened up a bit. It was still good but you really should eat there. Really. I mean it.

When you look at their prices (very reasonable), the quality of their product, and the fact that they will soon be delivering (You still need to eat there to get the proper experience) you would be right to wonder how and why Pizza Hut and it’s ilk are still in business. And to be quite honest, except for their carbonara, 8 1/2 is off our dining card (subject to change once I determine how Tarrantino’s crust travels…).