No Dishes to Wash

Alessandro’s bills itself as fine Italian food, and has the prices to match.  But the funny thing is, you just don’t feel it.  Caleb and I are wondering how they stay in business.  It’s at the bottom of Caleb’s parking garage downtown, and everytime we go by, there is NO ONE there.  So we took pity on them tonight and had dinner there.  It’s a little creepy to go into a restaurant that has only 2 other couples in it.  Maybe it’s the layout… maybe it’s the lack of hustle and bustle, but it just feels cold and empty inside.  By the time we left, there were about 8 tables filled, but still the same feeling persisted.  Caleb’s Caesar salad had bitter romaine,  but the starter of minestrone soup was good.  Rather brothy, but lots of fresh vegetables.  Our server, Elio, was very pleasant, and cracked a few one-liners, but still, this big, cold, empty room feeling pervaded.  The girl that filled my water was there about every 5 minutes (or maybe even less)… a little too often for me.  But what else are you going to do with only 3 tables filled at the restaurant?  I didn’t think the food was any better than a chain restaurant like Romano’s Macaroni Grill or Olive Garden, I had the fettuccine pesce, with shrimp, scallops, clams, and salmon.  The cream sauce that accompanied it was very rich, it made it hard to eat a lot (which is probably a good thing!)  Caleb had the tortellini with alfredo - I think he was in love with it.  He described it as

“Having one food in an Italian restaurant, and one foot in a soul food restaurant… It was a cross between an alfredo and a sausage gravy.”

Me? I think he was exaggerating a little bit.  Overall, this restaurant has fine food, but something is just not right… I mean, they would be a lot busier on a Friday night than 8 tables at 7 pm, if there wasn’t something off about the place.  Located at 301 SW Morrison St, open M-Th 11:30am-10pm, F 11:30am-11pm, Sa 12pm-3pm and 5pm-11pm.  There is a Happy Hour in the adjoining bar.  Oh, don’t let me forget the bread! It was the best thing.  The bread was a moist sourdough, fresh from the oven, and they had an olive oil with crushed garlic and chopped kalamata olives.  It was the only redeeming thing about dinner!

Tonight was dinner at Nostrana’s.  When you walk in, you notice the large stacks of apple/cherry firewood… for the woodburning fire/grill they are famous for. They make just about everything on it. The ceilings are high, and there is a definate stylish ambiance about the place…  I would expect to see something like it in the Pearl.  The tables did have a problem with the varnish, it’s something I’ve seen before at restaurants, the varnish becomes waxy.  But they were clean, our waitress Erika assured us.  We ordered the Parade of Rosés, which was a wine taster of three Willamette Valley rosé wines from Cameron, R. Stuart, and Matello vineyards.  We tried to pretend we knew what we were doing wine tasting (we are both Vayniacs, followers of winelibrarytv) and I think I was able to taste lemon in the R. Stuart rosé, but obviously my palate is still being refined.  Caleb preferred the drier Matello.  We both ordered antipastis, for which we were glad, because the entreé portions are small.  I ordered the Antipasti Misti, which was a trio of salad style appetizers.  There was a candied tomato and house mozzarella Caprese, the homemade mozzarella a bit saltier and tastier than normal. There was a chickpea inzimino.  And, my favorite, the grilled radicchio with olive relish.  The radicchio was so smoky from the grill, you felt like you were breathing in the smoke, with the kalamata olives, it was a wonderful appetizer.  Caleb decided to start with the Summer Minestrone, which was served room temperature (nice for a warm day) with arborio rice and a strong basil pesto.  There might have been just a tad too much pesto dolloped on the soup, it kind of dominated the flavors.  On to the entreés, I had the goose confit salad.  The sautéed morels were so buttery, just verging on crisp, and the pickled onions were such a contrast, very tangy.  It also had bing cherries and a dijon vinaigrette on the spinach based salad.  Caleb had the tagliata Strawberry Mtn flat iron steak, medium (they usually serve it rare) with garlic-rosemary oil on arugula.  The oil it was basted with was from heaven, the perfect mix of garlic and herb.  I really wanted to try the wood oven baked rhubarb and strawberry with almond cream for dessert, but sadly, you have to preorder it at the beginning of the meal, which I forgot to do.  So we settled for a Northwest cheese plate, which had 2 Monteillet cheeses (from Walla Walla WA) Le Roi Noir (sprinkled with gold dust!)  and Perail, and two Ancient Heritage cheeses (from Canby) Adelle and Hannah Bridge.  They were served with a grape chutney called nebbiolo cogna and some bing cherries and hazelnuts.  I loved the first two, and Caleb loved the last two.  Through the whole dinner, I appreciated that Erika obviously had a knowledge about the food she was serving, but she was casual about it, not intimidating like some waitstaff who can pronounce whole sentences in Italian perfectly.  We did have to ask for our bread, though, but it was well worth asking for, because it was baked in the wood oven, but very soft inside, not chewy like a traditional artisan ciabatta.  Overall, my hubby and I agreed, it was one of the best “more expensive” dinners we’ve had in a long time. Open for lunch M-F 11:30 am-2 pm and dinner Su-Th 5 pm-10 pm F-Sa 5 pm-11 pm.  Read about them on Oregonlive.com for their award of 2006 Restaurant of the Year.