Bernell DorroughThe Restaurant
Bar Italia
13 Maryland Plaza
(314) 361-7010
Reservations Recommended
Entrees: $12.95 – $22.95
Attire: Snappy/Business Casual
Strengths: Good service, outdoor seating, and unique nightly specials
It was that weekend that all of us lovers of good food look forward to. This past weekend my parents came from Chicago to visit. I gritted my teeth and bore the necessary preparations: cleaning the apartment, doing my laundry and the dishes, and taking the garbage out of my car. Then I began to panic as I approached the most daunting task: choosing the restaurants where we would eat.
I come from a food-obsessed family. My father in particular has eaten at the very finest restaurants in the U.S. and Europe and has the most discriminating of palates (it’s in the Watson character). On his last visit to St. Louis he was telling me about an upcoming dinner party he was planning at Le Bernardin in New York, which according to Gourmet magazine is arguably the best restaurant in the country.
As a senior, I also have the problem that I have already taken my parents to a number of my favorite St. Louis restaurants. Freshman year we ate at Balaban in Central West End, and Caf‚ Napoli in Clayton. Sophomore year my father and I ate at Modesto on the Hill. Junior year we ate at the vegetarian restaurant Tangerine, where my father said after dinner, “This was great, now where’s my steak.”
This year I was looking for a restaurant where my father could have his meat, and I my vegetarian options; one that was unique, both for its food and its architecture and/or location; and it had to be restaurant that I had not been to previously. I would have also picked a restaurant that was normally out of my budget when the parents weren’t in town picking up the tab (we went to King Louie’s Saturday night). For purposes of this column, however, I wanted to select a restaurant that was easily accessible to and affordable for students.
Bar Italia Ristorante & Caf‚, a mid-priced, trendy restaurant in the Central West End (13 Maryland Plaza) is just that place. I selected the restaurant based on a diverse menu and what appeared from its website (http://www.baritaliastl.com/) to be an interesting interior.
The restaurant proved to have an equally nice exterior, with a large outdoor seating area-one of the restaurants many attractive attributes-where we enjoyed our meal.
After having a pre-dinner drink-the restaurant has an extensive cocktail and wine menu-we started our meal with a couple of appetizers. First, we ordered Carpaccio, which consists of paper-thin slices of raw beef with chunks of parmigiano cheese, mushrooms and capers, drizzled with olive oil. I did not try this appetizer, but judging by the rate at which it was eaten, it must have been very good. That is certainly true if the Bruschetta was any indication. The Bruschetta, a simple Italian appetizer of toasted Italian bread with any number of toppings (which change regularly at Bar Italia), was topped with a medley of different mushrooms and goat cheese, which was the perfect combination of very subtle, interesting flavors.
For my main course I ordered the Penne ai Funghi de Boso, a combination of Shitake, cremini and oyster mushrooms saut‚ed with garlic and rosemary, topped with parmigiano cheese. It was just the dish I was looking for, wanting a unique entr‚e-here the rosemary combined with the natural flavors of the mushrooms and a sprinkle of olive oil combined for a very light, yet full flavor-but not overwhelmingly heavy. Light on the cheese and without any heavy sauces, the Penne proved a good choice for a smaller appetite.
My mother also had a lovely vegetarian dish, which was one of the night’s specials. She ordered a pumpkin (or was it squash) filled ravioli. Again, this was a simple, light dish with fantastic fall flavors, representing one of many very appealing nightly specials offered by the restaurant.
The Petto de Pollo Agro Dolce-from the regular menu-a citrus-clove-mint marinated breast of chicken saut‚ed with mushrooms, red onion, bell peppers, raisins, sultanas and pignoli, with sweet-sour balsamic reduction sauce, which Jonah and my father both ordered, also proved to be a hit of the evening. As I am a vegetarian-my father this last weekend told me if I wanted to be a real food critic, an occupation that he hopes that I take up so that he can accompany me to restaurants and so I don’t end up being a war correspondent, I would have to quit this vegetarian nonsense-I did not try this dish. However, with its complex flavors-the sauce apparently was quite good-and the fact the chef used such words as “reduction sauce,” it was able to satisfy my father, who made exemplary comments as to the dish’s quality. Reason enough for me to be impressed.
To finish off the evening Jonah and I split a tiramisu-a traditional, cool Italian desert, which consists of a lady finger pastry soaked in rich espresso coffee, with a hint of liquor flavor, layered with a light chocolate pudding-which was a the crowning jewel of a very satisfying meal.