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Friday, March 03, 2000
By Woodene Merriman Post-Gazette Dining Critic
Between courses, His Honor is keeping himself busy. Before the lentil soup arrived, he checked out the fireplace, announced that it's gas-fired, and carefully closed the glass door on the mantel clock above. Whoever wound the old clock apparently forgot to close it.
He felt the wall covering, and decided that it's good quality. He looked out the window a few minutes, watching a family getting onto a PAT bus on Western Avenue.
Between the lentil soup and the duck confit salad, he traded his chair with one from the next table. "Much more comfortable," he said. (There are no other diners in this second-floor dining room tonight, or I would be dying of embarrassment.) He walked into the tiny, empty room next door and checked it out. A table and six chairs, plus a chaise lounge. In case you want to eat Roman style, I guess. He came back smiling about the cross-stitched "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door handle.
I'm beginning to get restless, too. In the ladies room I tried on the old pillbox hat, covered in what looks like gold flower petals, left on the table. Too small.
You get the point. Service is excruciatingly slow, so slow that when the server finally suggests dessert, we pass. It's been close to two hours, and we can't sit any longer.
Even when we sat in the first-floor parlor one night, service was slow. Every time we caught sight of our server with a dish in his hand we would sit up expectantly, thinking it was for us. Then we would have to wait a little longer.
That's the bad side of our experience at the new Cafe Victoria, which opened in October in the old Torrance House in Allegheny West. The good part is that the food is prepared to order, it's imaginative and different, the menu keeps changing and the staff keeps improving.
What's more, they don't do iceberg (as in lettuce).
You may remember there was once another Cafe Victoria in this house, which goes back to the Victorian Age (1838-1901). The antique furnishings in the former Cafe Victoria were for sale. If you liked your chair or your neighbor's table, it could be added to your bill and you carried it out the door.
This time the antiques are not for sale. The new owners are Joe Jordan, a veteran Northwest flight attendant who shops for hard-to-get ingredients when he's in Paris or London; Tom Chianelli, of the Pittsburgh Chianelli upholstery family; and Robert Antonelli, who worked for President Bush and Dick Cheney in Washington, and then helped Gov. Ridge get elected. Jordan also is the interior decorator.
And a charming restaurant it is. Fires blaze in all the old fireplaces these cold nights. Dinners are served in five dining rooms on two floors, with names like the parlour, library, Prince Albert room, or a private dining room. The Victorian mood is set with the deeply- textured wallcovering, cherubs on some of the walls, white damask tablecloths, antique tables and chairs and soft lighting.
For H.H., the lighting is too soft. Out comes the ever-ready pocket flashlight to check the wine list: 11 reds, six whites, $28-$75, nothing unusual. Rabbit Ridge Chardonnay at $32 is typical. Five wines by the glass are $4.95.
The dinner menu is a la carte, with entree choices ranging from $17.95 to $24.95. It's a seasonal menu, designed to change every three months. The current menu will be served until the end of March.
Grilled cumin shrimp, portobello tower and salmon tartare must be popular appetizers. They were on the menu when we ate here with the old menu, and they're on the new menu. The shrimp are nice, eight of them, medium size, dusted with cumin, fresh ginger and garlic, served atop a small mound of greens (limp, alas) and decorated with a carrot-ginger coulis piped onto the plate.
The portobello tower is a stack of layers of mushroom, oven-dried tomatoes, roasted sweet potatoes and smoked Gouda cheese topped with black bean salsa. "Stacking" is one of the presentation techniques of chef Chris Noonan. Part-owner Jordan calls it "nuevo European."
I remember H.H. first encountered a stacked entree here at the old Cafe Victoria. He was unimpressed. "How am I supposed to eat this?" he asked, and immediately took his fork and knocked it over.
Noonan specializes in soup as thick as baby food. When H.H. cut his spoon down through the roasted butternut squash soup, it parted like the Red Sea before Moses. It's an interesting soup, though, flavored with saffron and candied walnuts. Tonight's lentil soup is hearty and thick; it just needs a little something to perk up the flavor.
We've tried all the salads on the menu (there are only three). They're all good, all made with fresh crisp greens. But the crispy duck confit, with small orange segments, candied walnuts, tasty pieces of duck and a roasted shallot vinaigrette on the greens, is outstanding.
The winter menu has only eight entrees, but the preparation of each one is a little innovative, and nicely presented. Noonan, who worked at Casbah, and his sous chef, Jeremy Hickey, who came from Soba Lounge, haven't perfected everything yet, but they should be encouraged. We had the grilled veal tenderloin one night when it was a special, served with gorgonzola mashed potatoes, baby root vegetables and a preserved lemon demi-glace. All good, but the baby carrots (with stems) and the little beets were underdone. That tenderloin chop now is served over black currant risotto with the preserved lemon demi-glace.
The grilled vegetable Napoleon (another name for a stacked entree) has layers of portobello mushrooms, zucchini, squash, eggplant, roasted peppers and flatbread, along with black bean salsa and balsamic syrup. It's a good dish, but too much skin was left on the eggplant.
H.H. thinks I'm nitpicking. But listen to him! His sesame-crusted salmon served atop a bed of cold lo mein noodles in a spicy sesame sauce was barely warm when it arrived.
"The menu doesn't say the noodles are cold," he's grumbling. "I know it's a long way up here from the kitchen. Why can't they put plate covers over the entrees." Why not, indeed?
Cafe Victoria
946 Western Ave., North Side
412-323-8881
Hours: Lunch, Tuesday through Saturday, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.; dinner, Tuesday through Thursday, 5:30-9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 5:30-10 p.m.; Sunday brunch, 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Closed Monday.The basics: Nuevo European cuisine, a la carte menu that changes seasonally; different menu at lunch when the quiche du jour and a salad ($7.95) and filet mignon with garlic risotto ($13.95O) are popular; Sunday sit-down brunch has four courses ($14.95) with puffy French toast a specialty; reasonable selection of wines; service bar only; parking at street meters and in nearby lots; not wheelchair accessible; not noisy; some no-smoking dining rooms; seats 65; major credit cards, except Discover; reservations recommended.The last word: 3 Stars