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 SPEAKEASY DOES ITSEWICKLEY RESTAURANT WORKS WONDERS WITH FAMILIAR DISHES
You’ve heard of his ’n’ her towels. His ’n’ her coffee mugs. His ’n’ her caskets. But his ’n’ her restaurants? Even the Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog hasn’t come up with that one. Deborah and Pete Pivaronas have them, though. Pete has Recipes Remembered in Ohio Township. Deb has Sewickley Speakeasy in Haysville. “I think they wanted to keep me off the road,” Deb says with a laugh, explaining why the family went along with the opening of Sewickley Speakeasy last November. She is still on the road, though only about eight days a month as a consultant in behavior applications in safety for large corporations like Mobil and Uniroyal. The rest of the month she runs the Sewickley Speakeasy, the successor to the old Haysville Lounge. The building goes back to 1840 or so, with a dining room added in 1971, and Deb figures there are probably a few ghosts around. The dining room today is warm and unpretentious, with a few booths and heavy iron, cloth-covered tables in the rest of the room. On one wall of old exposed brick, flames flicker in the fireplace. Another wall is all windows, overlooking the Ohio River. In the winter, when the maple trees are bare and the lights from Coraopolis are reflected in the water, it’s a beautiful sight. Deb developed a good wine list at Recipes Remembered, when she helped her husband there, and she’s done it again here. “Amazing,” says His Honor as he flips through the slightly rumpled typewritten pages. “This list has about 200 wines.” He asks the server if he can keep the wine list to read while we’re eating. So much for conversation at this dinner. Prices are reasonable, too. If you like wine by the glass, there are good choices - a crisp, fresh Canyon Road sauvignon blanc for $6 (we could hear the bartender opening the bottle, probably one of the reasons it’s so good) and an aromatic Estancia pinot noir for $7, for example. Sewickley Speakeasy specializes in seafood and steak. The menu itself doesn’t sound too unusual, but chef Paul Pivaronas, Deb’s stepson, has come up with interesting and usually quite good interpretations of familiar dishes. Paul was chef at Recipes Remembered. His former assistant, Brian Runco, has taken over there. Paul’s portobello mushroom stuffed with crab meat is one of the best appetizers we’ve had in Pittsburgh. The crab meat stuffing is moist and sweet, and the big stuffed mushroom is covered with a lemon beurre blanc. He stuffs and covers banana peppers the same way, but we think the stuffed mushroom is better. Hot banana peppers overpower the delicate crab meat. The best entree we’ve had at Sewickley Speakeasy is veal and asparagus. The menu offers no descriptions of the dishes and the new server wasn’t eloquent, so we were pleasantly surprised. It’s much like saltimbocca, with thin pieces of veal and prosciutto wrapped around asparagus spears, dipped in a romano batter, sauteed and served with a bordelaise sauce. Veal Oscar (with crab meat), crab cakes and stuffed jumbo prawns are the best sellers on the menu. Another specialty is whole Maine lobster. We’ve also enjoyed the pork tenderloin and rack of lamb. Both have Kentucky bourbon sauce; maybe that’s the reason. Small, two-bite-size medallions of pork are grilled, glazed with the sauce and served atop smashed red potatoes seasoned with roasted garlic. A full New Zealand rack of lamb has pecan breading, sliced apples under it and more of that good bourbon sauce. Our lamb seemed a little fatty, but it was tender and cooked perfectly to order. The least successful dish was a rather ordinary Sewickley seafood platter, with lobster and green-lipped New Zealand mussels and a sun-dried tomato sauce. Do not, repeat, do not, pass up dessert at Sewickley Speakeasy. They’re made to order by Jason Fonzi, who is second in command in the kitchen. And they are quite unlike the usual Pittsburgh desserts. Where else, for example, are you going to get fried cheesecake? (That’s assuming you want your cheesecake fried, of course.) Fonzi deep-fries pieces of cheesecake and serves them two to a plate, sitting in raspberry sauce. The Zen torte is every bit as rich. It’s four petite muffin-shaped cakes, two vanilla and two chocolate. Chocolate sauce covers the plate. Strawberry shortcake is made the old-fashioned way, with fresh strawberries and buttered biscuits. (H.H. ate the whole thing before I had a chance to taste it.) We haven’t tried the apple pastry or the brownies yet (even restaurant critics can eat only so much), but I’m told they have the good Fonzi touch, too. My favorite dessert is the broiled pineapple. It’s a quarter of a baby pineapple, green top still attached, scored for easy cutting, broiled and served with coconut rum sauce. It’s light, refreshing, with just enough sweet taste from the sauce to make a satisfying finale for a meal. Keep your fork to yourself, H.H. Sewickley Speakeasy opened Nov. 17 and is still trying to work out some of the kinks. I hope they add more descriptions to the menu. I wish they could move the servers’ station out of the dining room. I jumped one night when a server dumped a container of ice cubes into a pitcher, right behind me. The restaurant has quickly been discovered by people from Beaver and Sewickley. One regular customer parks his Rolls-Royce right outside the door. I love to people-watch in a restaurant like this. You can spot the rich every time, even when they’re wearing jeans. The women all have great haircuts and carry expensive handbags. In the ladies’ room one night, I waited while one good-looking woman carefully brushed her teeth, then strolled back to the bar. What do you think? Is she a dentist? Or did she have a heavy date?
SEWICKLEY SPEAKEASY
-- Review by Woodene Merriman, Post-Gazette Dining Critic
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Hours:
Monday-Thursday, 4-10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 4-11 p.m.; closed Sunday