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Friday, July 21, 2000
By Woodene Merriman, Post-Gazette Dining Critic
She's just 26 years old and this is her first restaurant, but Jennifer Hagar has a hit on her hands.
Hagar is chef and part owner of Girasole, a tiny eating place that's developing a big following in the East End. Even on a weeknight, people sometimes have to wait on the sidewalk for a table. "I'm kind of shocked," Hagar admits.
They wait outside because there is no waiting space inside. Girasole is a narrow, stone-lined, basement-level room that used to be a coffeehouse and a surf shop. Small tables line the walls. In the front, down a few steps from the sidewalk, is an even smaller patio with seats for 20 more.
But it's the modern Italian cuisine, not the ambiance, that is the big attraction. Girasole has a small, seasonal menu of pastas, a few "primi" or first courses, a few desserts, and one fish and one meat special each day for dinner. That's it. At lunch, instead of the meat and fish special, there are a few sandwiches and salads.
It's an interesting concept, and so far (Girasole opened in April) it seems to be successful. Hagar and her partners, Gino Girasole and his father, James Girasole, are doing it their way.
No smoking is allowed, inside or out. "I don't want people to have to walk through a cloud of smoke to get to my food," Hagar says. You can bring your own wine, and most people do.
All the emphasis is on the food, and what's fresh and appropriate to the season. Hagar says she won't, for example, serve pink tomatoes in the winter. The daily specials depend on what she finds in the market that day. She buys just what she thinks she'll need, and tends to run out of specials before the end of the evening. If you particularly like one special -- say the veal chop with mushrooms and gorgonzola cheese or the mahi mahi with Swiss chard and beans, both entrees that His Honor fancied -- don't expect to go back and get it again. She usually does not repeat specials.
The big hit on the summer menu, which will be available until Sept. 20, is spinach spaghetti. It's sort of a warm salad that, in her words, is "selling like crazy." She cooks the spinach spaghetti, and while it's hot, stirs it into a sauce of halved cherry tomatoes, white corn and chunks of buffalo mozzarella. It's served lukewarm. It's a creative, light dish, appropriate for summer, and a nice change from the usual entrees served around town.
My personal favorite, though, is squid ink linguini in a thick lemon beurre blanc sauce with fresh lobster. It comes with a slice of lemon in the center of the platter, and lots of fat little lobster claws and knuckles in the linguini. Also on the menu: Polenta, a potato gnocchi with fresh mozzarella, sweet basil and ricotta ravioli in a tomato cream sauce; rigatoni in a tomato sauce with sweet Italian sausage, Swiss chard and fresh ricotta; and gemelli in a pesto sauce with shrimp and Parmesan Reggiano cheese.
One of the more unusual pasta dishes is farro spaghetti in a light cream sauce with pancetta, arugula and littleneck clams. Last fall, when H.H. and I were in Tuscany we heard a lot about farro, an old-time grain that's popular again. At Girasole, it's a favorite with many people, including those who can't tolerate wheat.
Pastas range in price from $10.95 to $19.95. That includes a fresh-made house salad with garbanzo beans, gorgonzola, black olives, grated carrots and thin red onion strips atop the good, dark greens. Oh yes, a sprinkling of sunflower seeds, too. Girasole, incidentally, means sunflower.
Each day there is a different bruschetta. The one we ordered was a little puzzling. It was four small, thick slices of Breadworks bread, with a ricotta cheese, chopped tomato, onion and basil topping -- all good, compatible ingredients. But the bread was not grilled or toasted, as you expect with bruschetta, and it was difficult to bite into. The chopped tomato kept falling off. Carpaccio -- with beef sliced so thin I could see H.H.'s smiling face through it, arugula, capers and stripes of mustard vinaigrette -- was superb.
An antipasto platter, sliced tomatoes with buffalo mozzarella and a soup of the day also are available. Appetizer prices vary from $2.95 to $10.95.
Some desserts, like the chocolate torta, are made at the restaurant, and others are purchased. The chocolate torta, served frozen, is OK, but the imported cold lemon tartufo is a standout. It's so light and refreshing, it can only be good for you, we decided.
Hagar is a graduate of Pennsylvania Culinary and worked most recently at Il Pizzaiolo in Mt. Lebanon. She has cooked, tended bar, baked, catered, and worked the front of the house in Myrtle Beach and here in Pittsburgh. Gino Girasole also worked at Il Pizzaiolo. The two are dating, and so far, she says, working together hasn't hurt the romance. "I keep him well fed," she says.
Girasole has some problems. It can get noisy. The shiny aluminum tables and chairs on the patio are attractive but uncomfortable and very close together. I got to know the woman behind me well; we were seated rump to rump. When she moved, I had to, too.
Pasta platters are big, and the tables are small. It takes some juggling to get everything onto the table. Servers do not announce the price of the specials, which is irritating. We had to ask.
Still, those are small complaints when you're really enjoying your dinner. We can't wait to see what's coming up on the fall menu.
Girasole
Owners Jimmy Girasole and Gino Girasole with chef Jennifer Hagar (center) in the doorway of Girasole in Shadyside. (Tony Tye, Post-Gazette) 
733 Copeland St., Shadyside
412-682-2130
Hours: Tuesday-Thursday, 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m.; Sunday, 4-9 p.m. Closed Monday.The basics: Modern Italian cuisine; BYOB (corkage fee, $1.50 a person); seats 38 inside, 20 outside; no smoking permitted; seasonal menu; no children's menu, but child-size dishes will be prepared for them; not wheelchair accessible; major credit cards; no reservations.The last word: 3 stars