Squirrel Hill Cafe revamps the menu and atmosphere

Friday, February 06, 2004

By Sarah Billingsley, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

After five years at Pino's Pizza Kitchen in mutable, mobile Squirrel Hill, Chef Joe "Pino" Mico dimmed his burners and closed his doors. He'd decided that he needed to reinvent and update his informal cafe.

Pino's Cafe Rustica's menu combines classic French technique and peasant Italian flavors. (Peter Diana, Post-Gazette) Pino's Cafe Rustica 2100 Murray Ave. Squirrel Hill 412-521-3121 Hours: Closed Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday, Thursday, 4 to 10 p.m.; Friday, Saturday 4 to 11 p.m. Basics: All major credit cards accepted. Reservations preferred; walk-ins welcomed. Seats 68. Top floor and rest rooms are handicapped accessible. Price range: appetizers, $4 to $10; entrees, $15 to $30; desserts, $5 to $7.

Several months passed. The first change, visible from the street, were the swags of thick, rust-colored velvet hung from the huge storefront windows. Instantly, the inside of the restaurant seemed more alluring and polished.

The swanky new drapes cut the draft and bring intimacy to the dining space. The main dining room is a few steps down from the entrance and remains unaltered; its ceiling is still painted like a starry night, celestial blue, dotted with yellow. Artwork is sparse and the room is dimly lit -- as much as possible in a building that's all windows -- with track lighting and cylindrical hanging fixtures.

Mico made sweeping changes to the menu, which has been completely revamped as a fusion of classic French technique and peasant Italian flavors that is more current and interesting than familiar trattoria fare. Mico has plenty of space to serve heartier favorites at his newish Pino's Mercato, across the street from the original, tiny Pino's pizza shop -- a space Mico refers to as "the cubicle."

Mico opened Pino's Pizza a decade ago, following stints at Tuscan Inn, Cafe Allegro and the long-deceased Jacqueline's. Mico was among the first in Pittsburgh to sell authentically thin and gritty pies topped with high quality ingredients; in hindsight, proof that good things come from humble beginnings.

Pino's Cafe Rustica is far grander in scope, as Mico's mission has changed over time. Now, it's not enough to merely serve good food. He wants to keep pace with culinary trends and provide a colorful, friendly environment. He wants his Pino's Cafe Rustica -- and Pino's Mercato -- to be indispensable neighborhood gathering places.

Mico is now in the role of overseer in his restaurants. At Pino's Cafe Rustica, chef Jeffrey Varcoe shares the brainstorm and executes the menu. Mico also relies on pastry chef Tracy Dinn, a recent culinary school graduate, for the fresh breads that ground the menu and the superb desserts that make the Pino's experience sing.

From vinaigrette to focaccia to pasta, everything is made in-house. The dishes are sometimes quirky, but never complicated.

House-made tagliatelle has a yielding chewiness and silky texture you can't get from a box. Wound with grilled eggplant and a velvet carbonara sauce, it's mellow and wholesome. Veal scallopine, pounded tender and supple from a minute in a hot pan, is doused in demi glace and paired with an excellent house-made wild mushroom ravioli.

The ubiquitous salmon fillet gets the couture treatment, but Varcoe resists fussing it up. The potent pink meat is gentled by a creamy mousseline filling and a soft sauce that's redolent of shallots and wine.

A special of shrimp and scallops over pasta puttanesca needed a hot shock; its intense paste of a tomato sauce overpowered the buttery seafood. But, on the menu, simple shrimp, sauteed gently with butter and herbs, are plain and lovely.

Another simple pleasure are the little salads, each a handful of fresh greens enlivened by an accent or two: there's spinach and feta, a perky Caesar and mesclun dressed with a balsamic vinaigrette. Nightly, there's a different homemade soup: A puree of roasted vegetables and garlic was bitter with eggplant, but it was nice on bread as a baba ganoush-like dip.

Pino's flatbreads and bruschetta should be sampled; they are first-rate. A slice of rustic loaf, toasted, was topped with a spicy tangle of sauteed calamari and tomato. Wheaty flatbread was daubed with warm goat cheese, with grilled eggplant, peppers and zucchini laid on neatly as a checkerboard.

Two words describe Dinn's desserts: winsome and superior. Her chocolate Napoleon -- three delicate lace cookies layered with milky mousse, the whole drizzled with a bittersweet line of chocolate -- melts in the mouth. Her lemon tart, on a pool of creme anglaise, is an enchanting balance of cool and warm, custard and crackle. The ultralight curd is cradled in a firm pate sucre crust, and singed lightly to form a creme brulee cap you can crack with your spoon.

Round out your dessert with a good cup of coffee or a heady cappuccino. Pino's is yet another of the recent additions to the dining scene, Enrico's and Sarafino's among them, committed to doing a cappuccino right. At Pino's the flavor is strong and roasty, the head thick and creamy.

You may need a coffee to combat the chill that sweeps through the restaurant when the door opens. Pino's, like Enrico's and Sarafino's, needs to install a set of double doors to keep the icy wind from blasting your plate of hot food or settling around your shoulders. Warmth is a basic right of dining out.

Servers know the food well: its taste, the ingredients, where they come from. They do not linger at the table, nor do you wait for anything. Pino's service is like a well-run ship with few flubs. Tables are small, and sometimes all the plates, wine bottles and glasses must be juggled around; we were dealt with graciously when a friend moved her wide plate to an empty table.

Mico has plans to start serving brunch and lunch, as well as takeaway coffee and pastries. The restaurant is, and will remain, BYOB.

New restaurants in Squirrel Hill live in the shadow of the nearby Waterfront. It takes personality and finesse to challenge that shiny corporate sameness, which has been steadily draining customers away from authentic neighborhoods with homogeneity and copious free parking.

At any of the Waterfront restaurants, you won't experience the variety of good food and interaction with lively customers and community that Pino's Cafe Rustica offers. The restaurant epitomizes history, connectedness, accessibility and color -- this is what urban life is about.

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