These six eateries won praise from P-G critics in 2006

Sunday, December 31, 2006

By Amy McConnell Schaarsmith, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Picking a favorite restaurant can be a bit like answering that perennial stumper: If you could only save one of your family members from a burning building, who would it be?

In other words, it's a difficult question, and it doesn't seem quite fair. There are lots of great places to eat dinner in Pittsburgh, from home-style meat and potatoes to sophisticated sushi and saki. But life is hard sometimes, so choose we must.

Instead of picking the hottest new restaurants of 2006 -- too few new hot spots opened to make that feasible, frankly -- or the hottest new chefs, the folks who write about food for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette have picked their favorite restaurants of 2006.

Some of those restaurants are brand-new. Some have been around for years and are still going strong. But in all cases, our choices represent a meal that transcended just good food or attentive service or welcoming ambience. In each case, the meal we ate at these restaurants represents one of our truly special, memorable experiences of 2006.

We hope you enjoy trying these restaurants for yourself in the new year.

AZUL BAR Y CANTINA/Jose Lemus

Most chefs travel the same road on their way to a top position at a club or restaurant, and it pretty much goes like this: formal training at a cooking school, some sort of internship or apprenticeship during which they fine-tune and augment their skills, and then years spent working their way from job to job and up the culinary ladder.

Then there are people like chef Jose Lemus of Azul Bar y Cantina, who don't choose the profession so much as the profession chooses them. That is to say, they were born to cook.

A native of Mexico City, Mr. Lemus grew up watching his father Narcizo, a chef, prepare his country's traditional dishes, as well as those with more European and French influences. Yet rather than be put off by the work -- he witnessed firsthand the inevitable cuts and burns that come with the job -- he fell in love with the idea of transforming fresh meats, vegetables and seafood into fabulous feasts for his family and friends.

"I was always curious to see how it was done," recalls the self-taught Mr. Lemus, 31, of Canonsburg whose small but carefully crafted menu for the new Leetsdale eatery includes recipes handed down from his grandfather. "So I knew this was something I wanted to do."

As top dog at this funky Leetsdale eatery, which is squeezed with colorful aplomb into a 100-year-old former pharmacy, the tattooed Mr. Lemus -- who favors T-shirts over a chef's white jacket and sports a shaved head instead of a starched toque -- has proven himself as one to watch. True, Azul's closet-like kitchen precludes a huge menu. But what it lacks in size, it more than makes up for with authenticity (he claims it's the only Mexican eatery in the area to serve the huitlacoche, a smoky-tasting fungal delicacy which grows naturally on ears of corn) and attention to detail (everything is made in-house, from scratch). And it's a bargain to boot.

Little wonder, then, that ever since the restaurant's polished wooden doors opened in May, it's been crazy busy, serving some 5,000 people each week. But bring it on.

"I love it," Mr. Lemus says.

The fact his customers love it too?

"That makes me really proud."

Azul Bar y Cantina. 122 Broad St., Leetsdale 15056. 724-266-6362.

-- Gretchen McKay

SIX PENN KITCHEN/ Chris Jackson

Here's how a line cook at Restaurant X prepares chicken wings. Shake a portion of wing parts out of a food-service freezer bag, deep fry and serve with bottled sauce.

Here's how Executive Chef Chris Jackson of Six Penn Kitchen makes his three-day House Smoked Chicken Wings. Take a quantity of small, fresh chicken wings and soak them in lemon-infused, sweet tea brine. Pull them out after 24 hours, and slow-cook in chicken fat for a couple of hours. Let cool and rest before smoking in a wood-burning oven. Serve with house-made hot sauce and buttermilk blue cheese dressing.

Although Six Penn Kitchen is the risen star under the Eat'n Park corporate umbrella, do not in any way confuse it with its sister restaurants. Six Penn, under the direction of Chef Jackson, is a foodie destination with a sophisticated wine list. Don't look for the Breakfast Smile. Don't even think about it.

Chef Jackson is only 34, but he has a resume to rival chefs twice his age. His menus are informed by stints in Memphis (Smoked Pulled Pork Sandwich), New Orleans (Shrimp Etouffee), Virgina (Skillet Buttermilk Cornbread), San Francisco (House-Smoked Tequila-cured Salmon Sandwich with Lime Aioli), Portland, Maine (Fresh Jumbo Lump Crabcake) and Philadelphia, where he won awards for both Best Crab cake and Best Brunch.

So what was the bait that brought him to Pittsburgh?

"I had my chance to build a 180-seat restaurant from the ground up," says Chef Jackson. "This is my place. I learned to read blueprints, write manuals and make my own menu.

"I'm really a farmer guy, and I try as much as I can to use local suppliers. And I'm on any bandwagon that promotes fresh and local food. Our pork comes from Wil-Den Farm, and our lamb from Jamison Farms. Mozzarella cheese for our pizzas is made locally, and we use local honey in dressings. I believe in getting away from mega-agribusiness as much as possible and giving support to our local community."

When you see "house made" on the menu, you can believe it. All breads, sauces and desserts are made in-house.

"I think people are finally understanding what Six Penn is all about," says Chef Jackson. "The proof is on Monday nights, when we have BYO night with no corkage fee. Even though we're a downtown restaurant in a city of neighborhoods, we draw a full house. We see oenophiles bringing in favorite wines to match with menu entrees. We draw chefs who come in on their night off. There's no better joy than cooking for people like this."

Six Penn Kitchen. Corner of 6th Street and Penn Ave., Downtown. 412-566-7366.

-- Marlene Parrish

BONA TERRA/Douglass Dick

There are two restaurants that make my "favorite" list this year, but I'm only going to focus on one, and here's why: Eleven, the sleek, urbane flagship of the local big Burrito group chain, serves consistently wonderful food, but it has the slightly unapproachable quality of a place that must serve hundreds of diners every night.

At the tiny Bona Terra in Sharpsburg, you feel that chef Douglass Dick is back in the kitchen cooking for you, and you alone. The decor is plain, but the food is transcendent: If the menu didn't change every day, I'd go back every night for the $14 appetizer of American-raised Kobe beef alone -- little charred squares of almost-rare, butter-tender beef dressed with Spanish olive oil and a relish of roasted tomatoes and artichoke hearts. Steak tartare was never this good.

My husband's aromatic duck with cranberry dressing was perfectly prepared. My hunk of Hawaiian snapper -- crusty golden brown on the outside, mild and sweet on the inside -- was health food at its most evolved, served in a delicate miso broth with matchstick-thin vegetables and laced with the subtle heat of chili oil.

Chef Dick is religious about seeking out the best ingredients, preferably grown seasonally, sustainably and regionally. Fennel's licorice notes beautifully perfume a roasted tomato soup drizzled with basil oil. The "mizuna" salad greens are peppery and fresh, studded with crisp bacon -- local! -- and flavor-packed, marinated wild mushrooms. One down note: The rosemary scented brioche were bland and burned on the bottom, but props to Chef Dick anyway -- they were baked in-house.

Service is efficient, and Bona Terra is BYOB, which means wine mavens can tote along their important bottles to pair with food that is every bit as distinguished.

Bona Terra, 908 Main St., Sharpsburg; 412-781-8210.

-- Mackenzie Carpenter

CAFE RICHARD and NINE ON NINE/Richard de Shanz

Richard de Shanz is not only a super chef, he is also a Superman. He is responsible for not one great eating spot that opened in Pittsburgh this year, but for two.

Cafe Richard at 2103 Penn Ave. in The Strip opened in a tiny storefront just a year ago. It was no time at all before every serious food-lover in Pittsburgh was lining up at the counter to purchase the unusual dishes Chef de Shanz was serving.

He made a soup from scratch that changed each day. There were composed salads of arugula or bibb lettuce, sandwiches made with house-made breads and delicious pastries. He serves genuine clotted cream with his scones and truffle vinaigrette with his green bean salad. Chef de Shanz bakes his own granola, which is served with yogurt and fresh fruit. Even the mayonnaise is house-made.

The setting is casual and crowded. There are only a few tables and eating utensils are plastic, but no one seems to mind. It's the quality of the ingredients and the imagination of the chef that keeps the place jammed and the customers happy.

Chef de Shanz also is the executive chef and part owner of Nine on Nine, a fine-dining restaurant that opened in May in the Cultural District. (He uses a bicycle to rush from one kitchen to the other.)

His passion for food is evident in Nine on Nine menu, which presents some unusual food combinations, such as an appetizer plate consisting of seared tuna topped with sauteed foie gras or his "deconstructed chowder," which is smoked salmon served with corn and potato hash.

Richard de Shanz is a Pittsburgh native who graduated from Langley High School and the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute before spending a few years cooking in restaurants from Puerto Rico to Colorado, including in the kitchens of The Inn at Little Washington, the legendary restaurant in northern Virginia. He then became pastry chef at Hyeholde in Moon and next it was breadmaking at Zingerman's in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Although he loved baking bread, Chef de Shanz's passion for all things related to food brought him back to restaurant cooking. Opening the cafe was a way for Chef de Shantz to channel his enormous energy and share his love for great food made with the finest and freshest ingredients.

He's a hometown guy who is likely to become a national figure in the world of exceptional chefs.

Cafe Richard, 2103 Penn Ave., Strip District. 412-281-4620.

Nine on Nine, 900 Penn Ave., Cultural District. 412-338-6463.

-- Elizabeth Downer

DISH OSTERIA AND BAR/ Nathan Sturm

When my mom-in-law and 7-year-old nephew visited recently, we were searching for a small miracle.

We wanted a new restaurant (new to us, anyway) with tasty, fresh dishes that wasn't extravagantly expensive, but wasn't a generic chain restaurant, either. It needed to be nice, but not so hoity-toity that we would feel uncomfortable wearing the khakis and jeans we'd just worn to the zoo, or so rigid that the server would ostracize us for bringing in a small boy (regardless of his good table manners). And a decent beer and wine selection wouldn't hurt.

In Dish, we found that little miracle. We walked into a small, candlelit bar buzzing with conversation, with tables at the windows opposite. A small girl sat eating dinner and talking with her family at one of the tables. For us, a good sign.

After a few moments, we got a table in the small dining room, where there are bistro-style mirrors and subdued lights on the walls and a fireplace at one end of the room. And then we got to the best part: the menu. Owners Cindy and Michele Savoia have worked with Nathan Sturm, a graduate of the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute, since the restaurant opened in 2001 to develop dishes Mr. Savoia knew from his native Sicily, and to adapt other fresh ingredients using Sicilian flavors and techniques. While the menu is small, it has a little of every good thing you might want to eat.

My Linguine ai Frutti di Mare was the best I've ever had, brimming with juicy, plump scallops, shrimp, calamari, clams and mussels in a white wine sauce with extra virgin olive oil, garlic, parsley and cherry tomatoes. The wild Atlantic salmon fillet with white wine and shallots, and asparagus, cherry tomatoes and mashed potatoes on the side that my husband and mom-in-law ordered was sweet and tender. And the server was more than happy to bring my nephew's scallops and shrimp within a few minutes of our ordering, before hunger had completely incinerated his little-boy patience.

Next time, I'm trying the Fettucine ai Funghi e Spinaci, with a mix of portobello, shiitake and cremini mushrooms in a sauce with spinach and basil. Or maybe the prime center-cut filet mignon in a rosemary red wine demiglace, served with a wild mushroom risotto and sauteed asparagus.

As we ate, I relaxed in a way I usually don't in a restaurant. We were cozy and warm, with great food and nice wine in front of us, and the candlelight and dark woodwork and buzzing conversation creating a happy little bubble of conviviality around us. We had stepped into what felt like a neighborhood bistro, and had been welcomed.

Dish Osteria and Bar, 128 S. 17th St., South Side, 412-390-2012.

-- Amy McConnell Schaarsmith