We have a rule in our household - if a restaurant is less than three months old, we can't try it. The reason? It usually takes three months for a restaurant to get all the kinks out, find their groove and then you can usually get a meal that's representative of the place.
But, you know, if everyone subscribed to that philosophy, then new restaurants would be going out of business right and left. So it's good that some people are stupid and naive enough to try a place that's new. And that was us the other night with Portabella's Italian Bistro in downtown Moline (see map).
Portabella's has been open since the end of April, so we were about three weeks away from actually hitting our goal of staying away for the first three months. Still, everything about the place looked and smelled good.
We actually first found out about the place when we went to the Bier Stube in Moline in May to listen to a band play in their beer garden. We kept smelling the succulent garlic smell wafting through the breezes. Cindy figured out that it was Portabella's. We knew from the smell we had to try it.
So, last Saturday night we went across the river to downtown Moline, parked just across the street in a small lot and went into Portabella's. The building that houses Portabella's was the home for the fanciest restaurant in the Quad Cities when I first moved here - Charles Michele - named after the husband and wife team that owned the restaurant.
(An aside - Chef Charles - or as I like to call him "Chef CHAWLS" - he doesn't like to go with his last name, which I believe is Moskowitz - and Michele got a divorce years ago and the place went out of business. He's now the owner/chef at Duck City Bistro, a restaurant in Davenport that I haven't been to and can't really say that I'll be going to any time soon. Anyone who insists being referred to as "Chef CHAWLS" is too friggin' pretentious for me, which means his place must be the same.)
After Charles Michele went out of business, it became the India Gate or India House restaurant - I can't remember which one. Anyway, I don't like Indian food, so our trip to Portabella's was the first time I'd been in the place.
We were casually dressed, but many of the people were dressed in "upscale summer" attire. Cindy felt her chino jeans and knit top were a little underdressed (I was in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt), but as I told her, "Our money spends just as good as the guy over there in the Ralph Lauren shirt and slacks."
(Another aside - I have another story for the "Why I Won't Go in There" category concerning a stuffy place who bitched about my attire one night. I'll have to tell that story sometime soon.)
Still, I caught a little bit of an attitude from the girl who sat us. She sort of snottily asked us if we had a reservation (we did not), and told us that the five empty booths in the place were reserved (it was nearly 9 p.m. when we walked in - this town doesn't eat all that late). So, we said we'd take a table in the middle of the restaurant. No problem with me on that one. At least I didn't want to make it seem like a problem.
Our waitress, April, came to us and introduced herself. She was very nice and somewhat self-effacing, talking about her lack of waitressing skills from time to time. Actually, she did a very good job all night long.
The head chef (and, I presume, the owner) is Eran Salzmann, who was the head chef at Biaggi's in Davenport. (Biaggi's is a chain of Midwestern Italian restaurants that aren't bad - actually, they're pretty good.) His menu is rather unique in offering diners an "ala-carte" approach to ordering their pasta dishes.
Their "Pasta Creations" part of the dinner menu sounds a little like something you'd find in the frozen food section of your store, but I thought it was a neat concept to mix and match different types of pasta, sauces and toppings. Getting a basic fettuccine alfredo with no toppings is $8 for a small portion and $10 for a large portion.
(That's another thing that I really like - pasta that can't be eaten shouldn't be taken home, it just doesn't taste the same as when it's first prepared. Too many times, restaurants give you large portions and there is no way you can finish it. It's a waste of good food, actually.)
I looked at creating something, but the Chicken Parmesan caught my eye. A grilled chicken breast topped with mozzarella and tomato sauce, sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and served on a bed of penne alfredo. I thought the combination of the red tomato sauce and the cream alfredo sauce would be interesting to try.
Cindy went with angel hair pasta with the alfredo sauce with salmon. That sounded good, too. For an appetizer, I went with the caprese salad and Cindy went with the Italian Wedding soup. My caprese salad was OK - the tomatoes were warm (I like my caprese salad a little cooler). Cindy's soup was very good with nice chunks of ground beef throughout.
Our dinners came and I guess I was sort of surprised to see a chunk of salmon on top of Cindy's angel hair alfredo pasta. I thought they'd have the salmon chopped into bite sized pieces and interspersed in the pasta. She chunked some up and did it herself and she liked it, although she said she should have got some pasta other than the angel hair.
My dish was - well, the Penne pasta alfredo was good, but the chicken was way overdone. In fact, it was inedible, it was so dry. So I ate the pasta - which, with a little tomato sauce mixed in, was very tasty.
When April came back to take our plates, she asked if I wanted the chicken boxed up. I said, "Oh, no. No, not at all. I'm sorry to say it wasn't that good. In fact, it sucked."
She was apologetic and asked what the problem was and I said, "The chicken was way overcooked. It was dry and flavorless." She apologized again and took the dish away.
Cindy offered me some of her salmon, but honestly, since I got sick in France on the salmon I'm still having a tough time with some fish. I tried it, but I still didn't care for the taste. Which continues to worry me, since I really do like salmon.
April came out and said that she talked to her boss and they offered to give us dessert for free. I told her it wasn't necessary, but Cindy jumped right back and said, "What do you have?"
When she mentioned creme brulee, Cindy said, "We'll go with that."
We split a creme brulee and it was pretty good. Actually, very good. It was a nice gesture on their part.
With the tip (a nice one for April), our bill came to about $63 for the entrees, soup and salad, and a couple beers and a couple glasses of wine. We told her that we'd be back, a place like that you just have to give them another chance. But we may wait another three months to allow them to get some more of the kinks worked out.
(Update - We never did make it back to Portabella's as it closed about a year after we visited. Chef Eran Salzmann - who was the head chef and not the owner at Portabella's - is now the owner/chef at Zbest Cafe in Sheffield, IL.)
Also I think that it is a better idea to wait when a restaurant just opened. It is a pity that it was closed I would like to try it out. I hope that they can re-open it.
Posted by: per head | November 01, 2012 at 01:59 PM