Since we're going to be having a long term relationship, you and I, now is probably a good time to tell you something important: I am not a sucker for Italian food. I like Italian food, but not so much that I'll eat at Sbarro in Albuquerque, suffer through a rubbery osso buco or pay $20 for a bowl of spaghetti that tastes like a 6-year-old made it from a box and a jar. Forget it. I'd rather have a $7 bowl of Vietnamese rice vermicelli with grilled pork.
But good Italian food is always worthwhile, so I thought I'd check some out the other night. I tried to get a table at the Palace, only to confront the fact that it's closed while owners Cliff Skoglund, Robert Hall and Eric DiStefano (of Geronimo and Swig) transform the place into Señor Lucky's at the Palace. I know, I know. Señor Lucky's? Are they
gonna have Whack-a-Mole and Skee-Ball or what? The details remain vague, but this much is certain: There will be bright "Oaxacan" colors, live mariachis, specialty cocktails and, regardless of suspect theme, the food (allegedly $15-$25) has got to be decent with DiStefano behind the menu. The grand opening will be on June 30 with regular hours resuming July 1.
Anyway, with the Palace out of commission and the hour getting late, we chose to eat at Pranzo, figuring it would be nice to sit on the enclosed rooftop terrace, watching storm clouds rumble through town. And it was, with the fountain gurgling and window boxes full of geraniums bobbing and swaying in the wind.
Pranzo's new owner, Michael O'Reilly, told me he bought the place because it is "an icon and an institution." Well, yes. So is
Star Wars
, but neither restaurants nor film empires can coast forever on good reputations earned decades ago.
Santa Feans seem to complain about Pranzo the way folks in Albuquerque complain about Scalo. The two, which shared ownership until they were sold to different parties this year, are similar in many ways. Most everybody eats at the these places and most everybody enjoys complaining about them. Critics have said the service was alternately juvenile and stuffy, that prices were too high and the menus unimaginative. Generally, these critics spoke with authority because they ate there all the time.
O'Reilly is not ignorant of these complaints. In a candid evaluation of the place he bought, he said "the food was ordinary, the service was iffy and the décor hasn't been done in 17 years." Just as Scalo has recently undergone a major overhaul, so is Pranzo in a rapid metamorphosis. In the past few weeks, O'Reilly (who also owns O'Keeffe Café) has hired a completely new staff for the front of the house, save for one veteran server.
O'Reilly also brought in Chef Carmen Rodriguez (formerly of CinemaCafe), who built his kitchen team of 35 from scratch. Rodriguez has only tinkered a little with the food, adding a thick-cut pork chop, New York strip steak and osso buco.
"It's about 90 percent the same," O'Reilly said of the menu, explaining that the improvements they've made have been with better quality ingredients and more skilled staff. Pranzo is making its own breads and pastas now and using all locally grown tomatoes in the sauces. Those of you who liked the food before will probably like it just as well or better now. Those who were bored by it…well, what can I say? Of all the things we tried, Rodriguez' new pork chop was notably the best.
Exciting things are happening in the bar, where wine lovers can now order 6.3- or 9-ounce glasses of wine. A standard glass of wine is about four ounces, but that varies widely. Suffice to say that what Pranzo calls a "gigante" glass is a big glass of wine.
Also coming soon is a vodka bar where adventurers will be able to buy three 1/2-ounce tastes of 12 different flavor-infused vodkas. When we spoke, O'Reilly was expecting imminent delivery of his –5 degree vodka freezer.
In the dining room you'll notice two dozen new paintings of food. There are already new chairs and carpet upstairs; new banquettes and carpet are awaiting installation downstairs.
What haven't changed are the prices. We paid about $75 (including tax and tip) for one beer, one glass of wine, three appetizers and one entrée. The service was very friendly and we left stuffed like cannelloni.
On your way over to Pranzo, stop in at Cookworks, the kitchen and home store on Guadalupe. The place is going out of business and signs said everything was 20 percent off when I walked past the other day. That ought to make the prices a little closer to what they should have been in the first place, eh?
Pranzo Italian Grill
540 Montezuma Ave.
984-2645
11:30 am-3 pm and 5 pm-midnight Monday-Saturday
5 pm-midnight Sunday
Cookworks
316 S. Guadalupe St.
988-7676
Señor Lucky's
142 W. Palace Ave.
982-9891
scheduled to open in July
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