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| Bistro nails it Woodland's Tazzina dazzles with inventive interpretations By Mike Dunne -- Bee Restaurant Critic On Woodland's Main Street, you still can buy jungle boots and desert fatigues at Army Navy Surplus, a Buick at one end of the street or a saddle at the other. Here and there, however, are signs that Woodland's downtown district is changing. The old-time barber shop is getting competition from salons. A vegetarian restaurant has joined the town's many Mexican cafes. And the historic brick Cranston building, which for 87 years housed a hardware store, now provides quarters for several businesses, including Tazzina Bistro, our destination on a recent Sunday morning. The name is Italian - a tazzina is the small cup in which espresso customarily is served. A scooter is parked on the sidewalk out front, but it's a Honda, not a Vespa. (An old red Vespa is high on a platform at the back of the restaurant, a proud symbol of carefree Italy.) Though I'm not ordinarily a brunch person - why cheat yourself out of a meal? - we're back at Tazzina Bistro because the brunch menu we saw during an earlier visit is just too enticing to ignore. And who wouldn't want to start a leisurely Sunday with a wine smoothie? Two options are available, says our server - zinfandel-cherry and moscato-apricot. They're thick and creamy, he adds, evoking an image of a milkshake with some heat. We order the zinfandel-cherry ($7.50). It's dark and icy, but not creamy. Think zinfandel Icee. A dense purée of zinfandel, apple concentrate, frozen cherries and blueberries, it's fruity without being cloying. The pits of the cherries jam the straw. It's a curiosity, but I'm not crazy about it; it lacks zest. I order a cup of the house coffee - Adam's Organic Rocket Espresso by Peerless. If you're looking for something to jolt you awake, this is it ($2.25). (And in contrast to earlier cups of coffee at Tazzina Bistro, this one is hot, not tepid.) We order the eggs Benedict with chorizo on cornbread with chipotle hollandaise ($9.95). Everything about this dish is perfect - the sunny grit of the homey cornbread, the smoky bite of the chipotle chili pepper in the hollandaise, the precisely cooked eggs, the small bites of dense and spicy chorizo. After this, we're fortified for a day of touring Woodland's several antiques shops. No less impressive is the "spec pan cogans" ($9.95), a heady version of German pancakes in which the silken and eggy rolled-up crepes are studded with bits of smoked bacon. Diners get a choice of toppings, including butter and sugar, preserves or honey. We order the fruit compote, a dark and concentrated mix of apples and figs whose intense fruitiness nicely balances the salt and spice of the bacon. The spec pan cogans stem from an heirloom recipe handed down from generation to generation in Rebecca Reichardt's family. She's the chef who opened Tazzina Bistro in September after stints in restaurants ranging from Murder Burger in Davis to Zinfandel Grille of Rocklin. While the pancakes are homier than the rest of her menu items, they do represent her creative and detailed touch. Stylistically, her non-brunch food runs to a seasonal interpretation of contemporary Mediterranean and American cooking. The winter menu is rich with comforting and bracing dishes - braised pork shoulder, lasagna Bolognese, coq au vin, meatloaf. But they aren't necessarily heavy and rich, as we discovered during our first visit, for dinner. Among the starters, veal sweetbreads were sautéed just enough to give them a thin, crisp edge that mimicked the lightness of the potato cake on which they were presented ($10.95). A ring of roasted carrots brightened the dish with both color and sweetness. Also lively without being weighty was a starter salad of seared bitter greens such as endive and chard sweetened with pancetta, goat cheese and candied walnuts ($8.25). Crème fraîche infused with paprika brought just the right zestiness to a hot and creamy bowl of cauliflower soup ($4.95 for small, $6.95 for large). My favorite entree was the chestnut risotto, whose creaminess was enhanced with melting Taleggio, a buttery, cow-milk cheese from the Italian province of Lombardy ($14.95). Pancetta bolstered the strength of the dish, but its most memorable components were the parsnips, turnips and beets, perfectly roasted to bring out their sweetness. The meatloaf was another winner, not so much for its thin core of blue cheese, which blocked the intensity of the herbs in the finely textured beef, but for its wrapping of thick bacon, topping of red onion rings and side of grilled broccoli raab, whose long and lacy stems stretched across the plate like the train of an antique wedding dress ($15.95). My reaction to the coq au vin was mixed. While the chicken was dark, moist and meaty, and fell easily from the bone, it lacked the compelling flavor I associate with the dish ($16.95). The earthiness of mushrooms was there, all right, but not the sweetness of onions. When the kitchen slips, it does so with one key ingredient or technique rather than an entire composition. An appetizer centered on seared Muscovy duck had everything going for it but the duck itself ($11.95). A souffle of parmigiano cheese off to one side was simultaneously airy and forthright, the kumquat marmalade brought jammy sweetness to the meat, and a topping of pistachio nuts and micro greens was fun, spicy and pretty. While the duck itself had terrific flavor, it was too tough to finish. Similarly, the blue-nose sea bass had rich, meaty flavor and several intriguing accompaniments, including sautéed chard and mashed potatoes infused with fennel, but the fish was slightly overdone, though not enough to send back ($18.95). Potato chip enthusiasts will want to order a side of the bistro's homemade chips, which came to the table classically fresh, thin, big and salty, with just a thin sheen of oil ($4). Desserts by pastry chef Daniel Gutierez invariably were fresh and hearty, especially the rich and rustic cornmeal cobbler filled with buttery apples and earthy figs ($6). A tall, round tower of fragile chocolate lattice filled with a delicate, frozen pear mousse was almost too pretty to eat, but we somehow forced ourselves ($7). A white-chocolate bread pudding was all sensuality and brightness, thanks largely to its port sauce and an abundance of dried cherries ($6.50). And a trio of mousses, each in its own tazzina - white chocolate, dark chocolate, espresso - was creamy, light and true ($6.50). The wine list is a mix of international and local labels, carefully assembled to complement the buoyancy of the food. There are several good buys, but the best may be the lush, ripe and spicy Graziano Winery 2002 Mendocino Zinfandel ($28). Servers were cheery and earnest, though their pacing and attentiveness periodically sputtered. I suspect the lags were due mostly to an overtaxed kitchen rather than any exhaustion on the part of the servers; a lot of precision goes into virtually every dish at Tazzina and the kitchen may not yet be up to dealing efficiently with so many elements. Tazzina Bistro is long and narrow, but the space is bright and the feeling cheery, in part for a series of bistro-related paintings and prints against the handsome brick walls. The floor is stunning - the original blond maple polished to a high gleam. The tunnel effect is broken with a small bar and open kitchen in the back, a bay window up front, a substantial community table made from one of the building's old doors, and an unusual side entrance off the common entrance serving the complex. Music is played at an agreeable level, the selection ranging from the theme from the "Godfather" to Dean Martin singing "Volare." Hardware yesterday, hearty fare today as Woodland joins the growing list of Northern California communities undergoing profound change. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tazzina Bistro614 Main St., Woodland, (530) 661-1700 3 stars /$$$ FOOD: Owner-chef Rebecca Reichardt oversees a modern, personal and identifiable style of Mediterranean and American cooking. Dishes range from classics such as coq au vin and lasagna Bolognese to fashionable updates such as meatloaf wrapped with bacon and stuffed with blue cheese. AMBIENCE: The barbecue and housewares section of the grand old Cranston's Hardware Store has been converted into a long, narrow restaurant with red-brick walls looming over the building's affectionately restored maple floor. HITS: Wine list is divided smartly among Californian, Australian, Pacific Northwestern and other regional releases. Children are greeted with chalkboards and chalk. MISSES: Candles only occasionally get lit. Pacing of dishes from the kitchen can lag. Coffee needs to be kept warmer. HOURS: Lunch 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; dinner 5-9 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 5-10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday; breakfast and lunch 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday; brunch 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday. About the writer: The Bee's Mike Dunne can be reached at (916) 321-1143 or mdunne@sacbee.com. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/dunne. Article Available at: http://www.sacticket.com/dining/story/12386579p-13242832c.html |
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