ADAMS — There is a new eatery on Route 11 between Adams and Adams Center called Lucia's Italian Restaurant.
Oh no, another Italian restaurant, you're thinking? Think again. The chef/owner may not be Italian — in fact his name is French, Brian French — but he was schooled in Italian cooking and it's obvious he knows his stuff.
Glancing through the menu, we got a sense of what he could do. Shrimp scampi over angel hair pasta, shrimp and penne with pink vodka sauce, cedar plank salmon and hand-cut steaks; Parmesan preparations of chicken, eggplant, veal and haddock, Marsala preparations of chicken and veal, piccata preparations of veal, chicken, salmon and haddock.
The building formerly housed a buffet-style restaurant called Our Place. It has been completely remodeled inside and out. The A-frame exterior is gone. The inside is thoughtfully designed with the dining room to the left and the bar and the kitchen to the right, separated by a room that was serving a party of 10 the night we were there. The walls are painted a soothing neutral beige with matching vinyl tablecloths.
It was a Thursday night. The bar was quiet but the rest of the place was buzzing. Waiters were scurrying about. We were glad we made reservations, because nearly every table was occupied. In two short months, word has gotten out about Lucia's.
As we were about to find out, the food is great and so is the service.
Aaron was our waiter. He was smooth and composed and always used the right words. We asked if we could order appetizers first. No problem. Except, he advised, we should get our entrée order in as soon as possible to get ahead of the large party in the other room.
Aaron rushed our appetizer order to the kitchen: Clams casino ($9.99), fried pickle spears ($4.99), crab cakes ($9.99) and on the recommendation of the bartender, pan-fried calamari ($9.99).
Clams casino is a clam on the half shell stuffed with bacon, sweet pepper, garlic and a little breading. There were six small littleneck clams packed with a slightly cheesy and tasty cracker crumb stuffing. They were topped with a dot of lemon-chive aioli. I could have used less breading and more bacon flavor, but it was a fine product.
We got the fried pickle spears, mainly out of curiosity. They were pretty straightforward: pickle spears lightly breaded and deep-fried. We expected a ranch dipping sauce, but they arrived without. Aaron wasn't sure if they should come with a sauce because he hadn't served them very often.
Crab cakes were also predictable, and nicely presented on a bed of greens. There was a decent amount of crabmeat with a good amount of mayonnaise holding it together.
I think most people order fried calamari because they really like the fried breading more than the squid.
The chef pays homage to his native state with Rhode Island-style calamari. The squid is lightly hand-breaded and pan-fried in olive oil with sliced cherry peppers, fresh basil and garlic. The preparation allows you to really taste the squid, which had a nice snap to them.
Brian took our entrée orders as we were enjoying our appetizers, while warning us that our dinners might arrive quickly. At the same time, a party of 13 arrived unannounced — a restaurant's nightmare — and the service staff swiftly pushed tables together to accommodate them.
Nice salads arrived — a mix of field greens with cherry tomatoes, sliced black olives, shredded carrot and red cabbage and house-made croutons. The dressings were house-made, too. I loved the roasted red pepper with grainy mustard. Balsamic and raspberry vinaigrettes were good, too, but oddly thick.
We were barely halfway through our salads when our entrées arrived. Not a big problem; we'd been warned. We just helped Aaron rearrange the table to make room for everything.
Shrimp and penne with pink vodka sauce ($13.99) incorporates butter, cream, tomato sauce, cheese and, yes, vodka. What the vodka does for the sauce is debatable, but that doesn't matter. It has become a classic sauce in American cooking since the '80s that dates back a lot further in Italian cooking.
This dish was well executed, although the huge amount of pasta buried the seven or eight perfectly cooked shrimp. Leftover penne and sauce warmed up nicely the next day.
All of Chef Brian's sauces are pan-made to order, the way it really should be done (many restaurants take shortcuts these days with the availability of premade sauces from suppliers).
Tortellini carbonara ($14.99) was another ridiculously large portion with a classic sauce made of proscuitto, peas, garlic, lots of cream and egg yolk to thicken. You might think of it as a variation of Alfredo. It was rich, for sure, but without being overwhelmingly so.
We were impressed with veal Marsala ($15.99), a tender piece of veal sautéed with olive oil, Marsala wine and chicken stock, producing a dark, flavorful sauce. You could tell the mushrooms were cooked right along with the veal and not just tossed on top at the end from a steam table.
A big blob of mashed red-skin potatoes accompanied, as well as an excellent sauté of fresh zucchini, yellow squash, red onion and herbs.
Salmon piccata ($15.99) was another excellent preparation. We generally associate piccata, a lemon-caper sauce, with chicken and veal. It worked very well with the fish, which was exceptionally moist, as though it may have been marinated first. It was a tad salty due to the capers.
Portions are quite large, so we all required to-go containers that happened to be clear plastic rather than the Styrofoam clamshells. Nice touch there, too.
We took desserts to go, but not before sampling a forkful of each other's. They're made locally and very good. We tried pumpkin cheesecake, a Mounds chocolate/coconut concoction named after the candy bar, and a puckery lemon lush pie, each priced at $4.25.
Total tab for the evening came to $112 before tip.
For lighter dining, there are entrées like pasta primavera ($9.99) and stuffed shells ($8.99), plus a host of salads from $3.99 to $9.99. Or grab a burger, sandwich or a "hoagie," with prices averaging $6.
Except for the lack of air conditioning and the dining room being a little loud at times, we had a very positive dining experience at Lucia's. For a place that's been open barely two months, they've got their systems pretty well together. With a little more time, an incident like our entrées coming out on top of our salads will probably not happen again.
And if I were to open a restaurant, I'd steal Aaron away from Lucia's in a second. He's the type of waiter you'd like to have every time you go out to eat.
TIDBITS
A favorite dining destination for years in Alex Bay has been Windows on the Bay in the Riveredge Resort. According to sources at the Riveredge, Windows on the Bay will not be opening this summer due to "changes in management and staff."
You can contact Walter E. Siebel via e-mail: wsiebel@wdt.net.
Lucia's Italian Restaurant
11613 Route 11
Adams
232-2223
HOURS: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday
Dinner served 4:30 to 9 p.m.
Closed Sunday
Be sure to try the Rhode Island-style calamari, hand-breaded and pan-fried in olive oil with cherry peppers, fresh basil and vodka.
Veal Marsala and salmon piccata were very good, as were shrimp and penne with pink vodka sauce and tortellini carbonara.
RATING: 4 forks
