Davio just divine

Reopened Beechview Italian restaurant is simply one of the best

By Woodene Merriman - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Dining Critic

After being closed for many months for remodeling, Davio, one of Pittsburgh's best Italian restaurants, is open again.

But just because Davio is bigger now (55 seats instead of 30), don't think its going to be easier to get a prime-time reservation. For a Saturday night, His Honor called on Monday. Nothing left but 5:30pm. For Thursday night, he had better luck. He called two days in advance and got a 7pm reservation.

Everything you loved about Davio - like the $50, 2 1/2-inch thick veal chop and the Russian chocolate sable cake - is still there. Diners continue to arrive with with wine bottles under their arms, and leave with a sack of white carryout boxes in a plastic bag.

But now there are two dining rooms at the Beechview restaurant, one in the front and one in the back, along with a small deck. Handsome new carved chairs at some of the tables in the front room look like they're waiting for the king and queen. New windows in both dining rooms make the restaurant seem bigger and brighter.

 Davio, as a longtime Pittsburghers know, is the creation of David Ayn, the popular chef who, as he once said, has "cooked at every range in Pittsburgh." He opened Davio some 10 years ago in the front room of a former home along the streetcar tracks in Beechview.

In those days the restaurant's utility room doubled as the restroom. If you arrived too early and your table wasn't ready you were sent next door to the Broadway Bar to wait until the waitress came to get you. The bartender kept a gallon jug of white wine under the bad, so you could drink with the regulars nursing their beers and watching TV.

Now fine new restrooms are on the ground floor of the refurbished Davio, and another David Ayn restaurant has replaced the Broadway Bar. It was Palio in recent years, and during the remodeling Davio's menu was served there. Now its Jacob's Well, specializing in American cuisine.

Some of the dishes on the Davio menu, like that legendary enormous veal chop, have been on the menu since the beginning. You can have it char grilled, or any of about five other ways. The price varies, too, ranging from $48 to $58, depending on the preparation you want. Those who want their veal chop piled with crab meat are going to pay the top dollars. However it's prepared, the veal chop is the most pipular item on the Davio menu, According to Sestino Cuimmo, longtime waiter. "People come from all over the country for that big veal chop," another server said, "It's true."

The veal chop is one of several special dinners on the last page of Davio's menu without prices. I'm reminded of the wealthy man who said if you have to ask the price of a yacht, you can't afford it.

I'd argue that all Davio dinners are special. First comes a bowl of "holy oil." or olive oil laced with basil and other herbs, and another bowl of feta cheese, two kinds of olives, a Northern Italian bean spread and, sometimes, whole roasted garlic. The bread basket (different at each table) arrives with three kinds of hot Breadworks bread.

With all that, you wouldn't really need o order an appetizer, but then you'd miss the good fresh water-buffalo mozzarella on top of thick slices of ripe red tomato, drizzled with a sweet fig balsamic dressing.

Next comes the salad, cut-up romaine and crisp iceberg, with tender white beans, roasted red pepper strips, marinated artichokes, crumbled fresh gorgonzola and more, plus a balsamic vinaigrette. The pasta course, corkscrews with a little marinara, follows, and already your beginning to be sorry you ate so much bread and bean spread.

The main course might be seafood - Scampi in garlic butter, shrimp and scallops pan-fried with mushrooms, colossal lump crab cakes, or any of several other choices. Nut-crusted salmon with fresh spinach is excellent - a large cut, thickly coated with nuts, and perfectly pan-roasted so it is still moist even though the nuts are browned.

For pasta lovers, the choices range from linguine with red or white clam sauce to more exotic dishes like "cavatappi all'arrabbiata with lobster in an aggressive tomato sauce."

Sliced filet mignon is served with porcini, morels and black trumpet mushrooms in a chianti-rich wine sauce in one dish, or with roasted red and orange peppers in gorgonzola cream in another. If your not tempted by the big veal chop, there are six other veal choices on the regular menu. Veal Piccata with wild muchrooms and not too much lemon, and pan-fried scaloppine and prosciutto with bel paese cheese and a chianti wine sauce are both winners. The scaloppine has a fresh-tasting eggy batter, and was so tender I never lifted my knife off the table.

Davio is known for the Russian sable cake, a flowerless chocolate cake, and a light but rich mascarpone cheesecake with berries. Ours had blueberries, and was so good we ate the whole serving, even after all that other food. Special desserts are worth considering too. One night we had baked fresh figs, cut open and topped with mascarpone cheese, honey and cinnamon. Delicious.

Ayn, who also has Alla Famiglia restaurant in Allentown, has spent a lifetime studying the tenichiques and nuances of his craft. These days, he stays mostly in the background and lets his protégés do the cooking. When Davio reopened, he cooked the first 37 days, then turned the shiss and saute pans over to Adam Berbard and Adam DeLuca.

Good as it is Davio is not perfect. One night my salad was drenched with dressing. H.H. ordered the char grilled veal chop medium rare, and it was much too rare.

I wish a blind could be put on that window the sun shines through - just for the time it takes for the sun to go down. The awning outside doesn't do it.

Like so many Italian restaurants in Italy, the tables are close together, and the room has many hard surfaces. The big group at the table nest to us one night was having such a good time, we couldn't hear the waitress.

But those are small complaints, easily corrected. I'd be happy to eat at Davio any night. As the menu says, Davio is for people "who crave the fascinating and friendly flavors of Italian cooking." And I do.