Restaurant Reviews
A beautiful meal in the neighborhood
ED MURRIETA. The News Tribune. Tacoma, WA: Jan 25, 2006.
While the opera-diva décor clashes with my Carhartts, there’s no drama or fuss at Il Fiasco Restaurant & Wine Bar, where a handful of visits in the past few months felt familiar, comfortable and welcoming.
Maybe it was the two guys who brought their own champagne; they shared it with the bartender over antipasto while dishing about a new restaurant in another neighborhood.
Perhaps it was Il Fiasco’s embraceable Italian comforts. Might have been the smart wine list. Could have been knowledgeable staff that doesn’t make you feel dumb for not knowing soave from shiraz.
Whatever, it was Mark Gaimster’s doing. He bought the 41/2-year-old restaurant from friend and former employer Mark Wambold in November 2004. He’s maintained and grown an upscale but down-to-earth restaurant that’s just as pleasing on Tuesday night when you don’t want to cook as on Friday night when you’re celebrating a birthday.
He certainly improved service. When I first reviewed Il Fiasco in August 2004, some servers performed like gangly foals on skates. Recently, servers knew the menu and knew their customers’ needs. It was service sans intrusion.
What makes Il Fiasco neighborly is Gaimster himself. He’s an enthusiastic ambassador for Sixth Avenue’s up-and-coming urban mix of restaurants, record stores and yupscale boutiques.
In his frequent and friendly stops at diners’ tables, Gaimster is as likely to chat about his cattiatore inspiration as fill you in on Speedy Glass’ nearby expansion.
I can’t and won’t compare today’s chef, Mateo Fisher, against Jeff Bishop, who helmed Il Fiasco from 2001 until opening Wambold’s Brix 25 in Gig Harbor in late 2004. Besides, for the previous review, I sampled a late-summer menu. For this review, winter reigned over a much larger menu of pasta, risotto, seafood and game.
Tri-colored bell peppers, onions, garlic and a blend of oregano, rosemary, lemon thyme and basil gave chicken cattiatore ($23) depth and herby character. Wine-spiked tomato sauce clung to the meat but didn’t cloy my taste buds. Tenderly simmered breast shined brilliantly white.
Market-price veal preparations rotate. I tasted a tenderly snappy young cut ($24); cherry tomatoes freshened marsala cream sauce. Roasted asparagus lay across a long roll of linguine, dressed in butter and herbs.
Meaty, tender and tasty describe certified Angus beef tenderloin nibs and porcini and crimini mushrooms. But once they were gone, a $26 special was just a big plate of risotto.
A yellowfin tuna special crusted in pistachio and pan-seared medium rare was simple and delicious, but dear at $29.
Spaghetti and meatballs ($18) was a reasonable meal, served with salad, like all dinners. Large-ground Angus trimmings were mixed with veal and pork and just enough binder. They yielded to my fork and didn’t resist my bite. Half-melted baby mozzarella dotted light marinara.
Some starters could have been meals. Cannellini beans and sausage in herbed tomato ragout ($12) was more than two could share. It got even better as leftovers the next day.
Perhaps it was the winter menu, but some flavors and preparations weighed in my mouth.
Braised boar ($26) was like pulled pork gone wild, pleasantly gamey and tender. Bathed in a thick, barbecuelike reduction the kitchen calls “black gold,” the dish was sweetly satisfying but teetered on treacley. Sweet roasted garlic cloves surprised my rooting fork.
Dense risotto and a pile of shaved Parmesan-reggiano on the boar made cleaning my plate a piggish pursuit. A smattering of snappy hot-house baby squash and zucchinis were a lightly sauteed tease by comparison.
Pan-seared weathervane scallops ($24) were charry and firm, very close to dry. They were overwhelmed by a cloying scarlet orange-marsala reduction. Thin but sticky in the mouth, the sauce permeated a side of pearl pasta with pistachios and sun-dried tomato pesto.
I enjoyed three out of four desserts. Bottom line: Leave the chocolate souffle, take the cannoli.
Pastry chef Carlos Perez’s cannoli ($7) were two fat pipe bombs of pleasure. Shells were crisp, half-dipped in chocolate. Ricotta filling was airy. Carlos’ Killer Cheesecake ($7) was lemony and pillowy.
Gooey chocolate and sliced bananas hid inside crusty-topped brioche bread pudding ($7).
Chocolate souffle ($7) was like a toasted brownie with a molten core, watered down with melting vanilla ice cream.
Il Fiasco Restaurant & Wine Bar
- WHERE: 2717 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253-272-6688, www.ilfiasco.com
- CUISINE: Italian a la Pacific Northwest
- ATMOSPHERE: Upscale and down to earth, romantic and comfortable
- PRICES: Starters and salads, $9-$15; entrees and specials, $17-$35; desserts, $6-$7. Wine by the bottle, $22-$100. Wine by the glass, $5-$10.
- SERVICE: Professional and knowledgeable – service sans intrusion
- NOISE: Moderate when busy, but still not enough to drown out Van Morrison, who is in heavy rotation on house tunes
- ACCESS: No barriers
- BATHROOMS: Real nice
- PARKING: Weekend valet.
- RATING:
- PREVIOUS REVIEW: Aug. 20, 2004
- PREVIOUS RATING:
WHAT ED SAID: A fresh, seasonal tour of mid-Italian classics accented by local seafood and produce. Theirs is an artfully chosen and dynamically presented selection of appetizers, salads and entrees. … While there’s little room for improvement on the wine and dinner menus, Il Fiasco falls short of being a truly top-notch restaurant with its service and desserts.
Ed Murrieta: 253-597-8678
