2006
Voted "Best Italian Food in Ashland"
- The Sneak Preview
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March 9, 2004
Pasta Piatti adds variety

By Steve Zimmerman
Ashland Daily Tidings

When the Pasta Piatti (formerly the Natural Cafe) reopened for business March 1, not only had the name changed but the decor and menu changed.

"The first night we had 77 people come in the door," co-owner Lisa Beam said. "It was a soft opening with no publicity."

The restaurant is still offering organic foods and natural foods, but has expanded its menu to serve those not inclined to eat heath foods.

"We will still have vegan and vegetarian dishes," co-owner Carl Wright said prior to the opening. "In fact we will probably have more vegan and vegetarian dishes than before. But we have had a narrow concept and this is a small town. So we needed to go to a wider concept."

Wright and his wife Johanna have taken Beam and her husband Tom, who have 38 years of restaurant experience between them, as partners in the new venture.

Tom Beam has been an executive chef and was working as a food purveyor for the restaurant when he and Carl began talking about partnering in the new concept.

Among the items on the menu are antipasto, polpette, a cheese tortelina, fetucini alfredo along with many other specialties.

Beverages at Pasta Piatti include soft drinks, lemonade, all-natural Italian sodas and organic and non-organic iced teas.

The restaurant has wines by the 5-ounce glass or by the bottle, and features a new wine bar. Twenty wines are available by the glass, and bottles range from $14 to $45.

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Weekly publication of the Mail Tribune, Medford, Oregon Friday, March 26, 2004

Pasta Piatti
358 E. Main St., Ashland
Open daily 11:30 am - 2 pm for lunch
5-9pm for dinner until 10pm weekends
488-5493

If you're among the crowd who thinks a night of elegant dining in downtown Ashland will drain your checkbook, a trip to the newly opened Pasta Piatti may change your mind.

There are other affordable options in Ashland, but this chic pasta house stands out with its minimalist yet classy decor, tasty yet uncomplicated dishes and superb presentation. "Our goal was to find a concept that would appeal year-round to locals as well as tourists," said part-owner Lisa Beam, who added the restaurant's cuisine is a healthy twist on Italian food modeled after Mediterranean fare.

Upon entering Piatti, one is eased by soft, contemporary track lighting with a magenta hue. My dining companion, a glass-blower, noticed a colorful array of large glass pieces thoughtfully placed throughout the small dining room.

We were seated right away at one of the only open booths. A friendly server told us the glass vase display is courtesy of Ashland's Gathering Glass Studio.

We asked for a wine recommendation, and she pointed us toward a 2001 Alexander Valley Vineyard Cabernet. A bottle was $22; it ended up being by far the highest priced item on our ticket. The restaurant features a mix of Italian and West Coast wines. Beam said they plan to add several from local vineyards.

"Can I start you with an appetizer?" our server said while pouring the wine taster. I sniffed, sipped and smiled while my companion eyed the starters. We agreed on Oregon Coast mussels ($6.25) and bruschetta ($4.95).

Our choices arrived before we were halfway done with our first glasses of wine. The bruschetta, ciabatta bread grilled panini-style, was topped with chopped roma tomatoes, organic basil, garlic, olive oil and aged balsamic. A bit more balsamic might have enhanced the fresh but otherwise rather plain dish.

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July 30, 2004 DINING STAGING NEW TERRITORY IN ASHLAND
Sure, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival started with just its Elizabethan Theatre, but for years it's had more than one stage. And now, Ashland restaurants do, too. With a few exceptions, the city's major restaurants have been downtown and along Main Street, often within walking distance of the theater. (In Ashland, every restaurant has the same last course.) But steadily, a new railroad restaurant region rises; about half a mile from downtown, there's a new right side of the tracks. A ground breaker in the new territory is Leaseback& Cafe (258 A St.; 541-482-1702 ), which is more ambitious than the name suggests. At least reversing the billing would give a stronger cue for sliced duck breast in a sweet soy shiitake reduction with roasted sweet potato dumplings. The effect is rich, moist and pungent . Lela's sets out several impressive dishes, including an endearing linguine arrangement of crab or prawns, corns, peas and a lemon champagne sauce, something so invitingly fresh and unexpectedly sweet that it becomes a triumph of imagination. The same freshness and creativity infused one evening's appetizer special of tuna sashimi with wasabi and a mango coulis. Sometimes, dishes topple from complexity. Fresh escolar doesn't gain much from being wrapped with oyster mushrooms in napa cabbage, and pan-seared salmon has to negotiate its way through roasted poblano polenta, cilantro lime avocado coulis and an heirloom tomato salsa. It might be simpler finding its way back up the Columbia. And there is the bakery part, represented at dinner largely by slices of elaborate, intricate tarts -- and there's always something to say for a tart of vanilla creme brulee lined with kiwi slices .Entrees are $17.95 to $29.95, and the wine list has a strong representation of Southern Oregon wines. OK, you might have to drive to the theater --although if you start early, you could walk off some of the creme bullet.

Just around the corner, the Peerless Hotel restaurant (265 Fourth St.;541-488-6067) is noting diners' interest in lighter meals -- and its chefs 'new cookbook -- with a new bar menu, offered Tuesday through Thursday endings. Portions may be smaller but choices are intriguing, and with a little effort you can still spend a noticeable amount of money. You can work your way there through a cylinder of hamachi tartare, chilled cucumber soup with house-cured salmon, a three-choice cheese plate and an estimable strip steak burger on a brioche bun. You can get substantial arrangements of foie gras for $18, but you'd better have help in consuming it. Or an Oregon version of the hot new New York dish, roasted pork belly, aka bacon -- which in this case tastes something like Chinese roast pork. You definitely want to prepare for the play with an unexpected, mouth filling salad of a good-size, crisp-fried razor clam on frisee with a warm bacon vinaigrette; calling it a salad may make nutritionists rebel, but you won't mind. The ideal sequel -- nutritionally and otherwise -- is a melting chocolate marion berry cake set off by chocolate-Earl Grey ice cream, showing again that there's no such thing as too much chocolate. Most items are close to $10 or a bit under; assembling a meal should keep you frugal -- unless you match the foie gras with a deep dive into the wine list -- but it won't leave you bored.

Sill, if proximity to the theaters is your highest priority, this year brings a new and welcome trattoria on the south end of downtown, Pasta Piatti (358 E. Main St.; 541-488-5493). It combines substantial portions and some old favorites -- when did you last see chicken parmigiana offered on a new menu? -- with some heartening moves of its own.For one thing, the restaurant's own ciabatta bread, sliced thin and toasted,firmly bolsters many of the appetizers, from bruschetta (with explosively fresh tomato) to whole roasted garlic and an intoxicating arrangement of cheeses and olives. It also creeps into some entrees -- always helpfully.The menu roams through entrees, panini, pizzas -- including a pesto chicken pizza with more chicken than many coops -- and a dozen pastas, all sizable and under $11. The same marinara sauce seems to appear in many of them, but it appropriately fits a dish such as polpette, Italian sausage and sizable meatballs with thick bucatini noodles. And you can escape it with Dungeness crab ravioli in a light lemon cream sauce. Servers strongly advocate the warm-center chocolate cake with espresso gelato, and they're absolutely right. Like many other dishes here, it's enough to feed a crowd, if not a complete cast. Pasta Piatti, with its casualness, reasonable prices and solid standards, could be welcome on just about any stage. The trattoria may not be a headliner, but no place understands better than Ashland the importance of a solid supporting cast. And the usefulness of having more than one stage.

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