In visiting from the NY/NJ area for a conference at UCSC with my squeeze, I took a swing through the metroactive.com dining reviews for the area to get a feel for the available options. We wandered into downtown Santa Cruz and came across Pearl Alley (link is not to the current menu). We put in for a table at 7:30 (there was plenty of availability). We then wandered away for a preprandial drink and snack at Costa Brava Downtown. Decent mojitos and margaritas (a little weak, but these were well drinks at happy hour, so maybe understandable). A sweet but tasty and moist mushroom pate (supposedly w/ cashews, but I detected no crunch or nutty, buttery flavor), served with good olive oil-soaked bread, confit cloves of garlic and roasted pepper. Having the garlic with the pate, and even the slight acidity of the roasted peppers, both helped offset the pate's sweetness. The restaurant had some fun murals, line drawings of jazz musicians in a style reminiscent of Picasso, a clean modern style in warm colors. Bartenders were attentive, friendly, chatty, but the bar wasn't full enough to really test their mettle. Thought at one point that I could use a cigarette, but of course there's none of that in Cali, even at the bar -- or in NY soon. I have seen the future, and suppressing my occasional cravings should be bearable, and my squeeze will appreciate the smoke-free atmosphere. Could go on, but that's another whole topic... Time for our reservation came, so we wandered over to Pearl Alley. Very friendly welcome, the restaurant was only about half full. Warm colors, with lots of dark wood everywhere (but not ornate or stuffy), including paneling, cabinets, ceiling beams. Felt a little like a warm country inn. Attentive, casual service right off, though we didn't need drinks right away. The menu changes monthly, focusing on a particular region each month. It's Trieste and the Dalmatian Coast now, and will include Normandy, Tuscan hill towns (San Gemignano), the Basque country and the Languedoc in coming months. (Other than the Basque country, all the regions for this year are in France and Italy (although the Dalmatian Coast includes Slovenia and Croatia these days).) The wine list is extremely friendly, probably about a hundred choices, organized by region and varietal. About a dozen choices by the glass. Strong on Cali. and the W Coast, of course, but also good choices from Down Under, France and especially Italy. The headings don't generally describe the flavors and aromas, but subheadings in some regions do and each wine gets a short paragraph about its flavors/aromas, origins, etc. VERY reasonably priced, with nearly all the wines under $40 and plenty under $30, though some California reds climb above $200 and a few Cotes de Nuits range close to $500. (The list proudly proclaims that wines are generally priced $8 over retail because they want to encourage people actually to drink them. Eyeballing, that looked about right That's a welcome change from typical NYC wine mark-ups. ) My squeeze is expecting and we'd had a tiring couple of days, so I just opted for a glass with dinner -- details to come after I reveal our dining choices. A small, somewhat dense white loaf with good crust and dusted with quality salt, accompanied by a dish of grassy, green olive oil preceded the appetizers. We started off with two apps, a salad of potato and leek with trumpet mushrooms and a "flan" of spinach, carrot and beet. The latter is, I think, a signature dish, as I saw it described in a review. High-quality ingredients without a lot of additional spicing though there was flavorful olive oil slick, but more a terrine than a flan -- not at all custardy. The salad appealed to me as a deconstructed vichyssoise. The generously-portioned salad included greens (frisee, mache) in addition to the named ingredients. The ingredients were impeccably fresh and the textures of chewy mushrooms, melting leeks, potatoes combining crisp edges and soft insides combined with some useful contrasts. Unfortunately, excessive vinegar marred the dish. After a bite, I stopped trying to have wine with it and had to keep taking bites of bread to soothe my palate. It was so acidic that I had trouble enjoying the rest of my dinner. Despite the quality of the ingredients, I also didn't understand why it was $14 for the salad -- out of proportion from most of the other prices. Other tempting app options included a caramelized onion tart, baked oysters Rockefeller and oysters on the half-shell. A shame I couldn't enjoy my wine with the salad. It was a pinot gris from (get this) Mendocino for (get this) $5.75 a glass. I generally shy away from California whites (esp. chardonnays) because I find them over-oaked and too big for most white wine-suited food (I describe them as too "round" (not the same as "well-rounded"), but I'm not sure that description makes sense to anyone but me), but this slightly sweet, apple-y, pear-y wine was well-matched to my order. There were a number of first-course choices between the apps and the mains, but between our apps, our mains and our dessert (chosen early -- discussed later), we thought we didn't need the primi. Entrees were a sole in a saor (apparently a light sweet-and-sour sauce -- I'd never heard of it) with some colorful veggies (red cabbage?) and raisins, and pork loin with grapes, brandied pears and braised greens. (Here's where we get to the Eastern European influence, to my mind, though apparently saor is Italian, from the Veneto, which is the closest region to Friuli-Giulia-Venezia, where Trieste is.) Both dishes balanced sweetness and sourness well, with my grapes and greens providing the bit of acidity and adding some bitterness as well. My pork was flavorful, a bit briny, and moist (not too lean). The slight graininess of the pears, the bursting grapes (a little deflated by a brief turn being cooked with the rest) and the somewhat chewy, spongy pork made a nice mouthful together. (The pork was helpful in soothing my mouth still stinging from the salad's vinegar, too.) A rich, dark brandied sauce (from the pears, I'd guess) added some depth to the generally light, fruity flavors. The saor was relatively light, but its sourness, the sour/bitter red flavor of the vegetables and the raisins' sweetness bossed around my squeeze's sole a bit (she disagreed) -- in our trip down the Dalmatian coast last summer, we found most of the fish served to be meatier and more fully-flavored than sole, and they probably would have been preferable in this dish to the sole, to my mind. (The squeeze disagreed with me on this, and thought the sole had its own subtle flavor that did stand up to its neighbors on the plate.) Another good set of crisp/creamy potato rounds helped to keep the overall flavor of the dish mild (in a good way) and subtle and mirrored the crispy edges of the sole. Another option for the entree is the "Mongolian barbecue" -- raw meat and vegetables brought to the table on a sizzling platter, piled on the hot center, with vinegars and sauces poured on tableside. Dry large disk-shaped rice wrappers (a little smaller than an LP) with a platter of water to moisten and soften them come with the dish -- it's really finger food. Very impressive, and lots of work for the server. I'm not generally a fan of this kind of DIY dining, so avoided it, but it looked like fun. It's a bit pricey to have a complete dish (meat and vegetables), esp. if the base is lamb or beef (and chicken or shrimp seems wrong in a Mongolian barbecue -- though maybe expecting any authenticity here is pointless), but the dish is big enough for two with a little added on. Dessert was a blackberry souffle with flambeed brandy for two -- had to be ordered in advance, but it was easily the most interesting dessert option. Brought blazing to the table, which left the top nicely blackened. It wasn't a very light souffle -- the structure was a little firmer than I think of as a typical souffle, a little closer to a bread pudding (though I wouldn't swear that there was flour). But there was airiness within, a melting texture and some collapsing once we'd pierced the top. Excellent service overall -- friendly, casual, effective and efficient. I think 2-3 servers, 2 people serving as host/maitre d'/roving helping hand and a bartender, though everyone helped everyone else. Entrees were just under $20. Total cost was about $100 w/ tax and tip for two, but only one glass of wine between us and no bottled water. It wasn't very full, particularly for a Friday night, so I do wonder how they survive, particularly with such low prices on the wine. Overall, an extremely enjoyable evening , despite a couple of missteps in the tastes and questionable pairings in a given dish. Recommended.
