ITALIAN GEM
Cafe Grazie boasts solid menu, flawless service, pleasant ambiance
Cafe Grazie may be in a strip mall neighboring several fast-food restaurants, but with white tablecloths, real napkins and classical music in the background, it succeeds in being much nicer than its surroundings. The food — a selection of pasta, salads and grilled specialties — is very good, too. We dropped in for an early dinner one weekday evening and were pleasantly surprised by this addition to Santa Fe’s limited selection of Italian eateries.
We started our meal with an order of fritto misto ($10.95), a nice mix of shrimp, bay scallops and the ubiquitous calamari, crunchily deepfried. Cafe Grazie rather unusually serves this seafood melange atop a light tomato sauce well-seasoned with garlic and basil. It was easily enough for two as a starter.
Other first-course possibilities included a caprese salad of fresh mozzarella and tomato and, more intriguingly, an ancho chile stuffed with veal and ricotta. We thought about splitting one of the salad offerings, too — most featured meat, seafood or cheese and could have served as a light main dish. But more attention to the menu revealed that Cafe Grazie serves up its house salad with the entrees.
A nice house salad it is, too: a mix of baby greens, generous shavings of jicama and carrot, as well as pear tomatoes, dressed with a very mild vinaigrette. It’s served family-style, in a big bowl, which meant there was enough for seconds.
My guest opted for pasta, choosing gamberoni a la Roma ($13.95). Spaghetti was tossed with plentiful large shrimp, peas, basil, fresh tomatoes and garlic, plus a little oil and Asiago cheese. The springlike combination was savory without being overly rich and pleased her mightily.
Other pasta offerings included a chicken and cream-sauce combo, meatballs with marinara, and linguine Alfredo. A couple of selections would have served vegetarians, and two varieties of lasagna, one with meat and one without, also were on the list.
I opted for a stuffed chicken breast with polenta ($15.95) from the grill menu, and it, too, was delicious. The boneless breast had been split and filled with fresh spinach, mushrooms and more asiago cheese. The barest hint of wine, it seemed to me, had been used to deglaze the pan and poured atop. The accompanying polenta was richly creamy and smooth, and the fresh vegetables — a toss of zucchini and carrot and two nice Brussels sprouts — were perfectly cooked.
Cafe Grazie also offers turkey with a piccata sauce of lemon and capers, and a small filet, both served with mashed potatoes, as well as the vegetables.
The dessert menu here is short and to the point: tiramisu, cannoli, a cheesecake and Italian ice cream. That’s a no-brainer for me, so we split a helping of my choice, tiramisu ($6.95). It was very nice: cake soaked in coffee, topped with plenty of unsweetened cocoa and heavily laced with whipped cream throughout. A couple of generous cups of cappuccino ($3.95) provided the perfect accompaniment.
Service was flawless and attentive the night we dined. Cafe Grazie is, at least at this point, three months after it opened, a quiet place and perfect for dinner conversation. We enjoyed ourselves and were particularly impressed by the fact that Cafe Grazie doesn’t overreach. The menu, though small, offers enough choice to please almost anyone. The decor is modest but sufficiently upscale to merit a dinner date.
Not least, in our estimation, Cafe Grazie is yet another fine addition to what is becoming an impressive range of eating choices on the city’s far south side.