Scalo Italian Grill, Albuquerque, NM

I've been a huge fan of Scalo's for many years. Recently (June 2003) they have done a complete makeover of their menu, and I'm happy to report that the food is better than ever. Much of the credit for this goes to their new chef, Jonathan Perno, who was a line cook here 15 years ago and was inspired by owner Tom White to go out and really learn his stuff. Now he's back and tearing up the roadmap.

Until the makeover, Scalo had always been pretty strictly a Northern Italian place. They might use ingredients from all over (Pacific fish and local game), but the preparation was always classic Italian. The new look is international and eclectic. The new menu fits on one page and is divided into `smalls', `mediums', and `larges'. To quote from Chef's description in the newsletter:

Smalls can be thought of as one person appetizers, while Mediums might be better shared or as light suppers. Larges are big ol' dinners.

Location: in the Nob Hill Center on the southwest corner of Carlisle and Central; phone is (505) 255-8781.

Disclaimer: I have no financial interest in this place (or any other restaurant or food supplier). I just eat there all the time.

• Menu of 2004-03-29
• Menu of 2003-07-09

Menu of 2004-03-29

Smalls

• Artichoke and potato soup, gremolata, fried artichokes
• House salad of mesclun greens, fresh herbs, honey Dijon vinaigrette
• Buttered asparagus, fresh grated Parmesan cheese, white truffle oil
• Butter lettuce wrapped grilled flank steak, spicy lime chile sauce, fresh mint
• Kataifi wrapped crab cake with mango avocado salsa and lemon butter: If you take some sheets of phyllo dough and roll them up and chiffonade them, you get something like uncooked shredded wheat. That's the "tall food" part of this amazing appetizer. The crab cake is fine work, but the sauce is really over the top, smooth and rich.
• Roasted red beet and leek terrine, chevre cream, toasted spices, daikon sprouts

Mediums

• Whole romaine leaves with queso fresco and creamy lime-poppy seed vinaigrette: This is a heroic salad for people who want to eat a lot of romaine. Nice dressing.
• Housemade sausages, sauteed red peppers and onions, Guinness demi-glace: Another one of those "I would eat my own shoes in this sauce" sauces, and excellent, lean, flavorful, fine-grained sausages, one sweet and another significantly spicy even for Albuquerque palates.
• House selection of artisanal cheeses: We've had this several times, with a selection of four cheeses. There is always a ball of fresh goat cheese rolled in herbs, a hard Italian cheese (Reggiano parmigiano or Pecorino Romano), some Cabrales Spanish blue (one of my favorite blues ever, with plenty of flavor but not ridiculously sharp), and a fourth cheese that varies from brie to gouda to whatever else they feel like that night.
• Flash fried calamari, spicy marinara sauce, lemon aioli.
• Babaganoush, marinated red peppers, mixed olives, pickled carrots, spicy flatbread
• Scalo burger, half-pound, bacon, avocado, Drunken Goat cheese, harissa
• Potato gnocchi, eggplant caponata, black pepper rustica cheese
• Linguini, three cheeses: goat gouda, NY cheddar, parmesan
• Wood oven pizza, sausage, mushroom, artichoke hearts, marinara, basil pesto
• Soft polenta with mixed mushrooms, roasted poultry jus, fried sage

Larges

• Roasted acorn squash with mixed grain tabouleh and garlic sauce
• Fisherman's stew with a saffron risotto cake topped with leek and carrot hair: a blend of fresh fish and shellfish in a clear herbed broth. Fine work.
• Sunfish wrapped in eggplant with sun-dried tomato pesto and lentil du pays. This is my favorite entree from this menu. The eggplant is a spiral wrapper, paper-thin, that gives texture and color to one of the world's great fishes.
• Rigatoni, housemade pork sausage, mushrooms, roasted garlic, tomato cream sauce
• Spice-rubbed hebi with Israeli couscous, cucumber raita and harissa
• Whole poussin, mushrooms, bacon, pearl onions in red wine sauce: I don't normally go out of my way to eat chicken at better restaurants, so it was a while before I got around to trying this one. I shouldn't have waited! The sauce is at least as deep and interesting and balanced as the best coq au vin I've had (which, by the way, was at Cafe Miche).
• Potato and white truffle ravioli, tomato basil cream sauce
• Thick-cut pork chop, creamy polenta, dried cherry demi-glace, green beans
• Grilled filet mignon, balsamic demi-glace, basil polenta croquette
• Applewood smoked duck breast, radicchio and fennel salad, mushroom pan sauce

Desserts

• Petit four plate: daily assortment of cakes, tarts, and confections
• Creme brulée: orange, rosemary creme brulée, blueberry compote, and hazelnut tuile
• Trifle: pound cake layered with mascarpone cream and spring berries
• Walnut cake: pastry wrapped walnut cake with chocolate ganache, orange granita, Chantilly cream. Heavenly, yet light. The cake is rich, heavy with walnut flavor, texturally interesting with the pastry crust. The little icebergs of granita float in the Chantilly cream (a sweetened whipped cream) and make for all sorts of interesting contrasts with the various parts of the cake.
• Chocolate terrine: layered chocolate cake, cherry compote, brioche crouton. I've had two other versions of this dessert, once here at Scalo years ago, and a world-class version at Il Fornaio of Palo Alto. Scalo's current version is a lot denser, even more so than a rich mousse. Good chocolate flavors and colors in the terrine; it's not really a cake, more of a very dense pudding. The cherries make a nice variant on the usual chocolate-and-raspberry syndrome.
• Ice cream: vanilla bean ice cream
• Angel food cake: white cake with balsamic strawberries, sweet cream, cracked black pepper
• Cheese plate (same as above)

Menu of 2003-07-19

Smalls

• Vine-ripened tomato filled with chilled Dungeness crab, fresh basil. I had to get this because Dungeness is my favorite of all crabmeats. It was everything a cold crab-stuffed tomato should be: the tomato was tender and ripe, the delicate crab flavor was not hidden by any heavy sauce, and the menu didn't mention the bit of wonderful, subtly flavored light aspic under the tomato.
• Roasted red beets, chevre, popped spices, sunflower sprouts. Most of my life I hated beets, but somewhere around my late 40s I started to like them. This is far and away the best beet dish I've had. The beets themselves had a lovely roasted flavor, and the sauce was quite wonderful. Not really a salad, since it's light on greens, but a beet lover's delight.
• Salmon, quinoa pancake, arugula, ``sexy tartar sauce'' (grabiche). The pancake was dark in color but very light in texture, and stuffed with a few spoonfuls of perfectly undercooked salmon. The sauce complemented the fish well and, as with so much great food, each combination of the pancake, fish, sauce and perfect basil leaves worked and had its own interest.
• House salad of mesclun greens, fresh herbs, red wine-shallot vinaigrette. As fond as I was of the old menu's house balsamic vinaigrette, this dressing is better still. Perfect greens, as always.
• Shiitake mushroom soup, grilled shrimp brochette, fresh chives.
• Wood-oven roasted quail, plum, citrus, and fennel salad.

Mediums

• Risotto-fried calamari, spicy marinara sauce, lemon aioli. The menu says ``the best in town.'' That's a tough race against the outstanding calamari at Seasons, but it was pretty good. The meat was tender, the coating was nicely crunchy (but substantial, compared to the tempura-like coating of Seasons' version), and the marinara and aioli worked with the squid, again, in any combination.
• Confit of chicken, white bean puree, wood oven flatbread, pickled carrots.
• Whole romaine leaves with queso fresco and creamy lime-poppy seed vinaighrette. This is a huge plate, so don't order it unless you want a lot of greens. Very nice dressing.
• Beef tortelloni, broccoli, garlic, beef demi-glace.
• House selection of artisanal cheeses. We've had this twice and the cheeses were quite delightful. Both times there was a brie, a blue, a hard cheese, and another selection. Some slices of Granny Smith apple, an attractive and tasty fruit chutney, and a couple of small toasts made for nice flavor, texture, and visual contrast. The blue was one of the best I've had anywhere, and I've tried a lot of blues.
• Salad of radicchio, celery, parsley, currants, green apple, lemon honey vinaigrette. What a great summer cooler! Top-quality greens with lots of snap and flavor, currants and green apple for more textural interest and a subtle sweetness, and a nice light dressing.
• Soft polenta with mixed mushrooms, roasted poultry jus, fried sage. I was pretty ecstatic with their polenta before, possibly due to the extra cream and butter they put in it. This is not quite as rich and creamy, but it worked well with the mushrooms, and the chicken juice was flavorful and abundant.
• Napolean of summer tomato, breaded eggplant, fresh basil, kalamata olive vinaigrette. A quite light dish with a crunchy texture to the eggplant and some outstanding tomatoes.
• Linguini, sautéed baby artichokes, Spanish blue cheese, poultry reduction, chives.

Larges

• Double-cut grilled pork chop, champagne-roasted peaches, kale, fried shallots.
• Grilled chicken breast, espresso barbeque sauce, savoy cabbage slaw, house chips. I hear that reduced espresso in barbecue sauce is a current fad; I certainly enjoyed it. The barbeque sauce had plenty of flavor over and above the strong coffee. The chicken breast was huge and utterly tender and juicy. Being a relatively low-carb eater, I didn't eat many of the paper-thin housemade potato chips, but they were pretty tasty.
• Panko-crusted fried salmon, corn salsa, white port butter sauce. This was destined to be my choice because I love fish so much, and because Scalo has always done a great job with salmon. No exception here! The crust was nicely crunchy without any greasiness and the fish was perfect. They always ask me how I want the fish (a mark of really conscientious service, in my opinion), and I always tell them to make it ``house temperature,'' that is, trust the chefs. This came out exactly the way I like it: pale orange near the outside, but a zone of deeper orange in the middle. Don't try this with anything but the best fish! The corn salsa was delicious, and the menu didn't mention some garnishing strips of fire-roasted peppers that worked very well with the fish and corn in all combinations.
• Seafood risotto with saffron, celery, caramelized onions and sautéed kale.
• Ravioli filled with spinach and portobello mushroom, tomato-basil cream sauce.
• Grilled filet mignon, balsamic demi-glace, potato gnocchi, buttered zucchini. My companion had this and was very happy with it. I didn't try the filet (because I don't eat feedlot beef), but the gnocchi were superb.
• Rigatoni, housemade pork sausage, mushroom, roasted garlic, tomato cream sauce.
• Poached halibut in spicy shellfish broth, tomato, carrots, tarragon aioli.
• Grilled tofu, black beans, garlic, broccoli and quinoa pancake.
• Roasted bacon-wrapped trout, fava beans, potato, red wine reduction.
• Chorizo-roasted rack of lamb, goat cheese-roasted garlic sauce, Blue Lake beans. This dish approaches the best lamb dishes I've had anywhere. Three perfect chops, perfectly tender, with a strong chorizo flavor on the outside that complemented the meat.

Last updated: 2004/03/30 23:30:31
URL: http://www.nmt.edu/~shipman/food/scalo.html