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ITS FLASH IS IN THE POTS AND ON PLATES HELEN SCHWABRestaurant WriterCharlotte Observer Customshop's food bursts with zest and flavor and brio. Thank God its designers had the brains to keep the background just that: background. Don't take that savvy for granted. It takes restraint to put a new restaurant in a funky part of a growing city and not be showy. It takes more if you've got a New York-Name chef as consulting partner (Dave Pasternack, of Esca fame) amid a group who's knocked around Charlotte and elsewhere in the business for quite awhile (chef Trey Wilson, John Sergi and J.J. Levine). But they managed it. Candlelight is the prevailing design statement, reflected in bistro mirrors hung high but angled downward, the better to catch flickers and bustle. Simple black tables and booths rest within plaster-and-exposed-brick walls interrupted by tall windows. Servers wear jeans. Nothing distracts you for long from your plate. And on that plate? Well, maybe a little of Dave's chicken liver pate with pear shallot jam, micro celery leaves and crackery flatbread: perfectly balanced, lush, memorable. Or pumpkin gnocchi with half a tiny lobster, the dumplings still toothsome and subtly (not sweetly) flavored, with some buttery shiitake mushrooms mixed in. Or a whole flounder, perfectly fried, with a mound of coarse pesto made with almonds and a touch of jalapeno peppers. (Don't forget to flip it to get the meat on the other side.) Crudo -- the Italian version of sashimi, the raw fish dressed with a little olive oil and some herbs -- put Pasternack on the map in New York. Here, it's a small part of the menu. Tuna sells well, says Wilson (as it should; it's delicate yet meaty, bright yet rich), as do some ceviches (seafood "cooked" with citrus juice). But other fish -- mackerel, say, with sage -- seem to make people leery. Pastas, made in-house, are perfectly fine as entrées -- but consider splitting one to start, too. Gnocchi stay on the menu in various forms (a good thing, since these versatile fresh dumplings are hard to find around town), as does squid ink spaghetti with crab, mint and chile. There's always a vegetarian pasta, as well. Wilson changes 20 to 30 percent of the menu -- mostly entrées -- every few days. And you'll see similar combinations in new forms, such as an incarnation of Grateful Growers pork with chestnut spaetzle (little noodle/dumplings). Or salmon with something surprising and fat-cutting: pan-fried radishes were on an early menu, saba -- a syrupy reduction of grape must -- on a recent one. A few missteps occurred: home fries unevenly cooked and underseasoned; a bland dish of fall squash; a souffle whose top had turned so hard it cracked and fell off in one thick piece. But these were nearly forgotten, with other offerings so refreshing: tuna crudo with fat caper berries, crunchy arrancini (sort of a rice croquette) over a little Caesar salad, a beautifully browned pork chop with the spaetzle and bits of cabbage. Parsnips, fennel, escarole and equally unheralded vegetables appear. I wish the cheeses were equally uncommon. By-the-glass wines (from all over) bring generous 6-ounce pours, and while the vintage-less bottle lineup began with nothing over $40, it's now split between under $40 and over $50. Servers recommend with varying degrees of authority, but will get help if they need it. They're better, uniformly, on the food. And some initial service posturing is over -- like the policy requiring parties to order all their food at once, rather than getting an appetizer while perusing the menu. That does help a kitchen, and speeds service, but people didn't like it. It's gone. Reservations for groups were weirdly limited; the recent addition of three six-seat booths loosened that up. Sergi says he and Pasternack have several other things going now, from a clam shack in the new Mets stadium to resorts in Puerto Rico and Western North Carolina. Wilson says the trio is contemplating another neighborhood place in Charlotte. OK, I say. But Customshop is the best new restaurant I've seen this year. Don't spread a good thing too thin. Customshop Bold, simple combinations, well-executed, in a marvelously low-key setting. Food: Setting: Service: 1601 Elizabeth Ave., 704-333-3396; www.customshopfood.com HITS: Crudo, whole flounder, wine list, educated yet relaxed service MISSES: Souffle, Custom home fries, not lighting table's lamp PRICES: Lunch entrees $8-$11; dinner $17-$25 HOURS: Lunch 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. weekdays; dinner 5:30-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, to 11 Friday-Saturday; Sunday brunch 11 a.m.-2 p.m. SEATS: 64 VEGETARIANS : D SMOKING: Smoke-free CHILDREN? If they have a pretty good palate LATEST INSPECTION SCORE: 94, Oct. 9 Posted: December 14, 2007 - News | More News |