Like most people, LA and I are creatures of habit. We go to the Liberty East, we go to Las Margaritas. Occasionally we venture out to a new place. In this case, we ventured out to FedEx Office (which I usually still refer to as "Kinko's"). Our trip to FedEx Office paid off in unexpected ways.
LA needed to print out some documents on a day on which the library was closed. The next best place to print something? FedEx Office. We went there on a Tuesday around lunchtime. By the time the documents were printed, we were starving. We could go to Chipotle. Who doesn't love Chipotle? I used to eat there when there was only one in the whole country. (Speaking of, you still owe me $5 for that bet, Scott.) Mexican was a little tired for us, since we'd recently been to the aforementioned Las Margaritas. Our other options were bagels or pizza. LA chose pizza, and I readily agreed.
When we walked into MezzaNotte, I was expecting a regular corner pizza joint. Red-checked tablecloths, a counter at which we'd place our order, even some parmesan shakers sitting on the table. Boy, was I wrong! MezzaNotte is a very cozy and upscale place, with white cotton tablecloths, dark wood panelling, and a wood-fired pizza oven behind the bar. On a side note, who puts the pizza oven behind the bar? I consider it to be a small question and not one that detracts from the overall atmosphere of MezzaNotte.
The sign outside MezzaNotte states that their Lunch Express Menu is $9.95. For lunch? I'm used to the Dollar Menu. But we hoped we'd get our money's worth. The Lunch Express includes a soup or salad, a slice of pizza, and an entree, as well as iced tea. Ok, maybe the price isn't as bad as we initially thought.
Based on the recommendation of our server, Iesha, LA ordered the tomato goat cheese soup, a slice of cheese pizza, and the Rigatoni Buttera. I asked what was involved in the MezzaNotte salad. Iesha wasn't sure, but she knew it had iceberg, onions, and blue cheese dressing. I'll have that, but hold the onions! I also ordered a slice of margherita pizza, as well as the Rigatoni Buttera.
LA's soup was delicious. Excellent recommendation! Very tomatoey and acidic, but with the tang and creaminess of goat cheese. The MezzaNotte salad is, in reality, a mix of iceberg and romaine lettuces, with cherry tomatoes, red onion, artichoke hearts, diced ham, and black olives, in the housemade blue cheese dressing. My salad arrived with a small slice of easily-removed red onion. The pantry cook was a little heavy-handed with the salad dressing, but I didn't mind. Their dressing is reminiscent of Caesar dressing, but with the addition of blue cheese. They should bottle and sell it!
Next arrived the pizza. The "slice" is actually half of a small pizza. LA had the standard American cheese pizza. It was good, but tasted like every other slice of cheese pizza that I've ever had. The margherita pizza was covered in a tangy tomato sauce, with gooey fresh mozzarella and spicy basil. LA thought mine was too spicy, but I thought it was perfect. The wood-fired oven gives the crust a crispy chew, which can make it difficult to cut through, and the slices are to big to eat by hand. I'm not typically a crust person, but I ate all of mine.
We both then got a small plate of rigatoni in a tomato cream sauce, with peas and Italian sausage. I found the rigatoni to be a bit too al dente, and neither of us were particularly crazy about the dish. The peas were too much of a contrast with the sausage and sauce, and the dish had no real counterpoint that provided any balance.
On our next visit, I stuck with the standard Express Lunch menu. This time I had the house salad. You'd think it would be the same as the MezzaNotte salad, but you (and I and Iesha) would be mistaken. The house salad is a mix of lettuces, with tomatoes, cucumber, and carrots. Again, it was dressed heavy-handedly.
I ordered the diavola pizza after asking Iesha what was on it. She wasn't sure, but she thought that it had red peppers and knew it had banana peppers. Never one to make things easy on a server, I requested that they hold the banana peppers. The diavola pizza has a spicy tomato sauce that's covered with Italian sausage, salami, and mozzarella. I saw nary a red pepper. All the same, it was fantastic. I liked it even better than I had the margherita pizza.
Filet of branzino caught my eye, and I asked Iesha what came with it. "Nothing. You get so much with everything else that it doesn't come with anything." I ordered it anyway. A good size filet of the branzino, which is a white fish, arrived, with a side of roasted potatoes and tomatoes. The fish had been floured and pan-fried to perfection, neither undercooked nor dry. LA had a bit and declared it "too plain", but a squeeze of the accompanying lemon was all the seasoning I needed for it.
LA ordered the Ariana salad, which typically comes with salmon, but asked to have the steak from the Bistecca salad substituted for the salmon. No problem. When his salad arrived, it was the Bistecca salad. Back it went to the kitchen. Why had he been so adamant about the Ariana salad? Because it's a spinach salad with caramelized walnuts, cherry tomatoes, bacon, and goat cheese. The steak was a bit salty and had even been finished with sea salt, but it was cooked to medium rare, just as LA had ordered it. He thought the salad was only dressed with oil, but I think there was a vinaigrette hiding somewhere in there. I would order that in the future, only without the sea salt finish.
The best thing about MezzaNotte? A basket of bread is brought to the table, accompanied by white beans. The white beans are tossed with some diced tomato, red onion, basil, red pepper flakes, and olive oil. I'm starting to drool just thinking about it. Who needs butter?
The service at MezzaNotte has been excellent on both visits. Iesha was our server on both occasions. My personal opinion is that she should be a bit more knowledgeable about their menu items, but she makes up for it by taking good care of her tables. LA and I both had mistakes on our special orders, but they were quickly and pleasantly corrected. The ambience is fantastic as well. It's comfortable and cozy, but not overly casual. While there is a patio, it's been too hot for us to sit out there. Maybe some evening we'll stop in for one of their Happy Hour pizza specials and sit on the patio, watching traffic go by. Without question, we plan on becoming regulars.
MezzaNotte is located at 2907 Providence Road, in the Providence Plaza, at the corner of Providence and Sharon Amity.
P.S. Props to anyone who got the Dean Martin reference from the title of this post.
Showing posts with label pizza. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pizza. Show all posts
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Menu Scolaire
From 2nd through 8th grade, I went to school in a rural community. Lunch there was the same for everybody: meat, starch, veg, and dessert with a glass of milk. Well, okay, not for everybody. John was lactose intolerant, so he got water. But everything else was the same. I remember hot turkey sandwiches with mashed potatoes. Ketchup-coated meatloaf with cheese-topped mashed potatoes. My least favorite lunches included sloppy joes or sauerkraut. Karen would eat the sauerkraut, so the rest of us would put it in our hands and pass it to her under the table. Sloppy joes were not as easily passed, so we had to find ways to make them edible enough to get through half. My dad was the janitor there, and he can tell you about the canned peaches that were served. Or, in his words, “those damn slimy peaches”. To this day, I still don’t think he’ll eat canned peaches.
When I started high school, we moved to a larger town with a more “traditional” school lunch program. We had the regular school lunch line, with foods that most of us wouldn’t eat, and the pizza and burger line, filled with rubbery pizza and what appeared to be cardboard cutouts of burgers. My junior year saw the installation of a salad bar. If I did manage to eat school lunch, it was from the salad bar. More typically, it was a Dr. Pepper and Grandma’s chocolate chip cookies from the vending machine (sorry, Mom). The salad bar was a definite improvement and gave us the opportunity to eat something that resembled food. Many schools are “considering” this route, and I highly encourage it. Food service managers can say that kids won’t eat vegetables, but that’s because the vegetables they’re usually given have been overcooked to the point of grey mushiness. Or the vegetable is ketchup.
One of my favorite blogs is Fed Up with Lunch: The School Lunch Project. Mrs. Q eats school lunch every day, then photographs it and provides commentary. Most of what she eats falls squarely in the classification of “beige food”. Mrs. Q also allows guest bloggers. My favorite guest blogger is a resident of Toulouse, France, and provided a link to Toulouse’s website, where you can find school lunch menus all the way back to January. I had to take a look. Honestly, I nearly cried. I then called Vince and read some of the menus to him. He nearly cried. He also asked where these meals were when we were kids. Why don’t we deserve good food? I’ve decided to provide some sample menus as well. If you’d like to try your hand at reading them in French, they can be found here. Otherwise, please to enjoy in English.
Monday:
Mache and beet salad
Breaded fish
Pumpkin puree
Organic apple tart
Tuesday:
Leek tart
Organic roast chicken
Green beans
Chantailloux cheese
Fruit
Wednesday:
Radishes with butter
Salmon with sorrel sauce
Vegetable cakes
Strawberries
Cookies
Thursday:
Endive salad
Hamburger steak with tomato sauce
French fries
Roquefort cheese
Peaches in syrup
Friday:
Grated carrots
Ham or Fish sauteed in butter
Macaroni
Organic yogurt
Fruit
Other weeks, the kids got veal marengo, lamb curry, and beef stew. If the kids are eating school lunch, this is what they’re getting. If they don’t want what’s on the menu, they can bring their own lunch. No one is pandering to their tastes by saying, “Kids don’t want salmon in sorrel sauce, so we provide them with nachos and chicken nuggets.” The kids eat the salmon in sorrel sauce, and they grow up to have experienced a wider range of tastes. They’re also less likely to be picky eaters. Just ask LA about that.
I’m not saying that we have to take on the French menus in our schools. Maybe accept the spirit of what they do. We don’t have to serve our kids crap because it’s cheap and we think it’s all they will eat. Offer them something that actually looks appetizing (grey peas are no one’s idea of appetizing) and see what happens. You never know, we might end up with kids who like eating vegetables more than Flamin’ Hot Cheetos covered in nacho cheese.
When I started high school, we moved to a larger town with a more “traditional” school lunch program. We had the regular school lunch line, with foods that most of us wouldn’t eat, and the pizza and burger line, filled with rubbery pizza and what appeared to be cardboard cutouts of burgers. My junior year saw the installation of a salad bar. If I did manage to eat school lunch, it was from the salad bar. More typically, it was a Dr. Pepper and Grandma’s chocolate chip cookies from the vending machine (sorry, Mom). The salad bar was a definite improvement and gave us the opportunity to eat something that resembled food. Many schools are “considering” this route, and I highly encourage it. Food service managers can say that kids won’t eat vegetables, but that’s because the vegetables they’re usually given have been overcooked to the point of grey mushiness. Or the vegetable is ketchup.
One of my favorite blogs is Fed Up with Lunch: The School Lunch Project. Mrs. Q eats school lunch every day, then photographs it and provides commentary. Most of what she eats falls squarely in the classification of “beige food”. Mrs. Q also allows guest bloggers. My favorite guest blogger is a resident of Toulouse, France, and provided a link to Toulouse’s website, where you can find school lunch menus all the way back to January. I had to take a look. Honestly, I nearly cried. I then called Vince and read some of the menus to him. He nearly cried. He also asked where these meals were when we were kids. Why don’t we deserve good food? I’ve decided to provide some sample menus as well. If you’d like to try your hand at reading them in French, they can be found here. Otherwise, please to enjoy in English.
Monday:
Mache and beet salad
Breaded fish
Pumpkin puree
Organic apple tart
Tuesday:
Leek tart
Organic roast chicken
Green beans
Chantailloux cheese
Fruit
Wednesday:
Radishes with butter
Salmon with sorrel sauce
Vegetable cakes
Strawberries
Cookies
Thursday:
Endive salad
Hamburger steak with tomato sauce
French fries
Roquefort cheese
Peaches in syrup
Friday:
Grated carrots
Ham or Fish sauteed in butter
Macaroni
Organic yogurt
Fruit
Other weeks, the kids got veal marengo, lamb curry, and beef stew. If the kids are eating school lunch, this is what they’re getting. If they don’t want what’s on the menu, they can bring their own lunch. No one is pandering to their tastes by saying, “Kids don’t want salmon in sorrel sauce, so we provide them with nachos and chicken nuggets.” The kids eat the salmon in sorrel sauce, and they grow up to have experienced a wider range of tastes. They’re also less likely to be picky eaters. Just ask LA about that.
I’m not saying that we have to take on the French menus in our schools. Maybe accept the spirit of what they do. We don’t have to serve our kids crap because it’s cheap and we think it’s all they will eat. Offer them something that actually looks appetizing (grey peas are no one’s idea of appetizing) and see what happens. You never know, we might end up with kids who like eating vegetables more than Flamin’ Hot Cheetos covered in nacho cheese.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Venice by Way of New York by Way of Kannapolis
I may be living on a shoestring, but that doesn't mean that I don't want to treat myself periodically to a meal made by someone other than me. Especially if it's inexpensive. It was this desire that led me to Venice New York Style Pizza and Italian Cuisine. Not only is Venice located very near my favorite wig store (no, I don't wear a wig. Yet.), but they have signs advertising their daily lunch specials for $5.95. That's hard to beat.
On our first visit, LA and I were initially the only customers, but more people came in while we were there. We both immediately took to the decor, with LA saying that he felt like he was dining on a train due to the unique booths. We took forever to order, mainly because we were having too much of a laugh over their menu. The menu items weren't the issue. The spelling and grammar were. As a pizza topping, you have the option of getting "green papers" or "banana papers". The Buffalo shrimp come with a side of "Ranch Dre". The "Chicken Rap" includes "chider" cheese. Many of the pasta dishes are available "backed", such as Backed Cheese Ravioli. You can even get Spaghetti Wits Meatballs. Our personal favorite was the "Child Lasagna". I believe they mean it is a child's portion of lasagna, but, without an accompanying description, you really are left with just an assumption. The server must be used to people's reaction to the menu, because she seemed totally unphased by it. When LA asked for his stromboli with banana papers, she said that it was the printer's fault and that they'd be getting new menus. She even provided us with takeout menus, so we could enjoy the typos in the comfort of our own homes.
Enough about our spelling snobbery. LA ordered a small pepperoni stromboli. What arrived was almost the size of his arm. I can't even imagine what the large must look like. The stromboli was pretty standard, with a side of marinara. LA raved about the marinara. I ordered broccoli chicken alfredo, which, surprisingly, was spelled correctly on the menu. The fettucine arrived in a delicious cream sauce that was a little lighter on broccoli than I would have preferred. As promised, it was topped with grilled chicken. I couldn't make out the seasoning used on the chicken, but it was absolutely delicious. And it was grilled. Menus often say grilled, but the chicken is often either parcooked and put on the grill for 30 seconds, or it's cooked by another method altogether. While LA thought that the cream sauce was too thin, I thought it was perfect. It wasn't overly heavy, which I find is often the case with restaurant alfredo sauce. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the chef actually knew what he was doing. Go figure. The pastas come with a side of garlic bread. In this case, it was a chunk of Italian bread, sliced in half, slathered with garlic butter and oregano and baked. I ate it all.
On our next visit, a few customers were already there. We began with the homemade potato chips with a side of ranch dressing. Maybe I'm too cynical, but I was more than a little surprised when homemade potato chips arrived. Very thinly sliced, skin-on Russet potatoes, fried until crisp. Some weren't as crisp as others. Just another way to tell that they were homemade. It's easy to forget just how good homemade potato chips are. I know I should stay away from the fried foods, but it's hard to do when they're that good. I would recommend the potato chips to anyone going to Venice.
LA ordered a personal cheese pizza from the Express Lunch menu. A larger-than-expected thin-crust cheese pizza was brought out on a pedestal (literally). When I asked LA how it was, he told me again how much he loves their marinara. That was far more descriptive than the "Good" that I normally get out of him. My side salad came first. Lettuce, tomato, carrots, and green olives with a side of not-homemade blue cheese dressing (despite what the menu says about homemade dressings). The side salad also comes with onions and green peppers, but I opted out of those. The only thing I really have to say about the salad is that it came too soon after the potato chips, so it just had to sit there on the table and watch me eat the chips. After the salad came my lasagna. The menu indicates that the lasagna is comprised of layers of pasta, ground beef (not child), and cheeses, topped with a homemade sauce. My expectations being low, I was prepared for frozen lasagna with some fresh sauce poured over it before heating it. (I worked in one establishment where the homemade lasagna was just that--frozen Stouffer's lasagna, topped with our own sauce.) Again, I was happily surprised. The whole thing was homemade. The whole thing was huge (I took more than half home with me). And the whole thing was delicious. It also tasted just as good the next day, when I reheated it. LA also took half of his pizza home with him, although he later ate it in the car, having been reheated in the heat of the car. Mmm, car pizza.
After two visits, LA and I both had the same impressions of Venice: good-sized portions for the price, all the important items are homemade (salad dressings notwithstanding), and everything we've had has been very good. We were highly impressed, moreso than expected, and we plan to make this one of our regular joints. We aren't, however, looking forward to the newly-printed menus coming soon. Part of the charm of Venice is the ability to laugh at the "printer's" mistake. I'll just have to keep my takeout menu to remind me.
Venice New York Style Pizza and Italian Restaurant is located at 1121 S. Cannon Blvd. in Kannapolis.
On our first visit, LA and I were initially the only customers, but more people came in while we were there. We both immediately took to the decor, with LA saying that he felt like he was dining on a train due to the unique booths. We took forever to order, mainly because we were having too much of a laugh over their menu. The menu items weren't the issue. The spelling and grammar were. As a pizza topping, you have the option of getting "green papers" or "banana papers". The Buffalo shrimp come with a side of "Ranch Dre". The "Chicken Rap" includes "chider" cheese. Many of the pasta dishes are available "backed", such as Backed Cheese Ravioli. You can even get Spaghetti Wits Meatballs. Our personal favorite was the "Child Lasagna". I believe they mean it is a child's portion of lasagna, but, without an accompanying description, you really are left with just an assumption. The server must be used to people's reaction to the menu, because she seemed totally unphased by it. When LA asked for his stromboli with banana papers, she said that it was the printer's fault and that they'd be getting new menus. She even provided us with takeout menus, so we could enjoy the typos in the comfort of our own homes.
Enough about our spelling snobbery. LA ordered a small pepperoni stromboli. What arrived was almost the size of his arm. I can't even imagine what the large must look like. The stromboli was pretty standard, with a side of marinara. LA raved about the marinara. I ordered broccoli chicken alfredo, which, surprisingly, was spelled correctly on the menu. The fettucine arrived in a delicious cream sauce that was a little lighter on broccoli than I would have preferred. As promised, it was topped with grilled chicken. I couldn't make out the seasoning used on the chicken, but it was absolutely delicious. And it was grilled. Menus often say grilled, but the chicken is often either parcooked and put on the grill for 30 seconds, or it's cooked by another method altogether. While LA thought that the cream sauce was too thin, I thought it was perfect. It wasn't overly heavy, which I find is often the case with restaurant alfredo sauce. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the chef actually knew what he was doing. Go figure. The pastas come with a side of garlic bread. In this case, it was a chunk of Italian bread, sliced in half, slathered with garlic butter and oregano and baked. I ate it all.
On our next visit, a few customers were already there. We began with the homemade potato chips with a side of ranch dressing. Maybe I'm too cynical, but I was more than a little surprised when homemade potato chips arrived. Very thinly sliced, skin-on Russet potatoes, fried until crisp. Some weren't as crisp as others. Just another way to tell that they were homemade. It's easy to forget just how good homemade potato chips are. I know I should stay away from the fried foods, but it's hard to do when they're that good. I would recommend the potato chips to anyone going to Venice.
LA ordered a personal cheese pizza from the Express Lunch menu. A larger-than-expected thin-crust cheese pizza was brought out on a pedestal (literally). When I asked LA how it was, he told me again how much he loves their marinara. That was far more descriptive than the "Good" that I normally get out of him. My side salad came first. Lettuce, tomato, carrots, and green olives with a side of not-homemade blue cheese dressing (despite what the menu says about homemade dressings). The side salad also comes with onions and green peppers, but I opted out of those. The only thing I really have to say about the salad is that it came too soon after the potato chips, so it just had to sit there on the table and watch me eat the chips. After the salad came my lasagna. The menu indicates that the lasagna is comprised of layers of pasta, ground beef (not child), and cheeses, topped with a homemade sauce. My expectations being low, I was prepared for frozen lasagna with some fresh sauce poured over it before heating it. (I worked in one establishment where the homemade lasagna was just that--frozen Stouffer's lasagna, topped with our own sauce.) Again, I was happily surprised. The whole thing was homemade. The whole thing was huge (I took more than half home with me). And the whole thing was delicious. It also tasted just as good the next day, when I reheated it. LA also took half of his pizza home with him, although he later ate it in the car, having been reheated in the heat of the car. Mmm, car pizza.
After two visits, LA and I both had the same impressions of Venice: good-sized portions for the price, all the important items are homemade (salad dressings notwithstanding), and everything we've had has been very good. We were highly impressed, moreso than expected, and we plan to make this one of our regular joints. We aren't, however, looking forward to the newly-printed menus coming soon. Part of the charm of Venice is the ability to laugh at the "printer's" mistake. I'll just have to keep my takeout menu to remind me.
Venice New York Style Pizza and Italian Restaurant is located at 1121 S. Cannon Blvd. in Kannapolis.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Old Stone Vino is the Place to Be
Kannapolis has a lot of restaurants, but very few qualify as the “nice” restaurant, or the one you go to for special occasions. A couple of those are only open on the weekends. Where to go when you want a nice lunch or dinner, but don’t feel like going to a chain? Old Stone Vino. Old Stone Vino is in a stonefront house, sitting next to the train tracks. The house was being remodeled when I first came to town, opening a few months later. It would still be a few months after that before I finally decided to check it out.
Old Stone Vino has a beautiful stone stairway leading to the front door, but they have decided not to make use of it. To get to the door requires a long walk up a wooden ramp from the parking lot. I was actually a bit confused when I initially went, since there is another wooden stairway next to the ramp. I haven’t yet figured out where it leads. The beautiful stone stairway is blocked by either a piece of fabric or a patio table. Either way, it’s confusing.
While the stonework on the outside seems to be new, the same thing can only be said for the paint in the interior. In a style typical of older homes, the house is sectioned into many small rooms, each with two doorways. If the doorframes and some other architectural details were not original, the restorer did a fine job. Along with the new paint are some new light fixtures and molding. All the chairs and tables are black wood. Each dining room houses 2 to 3 tables, and all rooms are painted a different color. The effect is not jarring; rather, the colors work well to separate all rooms while providing a unified feel. Patrons are spread out amongst the rooms, which means that you may have a dining room all to yourself. I quite like this. Lunch feels like an intimate affair, and yelling is not required when communicating with your dining companion. Chain restaurants could learn something from Old Stone Vino.
Our first visit was to celebrate LA’s birthday. Old Stone Vino offered an all-you-can-eat lunch menu, with options including salads, soup, and sandwiches. LA and I each started with creamy tomato basil soup, with a spinach salad. The soup tasted like smooth tomato cream sauce, but more subtle. The woman at the table behind us told her friend that she goes there for the soup alone. LA didn’t care for it, but I did, although I wouldn’t go there solely for that soup. Our salad was composed of spinach, red onion, blue cheese, candied pecans, slices of Granny Smith apple, and an apple cider vinaigrette. Never one to enjoy the flavor of a raw onion, I picked all of them out. LA, being smarter than me, asked for his without the onions. While we both enjoyed the salad, the cook was more generous with LA’s than with mine. He got more apples, more pecans, and more blue cheese. In both cases, the cook was a bit heavy-handed with the vinaigrette. Next we both had a steak panini with carmelized onions. The steak was tender, with the sweetness of the onions making for a delicious sandwich. For a side, we both had the macaroni and cheese. When ordering Old Stone Vino’s mac and cheese, you are given the option of the type of cheese you want for it. The macaroni was cooked in a cream sauce, then topped with your selected cheese and baked before being brought out. LA got his with mozzarella, which I felt was too mild. I could feel the cheese but was unable to taste it. He enjoyed it, and that’s what matters. Mine came topped with melted cheddar, for a much more flavorful dish. While both were good, they were also greasier than I would have preferred.
Old Stone Vino recently changed their menu. We gave them a week to work out the kinks, then went for our second visit. Our first visit had been on a busy weekday, but our second visit was quieter. Our server was very friendly, if not a little too forthcoming. Gone was the all-you-can-eat lunch. The waitress explained that it had been very good for the customers, but was not “cost-effective” for the kitchen. Fair enough. We started with the warm artichoke dip, served with flatbread. The dip was a mix of spinach and artichoke hearts, with tangy goat cheese, topped with mozzarella and diced tomatoes. I felt that it needed a bit of pepper to offset the tanginess, but LA disagreed. Although we loaded up each piece of flatbread with dip, we still ran out of bread with a good deal of dip left in the dish. I asked if we could get more bread, and the waitress replied that it was $1, since giving it away wasn’t “cost-effective”. There’s that word again. I let her know that we would make do without additional bread. Old Stone Vino has the creamy tomato basil soup on the menu every day, plus they have a “soup du jour” listed as well. This always reminds me of the truckstop scene in Dumb and Dumber, but I try not to go through that scenario with every service person I encounter. Both times we have been to Old Stone Vino, we’ve been informed that they only have the tomato soup. Maybe this was my lucky day. The server advised me that the chef was making lobster bisque, but she didn’t know how long it would take to be ready. I ordered a club sandwich with a side of soup. Lobster bisque if it was ready, or tomato basil if it wasn’t. It was ready! The club sandwich arrived on three slices of country bread, with thick-sliced roasted ham and turkey, bacon, lettuce, Roma tomato, and pesto mayonnaise. The menu said the sandwich was made with garlic mayonnaise, but I wasn’t going to send the sandwich back to the kitchen because the mayo was wrong. I happen to like pesto mayo. The sandwich was difficult to eat because a) it was huge, and b) the crust was so crisp that I couldn’t bite through it. Not a sandwich to get if you’re there on a first date. If it’s not your first date, go ahead and order it. Just plan on taking part of it home, as I did. The lobster bisque was a light coral color, drizzled with parsley oil. It had a subtle lobster flavor, with a creamy texture interrupted by small pieces of tomato. I offered a taste of the soup to LA, but he opted not to risk impending death by ingesting shellfish.
LA ordered a vegetable flatbread pizza. Before I could even snap a photo, he had a piece of the pizza in his mouth. When I asked for a description, I got “mmmmmm”, which was then amended to “very light, very tasty”. The pizza was fully loaded with spinach, tomatoes, red pepper, onions, and mozzarella cheese. The new lunch menu is considerably larger than its predecessor, with the inclusion of the pizzas and an expanded salad selection. Apparently the chef loves onions—regardless of the type of salad you order, it will have onions on it. The good news is that the menu states that so people like me can order it without the onions. LA also felt it very important that I mention the decorative jar of lemon slices sitting on the windowsill. He was quite obsessed and told me several times to include that. So, for LA: we noticed a decorative jar of lemon slices sitting on the windowsill.
I believe that the restrooms can say a lot about a place. They are easily overlooked, but very important to me. The restrooms at Old Stone Vino were well-maintained and clean, although the men’s was out of paper towels. There was even a choice of hand sanitizer and hand lotion that looked remarkably like mayonnaise. I asked our server if they had recently gotten a new chef, which may have accounted for the menu change. She said that Brandon Turner became chef a few weeks ago and had been working on the menu since. Making it more cost-effective, I’m sure. So far, I’m impressed. My next visit will be for dinner, since they offer free wine-tastings on Tuesdays and live music on the weekends. While Old Stone Vino is out of my current budget on a regular basis, I like knowing that Kannapolis has a good restaurant where I can go when I want to feel like a grown-up.
Old Stone Vino Bistro & Wine Bar is located at 515 S. Main St. in Kannapolis.
Old Stone Vino has a beautiful stone stairway leading to the front door, but they have decided not to make use of it. To get to the door requires a long walk up a wooden ramp from the parking lot. I was actually a bit confused when I initially went, since there is another wooden stairway next to the ramp. I haven’t yet figured out where it leads. The beautiful stone stairway is blocked by either a piece of fabric or a patio table. Either way, it’s confusing.
Old Stone Vino recently changed their menu. We gave them a week to work out the kinks, then went for our second visit. Our first visit had been on a busy weekday, but our second visit was quieter. Our server was very friendly, if not a little too forthcoming. Gone was the all-you-can-eat lunch. The waitress explained that it had been very good for the customers, but was not “cost-effective” for the kitchen. Fair enough. We started with the warm artichoke dip, served with flatbread. The dip was a mix of spinach and artichoke hearts, with tangy goat cheese, topped with mozzarella and diced tomatoes. I felt that it needed a bit of pepper to offset the tanginess, but LA disagreed. Although we loaded up each piece of flatbread with dip, we still ran out of bread with a good deal of dip left in the dish. I asked if we could get more bread, and the waitress replied that it was $1, since giving it away wasn’t “cost-effective”. There’s that word again. I let her know that we would make do without additional bread. Old Stone Vino has the creamy tomato basil soup on the menu every day, plus they have a “soup du jour” listed as well. This always reminds me of the truckstop scene in Dumb and Dumber, but I try not to go through that scenario with every service person I encounter. Both times we have been to Old Stone Vino, we’ve been informed that they only have the tomato soup. Maybe this was my lucky day. The server advised me that the chef was making lobster bisque, but she didn’t know how long it would take to be ready. I ordered a club sandwich with a side of soup. Lobster bisque if it was ready, or tomato basil if it wasn’t. It was ready! The club sandwich arrived on three slices of country bread, with thick-sliced roasted ham and turkey, bacon, lettuce, Roma tomato, and pesto mayonnaise. The menu said the sandwich was made with garlic mayonnaise, but I wasn’t going to send the sandwich back to the kitchen because the mayo was wrong. I happen to like pesto mayo. The sandwich was difficult to eat because a) it was huge, and b) the crust was so crisp that I couldn’t bite through it. Not a sandwich to get if you’re there on a first date. If it’s not your first date, go ahead and order it. Just plan on taking part of it home, as I did. The lobster bisque was a light coral color, drizzled with parsley oil. It had a subtle lobster flavor, with a creamy texture interrupted by small pieces of tomato. I offered a taste of the soup to LA, but he opted not to risk impending death by ingesting shellfish. 
I believe that the restrooms can say a lot about a place. They are easily overlooked, but very important to me. The restrooms at Old Stone Vino were well-maintained and clean, although the men’s was out of paper towels. There was even a choice of hand sanitizer and hand lotion that looked remarkably like mayonnaise. I asked our server if they had recently gotten a new chef, which may have accounted for the menu change. She said that Brandon Turner became chef a few weeks ago and had been working on the menu since. Making it more cost-effective, I’m sure. So far, I’m impressed. My next visit will be for dinner, since they offer free wine-tastings on Tuesdays and live music on the weekends. While Old Stone Vino is out of my current budget on a regular basis, I like knowing that Kannapolis has a good restaurant where I can go when I want to feel like a grown-up.
Old Stone Vino Bistro & Wine Bar is located at 515 S. Main St. in Kannapolis.
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