{"id":388,"date":"2017-07-29T03:01:34","date_gmt":"2017-07-29T09:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=388"},"modified":"2022-10-05T10:15:11","modified_gmt":"2022-10-05T16:15:11","slug":"scalo-northern-italian-grill-albuquerque-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=388","title":{"rendered":"Scalo Northern Italian Grill – Albuquerque, New Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
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Scalo, one of the crown jewels of the Nob Hill area.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CAVEAT EMPTOR:\u00a0 The following review is based on visits prior to 2019 when Scalo shuttered its doors.\u00a0 Scalo has since reopened.
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When we moved back to New Mexico on May 15, 1995, our first priority wasn\u2019t where to live, but where to eat. Having been away for the better part of 18 years, there were so many old favorites with which to reacquaint ourselves and so many exciting new prospects we just had to try. By year\u2019s end, we had visited 75 different restaurants (no chains). One of our favorite sources on where to eat was Albuquerque Monthly<\/em>, a very well written publication which celebrated the Duke City’s culinary scene with an Annual Restaurant Guide and a “Best of Albuquerque” edition. <\/span><\/p>\n

On its tenth anniversary, the magazine created a “Best Of” Hall of Fame, listing the ten establishments–restaurants, bars, card stores, clothing stores, computer stores, galleries and more–which had received more “best of” votes during the decade than anyone else. The first establishment listed was Scalo Northern Italian Grill, which was also perennial selection on the magazine’s annual listing of the city’s top ten fine-dining restaurants (other mainstays still serving the city include the Artichoke Cafe, Prairie Star and the Rancher’s Club).<\/span><\/p>\n

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The main dining room at Scalo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Call it heretical if you will, but it took a while before Scalo earned my affections. One song described perfectly my first three experiences at Scalo, long regarded by many as an Italian restaurant in a class of its own–the pinnacle of Italian dining in the Duke City. That song, a 1960’s baby boomer tune by Polly J. Harvey asked the question, “Is that all there is? If that’s all there is, my friends, then let’s keep dancing. Let’s break out the booze and have a ball if that’s all there is<\/em>.” After every meal at Scalo, I asked myself the same question: Is that all there is<\/em>?…but I didn’t come away dancing (although the pricey tab usually made me want to take up drinking.) <\/span><\/p>\n

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Bread with Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Because it was one of Albuquerque’s most popular, highly acclaimed and revered restaurants, I expected Scalo to completely blow me away. Instead, my every dining experience was a humdrum event that left me perplexed as to what I was missing. That changed on Saturday, May 5th, 2005 when like a sudden, powerful and almost spiritual realization hit me–an eating epiphany of sorts. That epiphany came with the second or third bite of the spinach salad<\/em><\/strong> (yes, a salad!) with blue cheese, honeyed walnuts and strawberries. Almost ethereal in its lightness, this salad married ingredients that just shouldn’t work that well together, but nonetheless coalesce to create a memorable taste sensation. The sharpness of the blue cheese, the tartness of the just in season strawberries and the salty sweetness of the honeyed walnuts were like the signature masterpiece of a culinary artist, easily one of the best salads we’ve had in New Mexico.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Great
Great Northern White Bean Soup<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Perhaps not coincidentally, just a few weeks before that transformative visit Scalo’s ownership changed hands with entrepreneur Steve Paternoster assuming the helm. Paternoster is one of Albuquerque’s most successful restaurant impresarios, having had a hand on several successful start-ups including La Brasserie Provence<\/a><\/strong> and Ptit Louis Bistro<\/a><\/strong>. He is also one of the city’s most active philanthropists, garnering the New Mexico Restaurant Association’s (NMRA) Cornerstone Humanitarian of the Year for New Mexico in 2010. That same year Scalo and Brasserie La Provence shared the NMRA’s “Restaurant Neighbor Award” for their ongoing contributions to many civic organizations, schools and churches. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Carpaccio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It would be presumptuous to believe one person, no matter how influential or dynamic, could be solely responsible for my sudden change of heart about a restaurant. After all Scalo has been serving Albuquerque since December, 1986 and during its quarter-century of operation has always been regarded as one of the city’s premier destination restaurants. In 2007, it was bestowed a Wine Spectator<\/em> award of excellence for its outstanding selection of premium wines. In 1998, it was featured in Gourmet<\/em> Magazine. After nearly three decades, it continues to garner accolades. During his much missed very entertaining and interesting weekly radio show,<\/strong><\/a> Steve Paternoster often gave all the credit to Scalo’s success to the restaurant’s staff, most of whom have been with the restaurant for years. It’s a good staff, as accommodating and friendly as they come in the Duke City, but Paternoster’s leadership and commitment to keeping his restaurant at the top is inspiring.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Scalo experience is much more than excellent wines and quality Northern Italian cuisine. Its allure also includes a bright, airy interior bustling with the cacophonous din of constant activity from an open kitchen and an enthusiastic wait staff flitting from patron to patron, seemingly never skipping a beat or screwing up an order. Weather permitting, al fresco dining is available in a capacious, covered, temperature-controlled patio replete with white linen table cloths and fine silverware. It’s a patio our debonair dachshund The Dude (he abides) enjoys very much.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Baked
Baked cavatelli<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

7 October 2007<\/strong>: Scalo’s menu is influenced by seasonal harvests and it prides itself on using locally grown organic produce. The quality shows in some of the most inventive salads and soups anywhere in town. The Great Northern White Bean Soup<\/em><\/strong> is one such soup–a brimming bowl of great ingredients melded together creatively. Those ingredients include shaved Parmesan cheese, a spicy-sweet pancetta, an invigorating Italian pesto pasta and hard-crusted Ciabatta croutons. This is the perfect autumn soup a comforting elixir that will cure what ails you. <\/span><\/p>\n

29 July 2017<\/strong>: If you find the notion of raw beef a bit primitive, you probably would never consider eating steak tartare (top-quality raw beef<\/em> chopped and served with onion, capers, parsley, mustard, and egg yolk). Instead, you might want to try<\/span> Carpaccio<\/strong><\/em>. Named for an Italian painter famed for his use of red pigments resembling raw meat, Carpaccio is often sliced so thin that you can almost see right through it. <\/span>Scalo’s Carpaccio (shaved beef tenderloin, Parmesan, arugula, local greens, extra-virgin olive oil) isn’t transparent, but it’s sliced so thin you practically have to scrape it off the plate as spearing it with a fork won’t cut it. <\/span>The marriage of shaved Parmesan and that whisper-thin beef tenderloin is especially memorable and the light olive oil touch with a sprinkling of cracked pepper brings it all together. If you love carpaccio, you also owe it to yourself to try the superb lime beef at Cafe Dalat<\/strong><\/a>. It’s carpaccio made the Vietnamese way and it’s a winner.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Gnocchi
Gnocchi Scalo style is an adventure in flavor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A meal at Scalo includes complimentary bread<\/strong><\/em> baked by the Swiss Alps Bakery<\/a><\/strong> which has been serving the Duke City for more than a decade. It’s a hearty, hard-crusted, airy bread just perfect for sopping up Scalo’s savory sauces. The bread is served with an olive oil and Balsamic vinegar mix. Alternatively, you can request butter which is soft and easy to spread.<\/span><\/p>\n

7 October 2007<\/strong>: The Baked Cavatelli<\/em><\/strong> starts with a corkscrew shaped pasta baked al dente then topped with a fennel-rich housemade pork sausage, mushrooms, roasted garlic, ricotta, Parmesan and a pine nut gremolata in a marinara cream sauce. There are a lot of things going on with this entree, but it’s not one of those dishes in which all the ingredients seem to be competing for the rapt attention of your taste buds. Instead the ingredients work well together in a concordant, complementary fashion. You may want to isolate the flavors to focus on specific tastes (for example, the richness of the ricotta or the tangy, piquant bite of the sausage), but this is an entree in which the flavors are truly best in combination with each other.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"chocolate
chocolate semi freddo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

7 October 2007<\/strong>: The saut\u00e9ed gnocchi<\/em><\/strong> employs even more flavor combinations–a Gorgonzola cream sauce, toasted walnuts, balsamic currants and chives. There’s the pungent richness and sharpness of the Gorgonzola, the fruity tanginess of the currants and the flagrant effervescence of the chives. This gnocchi is rich and delicious. Gnocchi, which is much more than just Italian potato or semolina dumplings, should be light in texture with almost a melt-in-your-mouth quality. That’s what Scalo’s rendition of this taken-for-granted entree is–ethereally light and wholly enjoyable.<\/span><\/p>\n

The lunch menu includes several wood-fired gourmet pizzas, most crafted with fairly standard, albeit high-quality ingredients. On occasion, the pizze (sic) menu also includes pizza crafted with ingredients you might not see elsewhere in New Mexico on a pizza. Creativity seems to be a hallmark of all Scalo entrees. One pizza we enjoyed immensely but which isn’t on the standard pizze menu showcased fig preserve, prosciutto, Gorgonzola, mozzarella and arugula. At first browse, these ingredients seem somewhat disparate, yet Scalo made them work in a taste bud pleasing fashion. Scalo’s pizza is a semi-round pie served slightly crispy and waifishly thin. It’s not likely you’ll have any leftovers save for the impressions left on your olfactory memories and taste buds. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Budino Di Pane<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

5 February 2012<\/strong>: Dessert (the “dolce” menu) is a celebratory event at Scalo where seven sensational sweet treats will challenge you to select the right one to finish off your meal. As with the antipasti, insalati, pizze, panini, carne e pesce and fresh pasta menus, desserts are not permanent fixtures as Scalo changes things up frequently to keep things interesting and delicious. You can generally expect to find homemade gelato on the menu and usually a “sampler’ which introduces you to three desserts at one fixed price. During our inaugural brunch visit, we rejoiced at finding a Budino Di Pane<\/em><\/strong>, an Italian bread pudding topped with warm caramel and served with vanilla gelato. It’s a dessert which in 1995 could well have been another epiphanic dish.<\/span><\/p>\n

7 October 2007<\/strong>: If you fancy chocolate–and not the dairy chocolate variety tailored for children–you’ll love Scalo’s chocolate semi freddo Genoise cake<\/em><\/strong> with a pistachio bark in a warm pool of dark chocolate sauce. This is not a fork-tender chocolate confection. In fact, it’s darn hard to cut into the cake, but once it’s in your mouth, it practically melts there. This is a dark, rich chocolate that should come with an “R” rating for adults only.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ostrichi al Forno<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Brunch <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Scalo was a relative late-comer to the brunch bunch, serving the traditional Sunday repast from 11AM to 2:30PM with a Bloody Mary bar starting at noon. The brunch menu includes five items on the antipasti y insalate menu, four pizzas and a ten-item Primi Y Secondi menu. In Italy, the traditional meal progression begins with an antipasto followed by a primi (usually soup, pasta or risotto) then a secondi (main course) and finally dolce or formaggi (a cheese course). Portions in Italy tend to be much smaller than in America so that progression makes sense. Scalo’s portions are somewhat more substantial and you might not follow the traditional progression.<\/span><\/p>\n

5 February 2012<\/strong>: You would not, however, want to pass on an antipasti as terrific as the ostrichi al forno<\/em><\/strong>, four oysters on the half-shell baked with artichoke, aioli, Reggiano and truffle oil. It’s a wonderful variation on Oysters Rockefeller and much better, too. The greenish hue of the artichoke-infused, Reggiano blessed oyster appetizer is intriguing, but it’s the flavor of the dish–the brininess of the oysters, the fresh “greeness” of the artichokes, the sharp nuttiness of the Reggiano–that will ensnare your affections. You’ll want a dozen of these beauties.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Costletto alla Milanese Mostarda<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

5 February 2012:<\/strong> The Costletto alla Milanese Mostarda<\/em><\/strong>, a pounded bone-in crispy pork chop with an onion, bacon, capers and grain mustard cream is somewhat reminiscent of a German weinerschnitzel though much more lightly breaded. The mustard cream is more akin to a French Hollandaise sauce than to a pungent, tangy German mustard. This prodigious hunk of porcine heaven is as substantial in flavor as it is in portion-size. The pork chop is nearly fork tender and is terrific with or without the mustard cream.<\/span><\/p>\n

5 February 2012<\/strong>: A more “breakfasty” brunch offering is the Polenta y Salsiccia<\/em><\/strong>, creamy polenta, grilled sausage, poached eggs, roasted peppers and mushrooms. Polenta (not necessarily synonymous with grits) serves as the base for this dish–literally. Piled atop the polenta are two sausages, one spicy and one sweet and frothy poached eggs. The objective of this dish is to spread the runny yokes throughout the dish, making it a melange of flavors. It may not be as aesthetically pleasing, but the combination of ingredients works very well.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Polenta y Salsiccia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

29 July 2017<\/strong>: My Kim likes to joke that her weird husband doesn’t like spaghetti, but loves all of Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western. She, on the other hand, dislikes the Clint Eastwood shoot-em-ups and loves spaghetti. Not finding spaghetti on Scalo’s brunch menu, she opted for the next best thing, a Scalo’s only entree called Spaghettini Olio e Aglio con Gamberetti<\/strong><\/em> (sauteed shrimp, olive oil, chili, garlic, sun-dried tomato, peas, parsley, lemon and white wine butter). It’s a dish that will address different areas of your taste buds with flavor profiles that are alternatively piquant, savory, tart, briny and even a bit sweet. The shrimp is fresh and snaps when you bite into it. My favorite elements were the fresh green peas and sun-dried tomatoes.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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Spaghettini Olio e Aglio con Gamberetti<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

29 July 2017<\/strong>: One of the highlights of visiting my mom in Pe\u00f1asco is enjoying organic farm-fresh eggs for breakfast. Online debates rage as to whether there’s a discernible difference between farm-fresh eggs and their store-bought counterparts. Having been raised on the former, I’m a stickler for farm-fresh eggs. That said, the three eggs on Scalo’s Pizza Colazione<\/strong><\/em> (sunny side up egg, speech ham, Fontina, Gorgonzola, fresh rosemary, aged balsamic) reminded me of the eggs we gathered every morning from my grandmother’s chicken coop. This is a terrific pizza, my only nit being that the eggs shouldn’t have been congregated so closely so as to better distribute the unctuous yolk. The cornicione, an Italian term for the \u201clip\u201d or puffy outer edge of the pizza is soft and chewy with a pronounced flavor of oven-baked bread. In combination, the Fontina and Gorgonzola provide a wondrous cheesy flavor that goes very well with the salty ham. In my pantheon of New Mexico’s very best pizzas, this one certainly deserves a high spot. It’s outstanding!<\/span><\/p>\n

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Pizza Colazione<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For several years my friend Bob of the Village of Los Ranchos has been extolling the greatness of Scalo’s Filetto (grilled beef tender loin, mushroom risotto, grilled asparagus, cambozola cheese, red wine reduction), a dish which certainly sounds worthy of much praise. Alas, our visits to Scalo seem to occur most often on weekends during brunch. One of these days we’ll have to join Bob for dinner. That’s likely the day my rating for this Duke City institution is likely to climb.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scalo Northern Italian Grill<\/strong>
\n3500 Central, N.W.
\nAlbuquerque, New Mexico<\/strong>
\nLATEST VISIT<\/strong>: 29 July 2017
\nWebsite<\/strong> <\/a>| Facebook Page<\/strong><\/a>
\n# OF VISITS<\/strong>: 8
\nRATING<\/strong>: 22
\nCOST<\/strong>: $$$
\nBEST BET<\/strong>: Spinach Salad; Penne with Tomato Cream Sauce; Pizza; Costletto alla Milanese Mostarda; Ostrichi al forno; Baked Cavatelli; Chocolate semi freddo; Carpaccio, Pizza Colazione, Spaghettini Olio e Aglio con Gamberetti<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CAVEAT EMPTOR:\u00a0 The following review is based on visits prior to 2019 when Scalo shuttered its doors.\u00a0 Scalo has since reopened. When we moved back to New Mexico on May 15, 1995, our first priority wasn\u2019t where to live, but where to eat. Having been away for the better part of 18 years, there were so many old favorites with which to reacquaint ourselves and so many exciting new prospects we just had to try. By year\u2019s end, we had visited 75 different restaurants (no chains). One of our favorite sources on where to eat was Albuquerque Monthly, a very well written publication which celebrated the Duke City’s culinary scene with an Annual Restaurant Guide and a “Best of Albuquerque”…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[440,165,703,134,71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-albuquerque","category-brunch","category-dog-friendly","category-fine-dining","category-italian"],"yoast_head":"\nScalo Northern Italian Grill - Albuquerque, New Mexico - Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=388\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scalo Northern Italian Grill - Albuquerque, New Mexico - Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CAVEAT EMPTOR:\u00a0 The following review is based on visits prior to 2019 when Scalo shuttered its doors.\u00a0 Scalo has since reopened. 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