Ciao Down In Reno
Of course I didn’t remember to take a photo, but Ciao Pizzeria & Wine Bar is a mighty fine looking restaurant–you’ll just have to take the minx’s word for it. The palette and decor is filled with the hallmarks of urban cool—muted earth tones, simplicity, and a few metallic flashes here and there combine to make Ciao a pefect reflection of many upscale, modern restuarants in large cities. The slot machines at the bar are a glaring mistake, but, Reno will always be Reno in some ways I guess.
Now to the food. The minx had the crab antipasto and I wouldn’t recommend it. If you’re a frequent Discontent, you know the minx likes her crab, but Ciao’s crab was tossed with grapefruit juice which I found to detract from the flavor of the crab. Blue crab, especially good blue crab can stand on its own. In the minx’s not so humble opinion, grapefruit is entirely too strong as a dressing for crab. However, everyone else was very pleased with their appetizers (romaine hearts and asparagus).
For my main course, I choose the sausage, fennel, tomato secco, and chilies pizza, and can I say Ciao Bella?! A lesson I’ve learned over the years is that in a gourmet pizza joint, you can’t go wrong with sausage. You know I love white pizza, and this was almost there–very little tomato secco, mostly a mixture of cheeses spiced with chilies that left me wanting more. I committed a bit of a sin by not ordering wine, but my other dinner mates seemed to enjoy their choices.
The famous lavender gelato was not available last night, so I asked our waiter Tim if he could bring me the expresso gelato served with some kind of cobbler sans the cobbler, and he made it happen bless his heart. The gelato was not the usual texture–more icy–but it tasted wonderful.
Ciao has a patio for alfresco dining and live music several nights a week. The location is a little strange considering Ciao’s goal to become “Reno’s hot spot”–its on the south end of town in Sierra Meadows strip mall. But their wine club, wine shop, and private poker bar should help them develop some kind of following, although I suspect it might not be the hip and hot crowd they are hoping for, unless by hip and hot, you mean middle-aged. Reno doesn’t have enough of a young professional crowd that can afford to hang out at a place like Ciao.
Ciao is clearly another notch on Reno’s belt of restaurants that are striving to make Reno’s cuisine something a little more worldly, and the city can definitely use that.
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[...] Sadly, the minx missed quite a performance on Saturday night while she was chowing down at Ciao which was satisfying in its own way, but didn’t even come close to what went down in Wingfield Park with the Sean Curran Company. There are already two letters to the RGJ editor on the event describing it as promoting an “agressive anti-family agenda,” “a moral outrage,” “a culturally degrading display of sex,” “provocative, unnatural,” offensive,” lewd,” “shameful,” and as a “blatant and repetitive display of sensuality.” [...]
[...] Sezmu is the first restaurant in Reno I’ve eaten in where I felt like I could’ve stumble in off the street in Dupont Circle which is a huge compliment. The night I dined at Sezmu, it was filled with a young, professional crowd–the kind of crowd Reno restaurants (not to mention the city) need to do more to attract. Sezmu is what Ciao wants to be on a smaller scale–its in the right neighborhood to attract a discerning crowd still decades away from collecting Social Security. Don’t get me wrong, the food at Ciao is very good–but its in the wrong place and attracts a much older crowd–not exactly the hallmark of a hip restaurant. The wait staff at Sezmu is charming and the whole place has a nice neighborhood feel in which its easy to relax and enjoy all the wonderful food that comes your way. Sezmu is the first restaurant I’ve walked into in Reno and known instantly that it was the right place to be. // [...]
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Hmmmm… sounds tasty…… might have to make it a date mizzminx:)P