The opening mouthful of my order of Grandpa Ray’s pizza with extra anchovies in Nick’s Italian Café in downtown McMinnville, Oregon, brought back happy memories of my first meal there 21 years ago.
Memory and taste buds were helped by the fact that physically, at least, little had changed in the interim. The dining room is still laid out in the same formation with comfortable banquette seating along the walls and several larger tables in the middle.
Nor had owner Nick Peirano, or his trademark braces, changed that much. He had just moved, about 10 yards in all, from in front of the bar by the kitchen to a new bar at the back of the café. A former storeroom has been converted into a lounge for him, his beloved 1913 Brunswick pool table and anyone who wants to call in for a glass of wine and a plate of antipasti.
When Nick bought this former diner, he had no formal restaurant training but arrived with two ingredients that neither money nor the best training can buy: traditional pasta recipes from his grandmother and an innate aptitude for pizza inherited from his grandfather, Ray.
These have formed the backbone of Nick’s menus for the past 30 years. At lunch there is an extensive range of pasta, including a distinguished crab and pinenut lasagne, panini and pizzas. Dinner is a five-course affair with plenty of choices and is very good value at $49 per person.
In 2007, Nick sold the business to his daughter Carmen and her husband Eric, who have both been to cooking school. They saw two immediate areas for improvement. The first is a new oven that uses the wood Oregon has in such abundance to great effect. The second was to create the new lounge – so that there can be a Nick in Nick’s Italian Café for years to come.
Nick’s Italian Café, 500 NE East Street, McMinnville, Oregon, 97128, tel: +1 503 434 4471; www.nicksitaliancafe.com
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