North Beach by Northwest

Peter Haley/The News Tribune Primo Grill's Dining room is arty but not fancy. The soulful food, fine service and unpretentious atmosphere, however, will strike many fancies.

ED MURRIETA; The News Tribune Published: July 29th, 2005 Charlie McManus envisions his Tacoma restaurant, Primo Grill, as a little slice of North Beach, one of San Franciscoís picture-postcard neighborhoods. The City by the Bay should have it so good. While North Beachís hills and alleys envelop all who enter in a romantic fog, most of its restaurants cater to tourists and those whose expense accounts reach halfway to the stars. If youíre lucky, you can step off the mythic little cable car and find restaurants where locally sourced food is not simply served, but where life is lived. This is the North Beach I hear McManus talking about. This is what he and his wife and business partner, Jacqueline Plattner, have created and nurtured since opening Primo Grill in October 1999. Primo Grill is not fancy, but it strikes many fancies: unpretentious, stylish and professional, with soulful food and strong service. In half a dozen visits for lunch and dinner over the past year, I didnít have a substantial complaint. Sure, I suspect one long dinner delay was prompted by a debate over whether to serve a tail-cut of Copper River salmon. (It was served.) And so what if a waitress struggled to pronounce a dessert? Linguistically challenged rapper Lilí Jon couldnít make pastry chef Barbara Pasiís zabaglione sound unappetizing. Primo might mean first in Italian, but ìItalianî is not the first thing you taste at Primo Grill. McManusí cooking favors the earthy textures and fruity essence of the Mediterranean. That includes crackerlike wood-fired pizza and minty gnocchi in gardeny roma tomato sauce ($12), but it also includes grilled lamb with Moroccan chile sauce ($20). Of course, instead of Northwest Mediterranean salmon, Pacific Northwest salmon is the preferred house catch. Recent dinner specials included Copper River, line-caught and Yukon King salmon, each served with a light, herb-flecked butter sauce ($25). I thought that tail cut of extra-fatty Copper River absorbed too much cherry wood smoke from the grill. But the leaner, and some would say less fabulously buttery, Yukon struck gold. Smoked salmon was deceptively silky in housemade fettuccine in lemon cream sauce with asparagus ($12 lunch, $14 dinner). The salmon was like carpaccio; I had expected something drier. What a delight it was forked with thick ribbons of fresh, snappy pasta and zippy sauce that knew its place. On the whole, service was efficient, friendly and unobtrusive. Some servers delivered bread and iced tea refills like dazed deer. I wondered why a solo diner needed a third of a stick of butter with his bread. But no one pushed wine or cocktails when only water was requested. Primo Grillís desserts ($5-$7) are worth pushing. Zabaglione, a frothy stove-top custard of egg yolks and white wine, would have been heavenly on its own, but stacked with golden, thin tuille cookies and what had to have been at least a cup of organic raspberries, it approached transcendence. Pana cotta means ìcooked cream.î Itís usually got a little gelatin, too. Pastry chef Pasiís vanilla bean panna cotta had sublime, just-set body. It didnít jiggle like Jell-O. It wiggled like a creamy wave. Boozy tiramisu was a buzz in a bowl, accented with a bold rosette of whipped cream and dark chocolate filigree. Primo Grill isnít one of those downtown ìdestinationî restaurants. It is an updated, if slightly upscale, neighborhood restaurant ‚ a place you can bring well-behaved kids or finicky old parents. Itís a date place. Itís an I-donít-want-to-cook-today-and-here-I-am place. Thereís artfulness to what McManus and Plattner achieve. Donít be fooled by the hip hues of purple and earth in the large but warm dining room. Donít be too dazzled by Primo Grillís gleaming open kitchen and blazing wood-burning oven and grill. Donít even be put off by the marketing ‚ early-bird specials, wine deals and cooking classes. Keep telling yourself Primo Grill is a neighborhood restaurant. Eat your heart out, North Beach. * * * * * (5 stars) Primo Grill 601 S. Pine St., Tacoma 253-383-7000 CUISINE: Mediterranean meets Northwest HOURS: Lunch, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Mondays-Fridays. Dinner, 4-9:30 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays; 4-10:30 p.m. Fridays; 5-10:30 p.m. Saturdays, 4:30-9 p.m. Sundays. ATMOSPHERE: Arty, casual with an upscale edge SERVICE: Solid BATHROOMS: Nice SMOKING: No