The Weekly Eater
CARLA MAGZIAR knows how to make friends. First, greet them warmly and ply them with comforting meals. Then, gently massage their egos. What's good for the public is good for the restaurant critic as well. Bigger is better for
the little pasta place
in KaimukiWith a pleasant chirp, she called to say she had taken my advice. With these few words I was suddenly aware that I had become an accessory to her success with C&C Pasta Company. I do like to see restaurants do well, and C&C is enjoying nice, steady growth.
A year and a half ago, C&C was essentially a specialty grocer and deli, serving up simple sandwiches and a short list of entrées to showcase its meats, cheeses and sauces. Problem was, the food was so good people wanted to hang around, but with only three tables that could seat nine at best, these would-be diners had to retreat to their homes.
Well, it's no fun going home to eat when your dining table's overflowing with a week's worth of mail and newspapers. And with one of C&C's outstanding ahi sandwiches or Tuscan chicken dinners in hand, no one wanted to waste minutes traveling when they could be taking that first bite in mere seconds.
Before my head got too big, I realized I hadn't given Magziar any advice at all, but merely pointed out the obvious a year and a half ago by writing that should she consider expanding, C&C could easily fill a medium-size restaurant. And sure enough, now that the restaurant has replaced shelving with seats, the house still fills up most nights by 7.
C&C PASTA COMPANY
Food 1/2
Service Ambience Value Address: 3605 Waialae Ave. / 732-5999
Hours: Lunch, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays; dinner 5 to 9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 5 to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays
Cost: $Dinner for two, $40 to $60, BYOB
The downside is that on Friday nights it gets uncomfortably crowded (those who equate noise with ambience will love it), and with the upgraded menu has come higher prices. What once could be a casual, spur-of-the-moment chat-with-the-girlfriends kind of experience is now a date-with-the-boyfriend kind of affair, preferably with him paying. I mean, it's still worth every cent, but having known this place back when ... ouch. This is why people don't like to divulge the names of their favorite restaurants.
THE NEW dinner menu is impressive in scope. Few restaurants of this size would deign to serve escargot in pastry shell ($7.50), served with a garlic, white wine and butter sauce, or the savory Italian seafood stew caciucco ($22.50). And I about died when I saw a couple of kids feasting on individual platters of spaghetti with seafood ($20.50). This is not your basic bland tomato-sauce-with-noodles sort of dish. These noodles were tossed with a sauce of artichokes, vine-ripened tomatoes and gaeta olives, then baked with shrimp, clams, mussels and shrimp in parchment paper. Nice parents. Better behave yourselves, kiddos!
The rest of us might be content with a lovely salad of mesclun with chunks, rather than crumbs of gorgonzola, crunchy hazelnuts, roasted onions and red peppers and a fig balsamic dressing ($7.50).
Veal scallopine ($18.50) served with beurre blanc and capers suffered from overly thick batter. I could taste more of the egg than the veal.
I couldn't resist the risotto of the day, shot through with thin strings of onion and slices of roast duck, though the heaping plateful of rice probably contained more butter than anyone should eat in a sitting.
Rounding out the menu are a couple of pizzas ($12.50 for four-cheese, $14.50 for sausage, mushroom and artichoke), ribeye steak ($18.50), and various pastas ($12.50 to $18.50) with the likes of fresh clams, roasted eggplant, meatballs and mushrooms.
If you have any appetite left, there are sorbettos, chocolate cannoli ($6.50), or again for chocolate lovers, an amaretti torte ($7) served with caramel gelato.
And you bet I have more advice for Magziar (it's always easy to spend other people's money, right?): Bottle the fig dressing, halve the risotto dish and bring down the price so people can have it as a side dish, and check out the possibility of expanding into the vacant space next door.
Take it or leave it.
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Nadine Kam's restaurant reviews run on Thursdays. Reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Bulletin. Star ratings are based on comparisons of similar restaurants:
To recommend a restaurant, write: The Weekly Eater, P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96802. Or send e-mail to nkam@starbulletin.com
excellent; very good, exceeds expectations; average; below average.
