Bring a hearty appetite to the Prohibition Grille

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, June 7, 2007

EVERETT – The end of the school year and the house sold: two big events that demanded a special dinner, and from the buzz about Prohibition Grille, the celebration’s venue was already decided.

Prohibition Grille is in one of downtown Everett’s historic brick buildings, which makes for an easy beginning to the restaurant’s flapper-era theme. There’s a shiny brass still tucked in an alcove above the bar, and the bartender was sporting a black fedora a la Al Capone on the Saturday night of our celebration dinner.

My friends and I met on the early side of the dinner hour, so the restaurant was about half full with patrons enjoying a cool drink at the bar while others dined on salads to beat the heat. Toward the end of our dinner, the Piano Man arrived and it wasn’t difficult to imagine upbeat jazz and a lively crowd filling the place. Then I understood why the hostess said reservations were mandatory on the weekends.

The restaurant, which is owned by Gianni and Rosemary Saffioti who also own Amici Bistro in Mukilteo, opened in mid-March. The Saffiotis continued their Prohibition-era theme to the menu, with dishes named Rum-Running Prawns ($19.95), Uncle Sam’s Salmon Rigatoni ($14.95), Gatsby Salad ($10.95) and The Godfather’s Rack ($29.95).

The compact wine list offers a solid selection of California, Oregon and Washington wines plus a few from Italy including Prosecco, which is an Italian sparkling white wine ($20 a bottle). Most wines fall in the $30 range, with three in the $50 to $85 range. I ordered a glass of the house pinot grigio ($5). All the house wines are from California’s Redwood Creek Reserve.

We started dinner with an order of bruschetta ($8.95), which is toasted bread rounds topped with freshly chopped tomatoes, onions, garlic and basil in olive oil. This appetizer worked like a movie trailer – more good stuff to come.

For our dinners, we ordered Chicken Burlesque ($15.95), chicken breasts topped with artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers and mushrooms in a cream sauce; Bada-Bing Duck ($20.95), braised in a cherry-port wine demiglace; Rum-Running Prawns ($19.95) in a butter-white wine sauce with lots of garlic and shallots; and Bugsy’s Filet Mignon ($27.95), an 8-ounce steak topped with garlic oyster butter. All of our dinners came with freshly sauteed vegetables, house pasta or baked potato and lots of fresh French bread.

I tried to substitute a side salad for my veggies but our server said, “They won’t allow it.” With so many gangster-types in the place, I didn’t ask who “they” were and meekly asked to add a salad with gorgonzola dressing to my order.

Then we leaned back, but kept our hands visible at all times, and watched chefs Danny Stallard and Carlos Chavez work their magic in the open kitchen area that’s next to the bar. These two created a dinner we’ll never forget. My steak was butter-tender and filled with flavor, and the Chicken Burlesque was a creamy delicious wonder. My friends said their prawns and duck were really, really good. The house pasta I could eat every day, and we all commented on the fresh and delicious veggies.

So, dinner couldn’t get any better, right? Wrong.

There was the Gran Marnier-chocolate cheesecake and the grille’s take on tiramisu. The chocolate cheesecake was wonderful with its dense filling and chocolate-cookie crumb crust. The tiramisu was a fluffy concoction of traditional tiramisu ingredients: marscapone, espresso, marsala wine – served in a martini glass with a lady finger as a swizzle stick. Even G-Man Eliot Ness would find it a crime not to finish these off.

Herald restaurant reviewers accept no invitations to review, but readers’ suggestions are always welcome. Reviewers arrive unannounced, and The Herald pays their tabs.

Contact Anna Poole at features@heraldnet.com.