Grazie -- Scottsdale
Last night was a friend's birthday and she wanted pizza. She picked Grazie in Old Town Scottsdale. I'd not been, but was looking forward to it.
We arrived for our 7 p.m. reservation for 4 people, and the other 2 had already been seated outside. There was a recent remodel, but since this was my first time, I can't give you a comparison. It's a small free standing building on Main Street. Small bar and tables inside, the patio is large and has more seating than inside. The misters were working full steam ahead, so we were comfy.
Our server was a little ditzy and not particularly "service" oriented. That was disappointing from the beginning, but we decided we weren't going to let it get us down.
We ordered water, still and sparkling, and a bottle of wine, Pinot Nero, I believe it was. The wine list was very reasonable. All Italian wines, which I don't know too much about. Wine were on average about $25 a bottle.
Our wine arrived and we ordered a large house salad to share. Basic greens, tomatoes, cukes, kalamatas, red peppers with a gorgonzola dressing and a balsamic dressing, both on the side. First the server rushed us to take the salad plate when there were still greens in it, then ignored it when it was empty.
We then ordered our two pizzas, the Napoli and the Roma. Roma was red sauce, mozz, kalamatas, capers, anchovies, oregano, and olive oil. The Napoli was red sauce, mozz, salami, basil, olive oil and parm.
About 1/3 of the way through the meal we ordered another bottle of wine. The server didn't bring it until we were just about done with our meal. No biggie, we visited and drank the wine.
Basically, the server would just disappear for stretches of time. She wasn't BAD, just not as attentive as we would have liked.
The pizza leftovers were boxed up and we sat an visited and continued to drink our wine. Then the birthday girl decided that she wanted dessert. She ordered the house dessert. A calzone filled with bananas and Nutella, served with 3-4 scoops of vanilla ice cream. The best part is that the calzone dough is nicely salted with good sea salt. So the combo of sweet and salty, hot and cold, crunchy, chewy and creamy is really good.
We finished up our wine and left at 10:30.
Overall, a good experience. I would go back in a heartbeat and hope for a different server. Suffice it to say that she only got a 15% tip instead of the normal 20% I like to give.
The bill, not including tip for 1 salad, 2 pizzas, 2 bottles of wine, 1 bottle of sparkling water and 1 dessert was $99.82.
Have a great day!
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Grazie is one of our favorite places for a simple night out, especially combined it with the Thursday night Art Walk. One pizza, a nice (not great) wine, and tip usually runs us about 40 or so dollars. Pizzas are woodfired in a big oven near the bar, the wine is exclusively Italian with a good selection. The Roma is very good, the Dame Edna is baked and then topped with aruguala, huge shavings of parmesan, and proscuitto. As for service, we usually eat at the small bar so there's usually no problem with attentiveness.
David "Zeb" Cook
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re: johnseberg
geg5150
Aug 22, 2006 02:17 AM
John? Was it you that asked about indivdual or small bottles of wine? I was at Whole Foods today and they have invidual boxes of wine, similar to the foil packed meal replacement shakes, or juice boxes. Bandit wine, 4 8-oz boxes of wine for $10.99.
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re: geg5150
johnseberg
Aug 22, 2006 02:23 AM
Yep. Thanks.
I wish I could get to Whole Foods more often. I used to live across the street from one in Mpls. I was there almost every day.
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geg5150
Aug 21, 2006 07:08 PM
Ok, minor issue...I actually forgot to tell you about the pizza. Duh! What was I thinking.
Pizza was fab! Super thin crust, crunchy on the edges, chewier in the center. Fresh mozzerlla cheese, ooey and gooey. Both of the pizzas we ordered were really good. The salami on the Napoli was just spicy enough, more spicey than your average salami.
The toppings were distributed evenly. Not too many toppings to make the pizzas soggy or hard to eat.
Mangia!
