Facci Ristorante -- First Thoughts On The Soft Open

Facci Restaurant opens tonight with wood-fired pizza and Italian off Johns Hopkins Road, but Mrs. HowChow scored us seats on Saturday during the "soft open."

Facci's arrival should be big news.  The owners renovated a Pasta Blitz branch to add a bar, a wood-fired pizza oven, and an Italian menu aiming for a middle ground with prices low enough for casual nights but quality high enough for special food.

We got inside Saturday because Mrs. HowChow stopped that afternoon to stare in the windows, and the manager stepped outside to introduce herself.  She invited us to the "soft opening" where the chefs were learning recipes and the waiters were learning the ropes.

We gorged ourselves.  Started with the "Italian boat" antipasta platter.  Meats, cheese, toasted bread, grilled zucchini and roasted peppers.  It's an auspicious start because each piece was delicious, and each offered a distinct flavor -- charred zucchini, sweet peppers, salty cheeses.  The zucchini was tender with a vinegar bite.  The bread was perfectly brushed with oil, then toasted.  The stone and wood create a cozy spot, but, five minutes into dinner, we were talking about summer nights on Facci's patio with that antipasta and a drink.

Then, we moved on to white pizza and pesto-covered ravioli.  Again, stand-out flavors.  The pizza came with terrific cheese, broccoli rabe, and a unique sausage.  The ravioli were stuffed with smoked mozzarella and coated with a creamy pesto.  The pesto tasted like July.  Basil that put me again to thoughts of warm nights on the Facci patio.  Mrs. HowChow picked the ravioli because they were made in-house.  The kitchen makes the ravioli, the gnocchi and some of the other pastas.

They also, of course, make the pizza.  Facci imports tomatoes, flour and more from Italy, and they char the pies in a wood-fired oven.  They imported the oven as well.  The pizzas aren't huge.  They're $9-14 for six slices, and they come with an array of cheeses, meats and vegetables.  I loved the pizza.  I also photographed the crust for the Pizzablogger, who saw promise:

It's hard to tell. The pic certainly shows the pizza was most likely cooked at an adequate/good temperature (700-800°F floor likely) from the char...which appears to be pushing being burnt in the upper left of the pic. More importantly is the overall golden tone of the slice in your pic. This is (hopefully) indicative of a good amount of sugars being naturally released from fermentation and being present at the time of firing the pizza.....those sugars being what caramelize and color the crust that color, which would most likely mean some degree of developed flavors in the crust from fermentation by-products.

That overall golden tone could also be indicative of sugars being added to the dough while mixing, be it cane sugar, honey, diastatic malt or some other additive....which could lead to an overly sweet tasting crust.

In short, the pic shows some promise and I am looking forward to going there very soon!

Facci is aiming at an exciting niche.  Less expensive than Greystone Grill or Azul 17, but more unique  than straight casual places like Bon Fresco and An Loi.  Appetizers and salads run $5-11.  The pastas run $9-14, and the meat dishes top out at $13-18.  It's a place you could justify any day, but delivers enough for date night.  (Seriously, Mrs. HowChow loved the ladies room.  Modern sink and cool open faucet.  It's a date-night bathroom.  Just ask for a date-night table in the dining room because the bar televisions loom over the other half of the room.)

We went to Facci with no expectations, and it was a terrific experience.   Stuffed with that much food, we have turned down dozens of fine desserts.  I was headed that way until Mrs. HowChow heard that Facci makes it's own canoli.  Crisp shell and a filling that tasted of vanilla and cream.  A strawberry sauce that tasted like fruit.  A spectacular end, and we were already planning on a return with RDAdoc and family.

I look forward to other people's views on Facci Ristorante.  It's unique  in my eyes, and I hope they can keep the quality up every day.  The Pizzablogger recently posted about the inconsistent pies at Coal Fire Pizza, and I'm really aware that serving good food can be hard business.

Facci Ristorante (as of January 2010)
7530 Montpelier Road
Laurel, MD 20723-6014
(301) 604-5555

NEAR: This is on Johns Hopkins Road just west of Rte 29. It is a shopping center that includes  La Palapa Too and Kloby's Smokehouse. This is just south of Columbia and just north of Fulton.