New Patio At Portalli's On Main Street

Drawing of Portalli's new patios

Eventually Main Street will get a new coat of paint, but in a few weeks, it will get a giant new patio.

Portalli's has all the approval to add patio seating for 80 people on its building.  That's actually two layers of patio covering 1,000 square feet.

Owner Evan Brown came home early from a first anniversary trip for the final meetings to get approval.  Construction should start late this week and take only seven to 10 days, Brown says.

Nikki's Picks: Diamondback's Corned Beef, Portalli's Cioppino, And A Fight For Dessert

Irish Dip sandwich at Diamond Tavern

Nikki moved to Howard County two years ago from Northern Virginia.  Like me, she and her family remember that as the land of great restaurants -- and delivery.  They're slowly eating through the area, and they're happy with their new culinary universe.  In particular, they're becoming regulars at the Diamondback Tavern in Ellicott City for its food, service, prices and the kids menu where kids eat free on Tuesdays.

"It helps," she says, "that they've made the effort to learn our names, and start pouring my sangria when I walk in the door."

Nikki is helping to revive the HowChow "Trolling" posts.  Like Crunch Daddy last month, Nikki has offered up three paragraphs -- three places or dishes or experiences that she recommends.  This is a way  talk about places where we haven't eaten and talk about dishes that might not be my first choice.  You can find lots of great food in Howard County, and I'm open to suggestions if you'll email three paragraphs, a photo, and a disclosure if you're connected to any of the joints.  Click here for the rules.

But back to Nikki:

I'm not a food blogger, or any type of blogger, yet.  But I am an eater.  A picky one.  Unfortunately, being picky and being unable to tolerate the texture of certain foods (sushi...beans...) can be limiting.  That doesn't mean I don't have favorites.  I'll start with the Irish Dip sandwich at the Diamondback Tavern.  Tender and generous slabs of in-house corned beef on a buttered and grilled hoagie roll dolloped with grainy mustard, swiss cheese melted on top.  It's served with a small crock of french onion soup, an inspired au jus, for dipping.  I get it with their huge and crispy onion rings, instead of fries and I'm happy for days.  I'm sure a great beer would be the best drink to go along with this - but I'm a fan of their fragrant, spicy sangria - and drink it with whatever I order. 

Next, with the same owners, is the cioppino over linguini at Portalli's on Main Street in Ellicott City.  Portalli is very, very picky about their seafood and it is obvious with this plate.  Lump crab, tender scallops and perfectly done shrimp over velvety linguine - in a fancy white wine sauce.  It is rich and decadent, but still feels light. I haven't had it for almost a year (two kids and a budget keep us from 'fancy' food on a regular basis), and I still think about it.  I love that portions are small, letting us eat a multi-course meal and walk away feeling full but not stuffed.  It gives us a chance to try more of their menu when we go, and every item has been fantastic and fresh.  

Last, something sweet.  I am honestly torn between a fresh twisted donut at Bon Appetit bakery and the "coffee crazy" cupcake at Cooks 'n Cakes -- both on Rte 40 in Ellicott City.  The cupcake is devil's food with a cinnamon-espresso buttercream that has enough of a bitter coffee bite to make a grown-up treat.  The donut, when fresh and still a little warm, is amazing -- crispy crumbs on the outside, tender yeasty goodness on the inside.  Luckily, we live just minutes away because, after a few hours, they are still good, but not amazing.  The cupcake, on the other hand, stands up to the test of time, so I'll have to go with that one. 

Portalli's Lamb Shank Tops The Gourmet's Night

The '34 Act Gourmet can serve up his own standing rib roast, but he likes to get out of the kitchen as well -- and into Portalli's in Ellicott City where he and his wife ate last weekend with friends who drove up from Chevy Chase:

As soon as I arrived, I realized that the restaurant's performance would be sorely tested during Restaurant Week. The abnormal cold plus the prix fixe menu resulted in a packed restaurant and a half-hour delay between our reservation and the time we were seated. However, although Portalli's could have benefited from having more people on staff that night, it was absolutely worth the wait.  The hostess took us up the stairs to a dining room which I hasn't known existed.  A little more than a year ago, we had eat on Portalli's ground floor, which is very cozy but gives no hint to the huge space on the second floor.

Honestly, the only complaint we had (which was relatively minor) was the service was a little slow for drinks to arrive and for our server to provide menus and take our orders. Indeed, by the time the menus were put in front of us, we were inspired enough by other dishes that nobody in our party picked the Restaurant Week menu. 

We started by sharing two appetizers -- baked mozzarella and calamari. The baked mozzarella was delicious - very fresh mozzarella and a dollop of tomato sauce on top of crusty bread. The calamari also was prepared well -- the squid itself was very fresh and the batter was very light.

Lessons From Portalli's: What I Learned From A Night On The Other Side Of The Table

I realized how much I like sitting down somewhere around the 10th time that we pushed through the swinging doors into the clatter of Portalli's kitchen.

Chairs are a big part of my restaurant experience.  I get a chair every time.  I sit, and everyone comes to me.  That was until I took Lee Biars' offer to spend a night watching a restaurant from the other side.  He amused himself challenging folks who write about food to see how it is actually made.  That glimpse had me shadowing a waitressing pro from Portalli's sedate dining room into the bright lights, big pressure of the restaurant's kitchen.

My lesson from the night:  Restaurants are a business for the young.  Everything else was questions.


How did it get so bright in here?


Eating is easy.  Everything else in a restaurant is harder than it seemed.   I'd never noticed that waitresses run between the quiet clink of the dining room and a noisy, bright kitchen.  Portalli's kitchen is tiny.  There is no chaos -- at least not on the relatively quiet Good Friday when I visited -- but it's busy and bright and constantly overseen by screens counting the time since every dish had been ordered.

I want the kitchen to deliver my food at the perfect moment.  But I don't want waiters running around or arriving covered with sweat.  I hadn't noticed the tension until I followed a veteran server named Sara as she wove from the dining room through the swinging door -- call out "coming in" or risk having the door jammed into your face -- through the kitchen -- squeeze past the runner assembling a tray of entrees -- and back into the dark of the bar -- be good to the bartender because he is filling your orders while serving diners himself.

On a busy night, Sara said, you pause to assemble yourself before you walk back to the diners.  Or you wipe off the sweat when the nights get worse.  Lee's original idea was that I would actually do jobs at Portalli's -- host for an hour, run food for an hour, bus tables for an hour . . .   Lee was insane.  I would have ruined some nice person's night or at least some nice waiter's tips.  Every meal in Portalli's main dining room is carried up a flight, then has to cross a down-a-step, then up-a-step threshold that looks like it was designed to trip contestants on a reality show.

The whole feel of a restaurant changes when you stand the whole time.  I noticed the lights, the noise, the computer.  (Heavens, I eat out to escape the computer!)  I watched the runner going with bread, the hostess at her computer, the way servers deal with 20 people at once where I'm normally focused on my wife or a few friends.


Who is coming to dinner?

Every restaurant has answered 100 questions that I never realized to ask.  Who says hello?  What do they say?  Who delivers food -- the waiter or dedicated runners?  When do you clear -- as soon as each diner finishes or only once everyone is done?  Do you track each meal by the seat of the person who ordered?  At Portalli's, waiters key each seat into the computer.  Runners serve the food without asking "Who ordered meatballs?" It's subtle, but it is a classy touch not to "auction" off the food when it arrives.  How long do you plan on people to stay?  My favorite nugget of the night:  Valentine's Day diners eat fast.  They're in and out -- like they have somewhere to go.

The key question:  Who do we think will show up tonight?  That estimate dictates how many people work, how much food is on hand.  Good Friday during Passover turns out to be slow for a restaurant selling meat and pasta.  None of us thought about that before.

Portalli's runs its reservations through Open Table.  A free Web site for diners.  A software gem for restaurants, who use reservations to predict crowds and who use Open Table to actually pre-assign a table to each guest.  On my visit, they were planning a night when they'd have two large parties -- including a 90-year-old's birthday that could not be upstairs in the main dining room.  Lee also saw a regular on the list, so he had someone run up to Diamondback Tavern -- their casual joint on Old Columbia Pike -- to get a shepherd's pie that he knew that she loved.


Are they done yet?

When I go to dinner, I know exactly what I want from the night.  I know if this is a quick bite or a long celebration.  I know if we're drinking, if we came to order an old favorite, or if we want to explore the menu for a long time.

Standing in Portalli's dining room, I realized that I didn't know anything about the people who Sarah was trying to serve.  Do they want to talk detail about the wines or be left alone?  Do they want another drink?  Are they done with that meal?  Everyone acts different.  Everyone is different.  Sarah has a few tricks -- like standing the check holder on the table so that she can tell from across the room when they have added their credit card and laid it down -- but mostly, she was figuring out strangers on the fly.  Trying to be there when they needed something, but never rush them along.  It's like endless first dates.

What is going to go wrong today?


I try not to be overly criticall.  I'm pretty empathetic, and I eat out to relax, not to whip myself into tension about the perfect meal.  (We gasped last weekend at a different restaurant when the neighboring table sent back their wine because it wasn't as fruity as they had expected.  Really?  You think the restaurant owes you a second bottle of wine?)  But I am even-more aware now of how much restaurants can't control.

It's a crazy business where snow wipes out 12 days in your first winter, including four Saturdays when you figure in Christmas.  On my night, a Portalli's employee fell so suddenly ill that he ended up in the hospital.  Everyone else picked up that role, and I don't think any diners noticed at all.

How was the food?

I really enjoyed Portalli's food.  Mostly, I spent the night talking to Sara, other servers, Lee, and Lee's partner Evan.  But I tried a great summer cocktail with Firefly sweet tea vodka and San Pelligrino Limonata, and I sampled a meatball that Lee and Evan had cooked after a diner had complained.  (Tasted delicious to me.)  And I eventually joined Mrs. HowChow and our friends with a plate of scallops and risotto of my own. They had been chuckling as I walked behind Sarah with my hands nervously clasped behind my back.

I'm a fan of those scallops, and my folks enjoyed their meals and a table of desserts that we shared.  Great cannoli, and I loved the puff pastry.  Portalli's kicked up some comments when it first opened last year.  It's a fine dining place with fine dining prices so people expect more than a neighborhood joint.  Lee said that they're listening.  He served at Charleston, and his partners came out of the Greystone Grill operations so this isn't new.  They're training on all those little decisions about cooking, serving, clearing, etc.  They even won over one of the folks who posted one of the original negative comments.

And they certainly won me over.  It was fun to see a restaurant from the other side.  Now, I'm going to sit down.

(Correction: There was a reference above that said "Facci's dining room" instead of "Portalli's dining room."  Comments below caught it.  As noted, I was distracted from the error by my supposed job.  And my proof-reader didn't notice either.)

Thanks especially to Sara who just had her boss announce that you're going to be followed around by a blogger.  That sounds like a night to paraphrase King Julien XIII: "Hello freak!"  Hope it wasn't too bad.  I was horrified to learn that Sarah read HowChow before and recognized one of the commenters as complaining -- unfairly she thought -- about a meal she had served.  Thanks also to Lee, Evan and everyone else at Portalli's who talked to me and walked me around.  You can follow Portalli's on Twitter or on Facebook.

Link: The Sun Reviews Portalli's

Portalli's got a positive review from the Sun's Richard Gorelick on Sunday -- calling the place "pretty loveable" and saying that talking up what Gorelick describes as American versions of Italian classics.

Many people have commented about the Ellicott City restaurant on a former post, and one of its owners Lee Biars wrote a post that I called "Thoughts From The Other Side Of The Check."

Thoughts From The Other Side Of The Check

My favorite part of HowChow has been chatting with people about food in Howard County.  OK, that's a lie.  My favorite part is the tacos.  But you are right behind tacos, and that has to mean something.

My extremely skeletal post that Portalli's had opened in Ellicott City kicked off a rash of comments in which people discussed their meals.  Great stuff, although it skirted the edge of the personal attacks that I'm trying to avoid.  As part of that, I started emailing with Lee Biars, one of the owners of Portalli's and the the Diamondback Tavern.

I invited Lee to write a post about restaurants.  To the great horror of some food bloggers, I don't have any food industry experience -- except that I have been eating for a decade or so longer than those bloggers.  I was emailing with Lee about how average diners see a restaurant differently than professionals, and Lee banged out some thoughts.  This isn't about Portalli's.  Lee wants us to enjoy our dinners out, and these were ideas that he thought might help:

Staffing servers correctly in a restaurant is like walking a tightrope on a nightly basis. We've all been in restaurants where your server is overwhelmed with too many tables.  That is terrible, but you have to know what happens behind the scenes where staffing servers is a delicate balancing act based primarily on guesswork.  A manager staffs by estimating the clientele days in advance.  Servers rely on tips, so the manager needs enough to take care of the guests but not so many that they fail to make money.  A restaurant that repeatedly overstaffs its servers will lose employees to more lucrative jobs.  But if there are too few servers on the floor, then the guests (and subsequently the restaurant) will suffer.  No restaurant staffs perfectly every night, so don't assume your overwhelmed sever means that's the case every night in that particular restaurant.  The nicer the restaurant, the more accurate they should be in staffing because most diners have made reservations and they should be able to more accurately estimate the traffic that evening.  Which leads to my next point...

 The purpose of making a reservation isn't just to insure you have a table; it's also to let the restaurant staff appropriately.  Since restaurants rely on reservations to get a feel for the number of guests on a given evening, it benefits both the restaurant and the guests for everybody who plans on coming in to have made a reservation.  Let me give you an example: say it's a Monday night at a restaurant you know won't be jam-packed, so your group of four doesn't make a reservation. A restaurant will typically have only one or two servers on a slow Monday, so if three other parties make the same assumption you did, the restaurant will not be staffed properly.  Maybe the restaurant isn't full, but they definitely could've used a second or third server to give you the experience you deserve as a diner.  This is why any restaurant worth its salt will always recommend that diners make a reservation, even on a slow night.

The single product that a restaurant will take the biggest loss on is bread service.  Most nice restaurants spend around $1-$3 on bread and butter/olive oil for every four guests.  If a restaurant serves 800 guests per week, that amounts to $10,000-$30,000 a year spent on something that the business never sees a dime for.  I'm not saying to hold back on the bread intake; it's there to be eaten so you should feel free to go to town.  All I'm saying is that when a restaurant has seemingly put a lot of thought into the quality of their bread service, it's something that shouldn't go unnoticed.

A lot more goes into creating an enjoyable dining experience than most people realize.  Waiting tables is more than just being friendly and bringing your food and drinks in a timely manner.  It’s the little things that can push a good dining experience to a great one, even if (and sometimes, especially if) it goes unnoticed by the diner.  Here are some examples of “the little things” that all add up to a great experience:

 1) Removing small stuff like straws and sugar packets from the table when they aren’t being used

2) Not putting their elbows in your face when serving your food

3) Describing menu items clearly and accurately so you know what to expect

4) Timing your food so you have just the right amount of time in between courses

5) Keeping water, iced tea, soda and coffee filled throughout your entire meal including dessert without you having to ask for it

6) Clearing the crumbs off a chair after a guest has left so when you sit down it is crumb-free

7) Folding your napkin for you while you’re away from the table

8) Checking back with you after each course is served to make sure everything is to your taste

9) Pulling your chair out for you when you go to sit down

I could seriously list about 200 things that go into making your dining experience memorable, but I think you get the point.

Restaurants NEED negative feedback.  The only way to improve a business is to listen to what your customers want.  As a diner you may think you’re being nice by not mentioning that the dining room is too cold or the soup needs salt, but you’re really hindering the restaurant’s ability to improve.  If it’s a restaurant you truly want to survive, you should have no problem talking to your favorite manager/server and let them know where you think they can improve.  A restaurant operator would be foolish to not listen to customer complaints with an open mind and try and tackle the issues that are brought up.

Restaurants need positive feedback as well.  If you really liked your server or thought the chicken was the best you’ve had, simply let a manager know on the way out.  This information can be crucial in deciding who gets promoted, which dishes stay on the menu, and other integral decisions that are made every day in a restaurant.  Plus it makes people feel good that you think they’re doing a good job, and that can never hurt.

 Certainly nothing on this list should be used as an excuse for a restaurant that underperfoms and underwhelms its guests.  My goal is to open the “average diner’s” eyes to things that may not be readily apparent in the hopes that they can use the information to help better all of their future dining experiences.

Lee's comments made me think because I have been violating his rules recently.  I had a Tuesday night Restaurant Week reservation, but we cancelled two hours ahead because my coughing and sneezing got bad.  It had never crossed my mind how reservations influence staffing or that staffing could be just as big a challenge on a slow night.   Then we did go for dinner a few nights later, and we stayed silent when the service was bad.  I don't exactly know how to say, "That waiter should have been more attentive."  It wasn't a disaster.  I don't want an enemy when I return.  I'd love to help improve a place, but how can I do that right?

Portalli's Opened In The Former Jordan's

An Italian restaurant named Portalli's has opened in the Ellicott City space that used to be Jordan's Steakhouse, according to Elizabeth Large's blog.

The email sent to Large says the restarant -- owned by the folks who own Diamondback Tavern -- had a soft open last weekend and an official grand opening scheduled for December 11-13.

(Update: Check out the comments below by earlier diners. Plus, a comment that appears to be from one of the owners. It's so informative, that I have to believe it's real. If that's true, then I'm glad that people are adding useful comments to HowChow. If it's not, then please email me so that I remove the comment.)

(Update II:  The comments below are really from Lee Biars.  He also wrote a post that I called "Thoughts From The Other Side Of The Check.")