Oven-roasted monkfish served on a bed of saffron English-pea risotto, with grilled tiger prawns, golden beet puree and shellfish beurre blanc. Photo by Laura Petrilla.

Mojobistro

172 Lincoln Ave., Bellevue
412/761-2828, mojobistro.com

Paige McGarity Puts Zing Into Southern Cooking and more on Lincoln Avenue in Bellevue.

Sun.-Thurs., 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. until 11 p.m.
Starters: $5-$11; Insalata: $6-$9; Entrees: $16-$25
B.Y.O.B. (corkage fee: wine, $5; beer, $1). Reservations accepted. Handicapped-accessible. Available for private parties. Nonsmoking.

 

Get Your Mojo at Mojobistro

Paige McGarity waits on our table, cooks, schlepps dishes in between trips and, on this night, after Mojobistro has nearly cleared, stops long enough to chat.

McGarity had a dream stashed away in her hip pocket: a vision of opening a little neighborhood coffee shop, a comfy haven that would sell a fad-proof cup of coffee and good soups and sandwiches, a place where locals could carve out their personal space.

After leaving her job as a software engineer in Atlanta, McGarity landed in Pittsburgh. The city's architecture, including its many historic old buildings, had got her Southern "mojo" popping on all cylinders, and she ended up in nearby Bellevue, where she searched for dilapidated property to rehab. "The roof may be falling in, the building close to being condemned, but the uglier the better," laughs McGarity. "I hate to see that old beauty go by the wayside."

And so, trading her 9-to-5 security for a truck and a crowbar, she purchased a former bridal shop hugging the curve of Lincoln Avenue in the small borough along the Ohio River. Nicknamed "Bob Vila" by her staff, she single-handedly stained the wooden floors, laid tile, upholstered offbeat lampshades and refinished the quirky church pews she bought at Construction Junction. Long, maroon drapes dress the front window like an old Southern ball gown. The original tin ceiling adds grandiosity, while mirror tricks add illusory space. "I've turned into a full-blown construction worker," she says wryly. "My staff asks me when I'm going to take off my camo-pants, but they shouldn't hold their breath. I have a pair for every day.

"When I stand back and look at my building," McGarity muses, "I recognize I've left a mark somewhere. I've changed something. I like the feeling."

Paige McGarity used recycled materials to convert a former bridal shop into a new bistro in Bellevue.

And for all of three or four days, Mojobistro was just a coffee shop. A month before opening, Dave McCartan paid an unannounced visit. They talked until the wee hours, and before he left, Paige offered him a job, which morphed into executive chef when the coffee shop turned into a full-blown restaurant.

Their private joke became the establishment's defining moment. McCartan reflexively called Mojobistro "the restaurant," with McGarity continually correcting, "No, no. It's a coffee shop." About two weeks later, McGarity caught herself saying "the restaurant," and as if lightening had struck, she moved couches, bought tables and the restaurant odyssey commenced in 2007. Today, in a room twinkling with candlelight, the chef and the code-writer turned contractor present a wildly inventive, melting-pot menu, the confluence of a wide array of experiences.

Paige is a master at tinkering with the Southern cooking she was weaned on, and Dave's dossier (Lucca and Asiago, both local restaurants, and Boca Raton Resort and Club in Boca Raton, Fla.) far exceeds filling in the gaps. Entrees are worked over until both chef and owner agree they are right, egos eschewed for the good of the dish.

This plucky episode in our culinary escapades starts with spinach dip and jalapeño cornbread muffins instead of the (currently) obligatory bread and dipping oil. I'd heard raves about a luxurious asparagus soup, but on this night the soup is cream of jalapeño, rich and smooth with a daub of sour cream poked by wispy carrot sticks. An artistic trail of red-pepper oil blazes like lightening across the surface. A polenta stack, light and greaseless, is contrived, I imagine, to look like a game of Jenga - crunchy blocks that are soft and tender inside, enlivened with pecorino-romano cheese interspersed with caramelized onions, roasted garlic and thyme. A chunky tomato-basil marinara makes a good dip. Sweet-potato fries are the way sweets should be - crispy but not too much so. But it's the brown-sugar dipping butter, served at room temperature, that really makes this treat, with a taste that reminds me of cookie dough.

My "mojo" is jumpstarted by an "appetizer tasting" that could double as a meal. The sampling includes a pristine jumbo-lump-crab futomaki roll (good enough to be served in a Japanese restaurant), smoked-salmon cornucopia (wrapped in a lush Asian slaw), a vegetable egg roll (as good as at Tram's Kitchen) and crab-stuffed portobello (with julienned tomato and a bundle of micro-greens). It works so well, each bite a mixture of flavors and textures, that I realize the heart of the menu is unbound by category.

Plum-tomato tartar capers, red onion, cilantro, cucumber, candy-striped beets, julienned haricots verts and truffled vinaigrette. Photo by Laura Petrilla.

Go with your instincts. Entrees range from fusilli Diablo, spring pasta tossed with spicy tomato-basil cream sauce complimented by chunks of grilled chicken, andouille sausage and portobello mushroom, to an insanely tender pork tenderloin brushed with hoisin barbecue sauce, accompanied by German-style redskin potatoes and fresh asparagus. Another stunning selection is the gorgeous almond-crusted chicken breast, which naps with a cranberry confit, a sweet-potato soufflé and haricots verts.

For something precious but light, pan-seared tilapia brushed with a slightly spiced coconut curry, served with basmati rice and cool cucumber noodles, is spicy without foiling subtler flavors. A dish simply named "Asian style surf and turf" is my favorite, unfurling the Thai way of balancing opposites in harmony, without simmering the life out of its contents. It comprises Japanese rice noodles in a lovely, sweet Thai dressing; marinated filet mignon, silky and pink in the center, sliced down very thin; and then that is fanned out around a jumbo-lump-crab maki roll, built upon a crunchy base of Asian slaw.

Though she's not a purist, McGarity has the background in knowing the cuisine from far below the Mason-Dixon Line - her roots include a Southern grandmother who started the collard greens at 5 a.m. and a crew of zany uncles who begin stoking the ribs for Sunday fish-frys almost two days prior. McGarity's version of shrimp and grits uses polenta instead of traditional hominy grits, to which she adds traces of bacon, Tabasco, pecorino-romano and cheddar. Then she cooks the mixture in a mellow chicken stock with butter pounded in for smoothness at the last moment. It's simply delicious, if not as authentic as what you might be served at Mrs. Wilkes' Boarding House, the legendary Savannah restaurant.

When the new kitchen opens its doors this new year after an expansion, McGarity is talking about getting a slow cooker and roasting ribs the way her uncles did - the good old "slap yo' pappy" sort. Just look at them, and meat falls off the bone.

Now about dessert: Our server takes our order in polite disbelief, uttering a dumbfounded, "Really?" But she nods when we select white-chocolate raspberry cheesecake from a list of enticing desserts. I blame our gluttony on pastry chef Kathy Raddick, known locally as "the cheesecake lady," though both the chef and McGarity contribute their own personal favorites, making for a list that causes some ardent decision-making.

Take your own sack of wine and settle in. I could go on and on about this little spot in Bellevue, on the ledge of a hill, surrounded by all the big houses, their small yards adorned with ancient hydrangeas and kids darting around them. Suffice it to say that Mojobistro will do fine becoming a fixture here in this charming little hamlet that attracted a soulful young woman from Georgia with a pocketful of crazy dreams that came true.

Each month, Deborah McDonald jump-starts appetites with lively restaurant reviews that scrutinize who's cooking what and where. She works anonymously, visiting each restaurant at least twice before writing her column.

Do you know of a restaurant you'd like to have reviewed? E-mail Deborah.

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