Hartwood's Ice Medley of tropical flavors served with fresh seasonal fruit. Photo by Laura Petrilla.

The Hartwood Restaurant

3400 Harts Run Road, Indiana Township
412/767-3500, hartwoodrestaurant.com

History, books and good food, with a flair for Pacific Rim, provide the ingredients for a memorable dining experience at this North Hills restaurant.

Lunch: Tues.-Sat., 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m.; Dinner: Tues.-Sat., 5-8:30 p.m.; Appetizers: $6-$10; Salad: $5.95-$7.50; Entrees: $16-$34; Desserts: $5.50-$7.50; Full bar, free parking, major credit cards, completely wheelchair accessible, nonsmoking, reservations suggested.

 

The Heart of Hartwood

My husband, Brad, and I are leisurely escorted through the main dining area, past a round table snuggled into a dining nook lined floor to ceiling with bookshelves and backed by an elaborate Victorian fireplace. This is table No. 13, known to regulars and staff at The Hartwood Restaurant as its most coveted accommodation.

We are led into the pub then out onto a brand-new, open-air patio replete with a cabana bar and 20-foot log-burning fireplace with a massive chimney, which seems to poke the clouds. On this warm, pleasant evening, with a plate of honorable mussels and some frosty cocktails, our jangled nerves unravel as we quickly slip into another world.

"Books first," declares owner Molly Montgomery as she directs some fidgety kids to the circular stairway, which leads to a children's loft. It was Molly who, in 1996, began the initial reclamation of what used to be the field offices for Harmar Coal Co. on Harts Run Road in Indiana Township. Her vision of an intimate bookstore cum coffee shop has endured, with fresh selections and out-of-print treasures.

Her architect husband, Don Montgomery, entered the fray 10 years ago this spring. His artistic sensibilities and architectural imprimatur launched the beginning of The Hartwood Restaurant, a series of festive rooms that congruently flow one into another, full of little nooks and crannies tastefully laden with antiques and architectural artifacts, and overflowing with books. Turn any corner, and find a bit of whimsy or some small distinction that gives Hartwood its folksy personality.

"It's always been a work-in-progress, not a rush event," says the ever-amiable host, the kind of guy who hides speakers in trees and pumps appropriate music into each separate cranny - from classical to bebop, with opera for the red room, country for the pub. Montgomery believes that pleasant surroundings can benefit our mental health. "If you can combine good environment with good food, you touch on the primary senses that give life enjoyment," he muses.

Of course, looks can get a restaurant only so far; nostalgia can add to the appeal, but nothing's right if the food doesn't live up to its part. Don likes to tell the story about serendipitously discovering chefs Alyson Crispin and Eddie Myers, husband and wife, as they had just left the five-star Mama's Fish House in Hawaii to settle in Pittsburgh. He acted on his instincts and set up a weekend audition of cooking for family and friends. He also followed up with a call to Mama's, where Eddie was given a rave review from Mama's employee Michael Lynch: "If I were going to hire a personal chef, I'd hire Eddie."

Left: Pan-fried Hawaiian mahi mahi complemented with caramelized sweet onions with avocado, spicy garlic chili shoyu reduction, wild multigrain jasmati rice and vegetables. Photo by Laura Petrilla.

Ever since, the two soul mates have been running the kitchen. They are quite a pair, philosophical Alyson beside the whirligig Eddie. Their only stipulation was to keep their Hawaiian shirts. They've drawn from their Maui roots for the Pacific Rim cuisine, but have liberated the fare from its island clichés, including through a reliance on their Steel City instincts to enhance the complex and intriguing flavors and textures. Eddie's four-page pamphlet/ menu is produced daily, edited with footnotes and clever reflections by the chef himself.

Alyson is known far and wide for the kind of top-notch salads that don't come out of the refrigerator, made with hand-selected field greens and vegetables so fresh they seem alive. When I ask her if she ever misses the coconuts and breadfruit from the islands, she hails our local wonders - apples, rhubarb, mint, basil, sweet potatoes, gooseberries (her combination gooseberry and blueberry tart is a gem).

With farmers' markets in full swing, there are a few staples that people "won't let me take off the menu," she says with a laugh. Those include the spinach and wonbok salad, comprising dark bittersweet leaves mixed with sassy ribbons of wonbok tossed with pecans in a bowl lined with pink grapefruit. And the house salad, often the simplest in the book, is rife with "garden things," Danish and gorgonzola blue, Alyson's signature jícama butterflies, carrot flowers, daikon, cucumbers, beets, grape tomatoes and fresh herb vinaigrette. Add shrimp, tofu, portobello, chicken or salmon and "feed your body and soul," to steal a line from the salad queen herself.

The grill is Eddie's territory. You can see him through the kitchen door, wearing shorts even in winter, presiding over the burners dancing with high blue flames. When fish is really fresh, it needs the slightest enhancement: just a drizzle of sauce, a mound of salsa, a bed of rice and roasted vegetables. Eddie is a master, with the same rich feeling for fish that Alyson has for fruit and vegetables.

Right: Hartwood's brand-new, open-air patio has a cabana bar and 20-foot log-burning fireplace. Photo by Laura Petrilla.

For starters, the Hollander and DeKoming mussels, Dutch-style, from Bar Harbor, Maine, are fat and juicy. Mahi mahi, pan-fried with sweet onions and avocado, then finished with a spicy chili garlic and shoyu reduction, is soft and intriguing against multigrain basmati rice and fresh vegetables. Soft-shell crabs - beautiful, thick, flavorful - are quickly flashed. There's no batter; instead, they're complemented with a Thai-style ginger-garlic black-bean sauce, a classic rendition with a bit of whimsy. They're so fresh, Eddie says it's impossible to overcook them.

Moonfish, which has a firm, big flake, is sautéd and overnighted from Hawaii, as is big-eye ahi tuna, presented rare and served katsu-style - that is, washed in flour and egg, breaded in Panko flakes along with wasabi butter and shoyu, then followed by a quick sear, which creates an ethereal, light crust. There is always some version of Pacific Rim scallops (mine were outstanding: slightly crunchy outside and faintly sweet), mahi mahi and some form of salmon, a restaurant staple in this town. One variety to try is Eddie's organic salmon stuffed with "just crab." Shrimp, another menu item, is served every which way - from crispy coconut and grilled tiger shrimp with fruity salsas to shrimp egg rolls with a tangy plum dipping sauce.

For anyone out there who's not eating fresh fish in the dead of summer, there are meat options such as a rib-eye or filet (try it with spicy Sichuan barbecue sauce), soft enough for a butter knife, and there's always something vegetarian.

For dessert, we shared a pecan ball the size of a baseball featuring Häagen-Dazs vanilla, whole pecans turned practically to dust, and homemade hot-fudge and/or caramel-sauce topping. A peppermint snowball, similar to the pecan ball but rolled in crushed peppermint candy with hot fudge, is my new passion. Chocolate drop cake with pecans and a little Jack Daniels has a rich, deep flavor. Or, remember that Alyson always has a list of nifty, fresh fruit ices.

"Pittsburghers have a tendency to play 'kill the cook' on Friday night," Eddie warns. "If we get buried all at once, this is where antiques and books come in handy." To pass the time, he suggests walking around, browsing the shelves or following the kids up the spiral staircase.

Instead of playing "Where's Waldo?" we made up a game of "Where's Ben Franklin?" with our guests. Hint: Look for a circa 18th-century pot-metal gas lamp over lucky table No. 13. "I would have called the place Architectural Onion," jests Brad, a history buff who can't get enough of the many insights into the passage of time. But that's an essential ingredient to the allure to Hartwood, which has devised an appealing formula: history, books, good food - and not a bad seat in the house.

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.

For a complete interactive Dining Guide CLICK HERE.