April 2003

All in the Famiglia
Legends of the North Shore serves up familiarity.

By Jennifer Pesci-Kelly

We all love the idea of a place where everyone knows your name; where the chef visits each table and greets customers by name; where people return for the food as well as the company.

For the gentrifying North Side, Legends of the North Shore sits at the center of a developing community and is quickly turning into a gathering spot for those newest to the East Allegheny neighborhood.

The name doesn’t do it justice, but it does reference the photos and newspaper clippings of Pittsburgh sports heroes who’ve graced nearby fields. Retro interiors with chrome chairs create a bright corner in a sometimes underlit neighborhood. A window-front counter provides a bird’s-eye view of the North Side, with downtown buildings jutting up in the distance.

Legends is a perfect stop on the way to the game for a simple Italian meal before a night at the ballpark. Start with an order of mussels ($5.95)—an almost bottomless mound of meaty shells with chunky tomato sauce and garlic. But the small restaurant holds its own as a destination spot, too, filled nearly every night. Penne vodka ($12.95) crosses creamy and tangy. Gnocchi bolognese ($12.95 ) doesn’t skimp on the zesty red sauce or the ground-beef ragu over the doughy balls of pasta.

Rosemary bread and a mixed-green salad accompany pastas and entrees—but skip the soup if it’s pasta e fagioli. Normally my favorite dish, this version substitutes a thin, milky broth for the traditional tomato base.

However, another change to a classic works well—hot antipasto ($8.25) warms up roasted red peppers and grilled artichokes, topping the whole thing with a mild gorgonzola.

The entrees are all solid choices, whether you choose the trio of crab cakes ($16.95) or the chicken romano ($13.50). However, you’ll keep coming back because of the side of savory parmesan mashed potatoes (chunky, with the skins still on), which mysteriously disappear from your plate. Unlike the giant, treelike broccoli, which you just wish would disappear.

The dessert menu is the one reason to leave some food on your plate. All are made by the owner/chef’s mother-in-law, who knows her way around a mixer. Butter-pecan caramel cake ($4.50) sounds so tempting, but so does the caramel apple pie ($4.50), which turns out to be a serious slice. This dessert towers with several inches of sweet caramel layered between soft apples and topped with a thick crust and a scoop of vanilla.

A plate of fudge samples is passed around the restaurant, a final temptation of tasty little morsels of creamy peanut butter and chocolate to end a meal. The fudge is made, of course, by the owner/hostess—who is married to the owner/chef and daughter to the owner/pastry chef. I love a family affair.