Armondo's returns home to serve up slice of Italian

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Armondo's returns home to serve up slice of Italian

Saturday, January 1, 2000

By GREGORY ROBERTS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER RESTAURANT CRITIC

All Armondo Pavone really wanted to do was sell pizza by the slice in downtown Seattle. "I'm kind of an accidental restaurateur," Pavone said.

In any event, he's a successful one. Armondo's Cafe Italiano has expanded twice since he opened it in 1986, drawing customers hungry for wood-fired pizza, pasta, calzone and other Italian classics.

Before launching Armondo's, Pavone owned several cookie stands in Seattle. After selling those, he figured he'd stick with the walk-up, impulse-buying food business by peddling pizza by the slice. When he couldn't find the right location in Seattle, he turned to downtown Renton, near where he grew up, and moved into the corner storefront at South Third and Main streets.

Pavone had seen a wood-burning, brick pizza oven in San Francisco, so he put one into his new place. But in the middle of his remodeling, he realized he needed to change his business plan.

"I sort of figured that pizza by the slice wouldn't work because there wasn't that much walk-in traffic," he said, "so that downtown here, we were going to create a destination place."

He opened with 10 tables and a menu limited to pizza and spaghetti. Now he seats up to 90 for lunch and dinner and serves a range of appetizers, entrees and desserts. "I knew Italian food growing up, having Italian parents and eating at Grandma's house," Pavone said.

RESTAURANT REVIEW
Armondo's Cafe Italiano. 919 S. Third St., Renton; 425-228-0759. Hours: lunch 11-a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday, dinner 4-9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 4-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Beer and wine. All major credit cards. No obstacles to accessibility. No parking provided. No smoking.

Pizza ($8.95 and up) is still a mainstay of the menu, and the bakers roll out the dough and flip it in the air right by the entrance to the restaurant, before sliding it into the glowing oven behind them. The 13-inch pies emerge with a dusting of char around the edges of the thin, chewy-good crust, which can be topped by everything from pepperoni (95 cents) to grilled chicken ($1.75). When folded around various combinations of ingredients, the crust transmutes into calzone ($7.75).

Mussels ($6.50) lead off the appetizers, steamed in a broth of white wine, garlic and pesto-laced butter. The kitchen stuffs ravioli ($5.95) with butternut squash, then batters and fries the dumplings for a starter that gets a tasty kick from the mayonnaise-like roasted garlic and tarragon sauce served alongside.

Spaghetti and meat sauce ($8.95) is still available, as well as manicotti ($9.95), lasagne ($8.95), ravioli ($9.95) and other pasta standards. Tortellini Romano ($11.95) ranks among the speciality entrees, tossing tricolored tortellini with mushrooms, zucchini and onions in a light-handed tomato cream sauce. The kitchen also shows restraint with Veal Italiano ($13.95), sauteing tender slices of meat with roasted peppers, mushrooms, onions and tomatoes in a blend of marsala and red wine.

The wine list keeps to inexpensive and moderately priced selections from Italy and California, supplemented by a sizable roster of draft beers. Desserts ($3.95-$4.95) are nothing special. Table settings are simple -- paper napkins, plastic cloths -- and so is the decor, though the restaurant can get pretty festive on a busy weekend night.

A lot of Armondo's traffic is built on businessmen and other day-jobbers in Renton who drop in for lunch, Pavone said.

"If they like us," he said, "they'll come back and bring their wives on the weekend."