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Azure Cafe has a wonderful and winning way with Italian
By C. Z. Cramer
"We made a discovery we might have missed were it not for a tip from a fellow fan of food and jazz: Freeport's Azure Cafe. Open nearly a year, the Azure favors the culinary methods of southern Italy with some original twists. The bonus is live jazz several nights per week.
It is a pretty restaurant, with white grotto-style columns in the dining room and an attractive wine cabinet in front of the kitchen, above which hang cone-shaped light fixtures of blue glass. The interior paint job is clean and colorful. Paintings and other work by local artists hang on the walls. Small white votives flicker on bare tables of dark, varnished wood.
The house bread was a simple and tender baguette. It was served with a soufflé cup of fruity olive oil that had been doctored with a dab of roasted garlic paste, which transformed the plain Jane bread into a highly compelling snack.
Small salads were included with the entrées, a nice toss of young lettuces with halved grape tomatoes and tart, vinegary dressing. The side salad may be upgraded to a small Caesar for an additional $3, which was a nice deal since the latter was substantial and tasty. The homemade croutons were quite delicate, the freshly grated cheese was strong, and the garnishing white anchovy was choice.
Roasted vegetable napoleon was a novelty and a delicious light entrée ($16). Meticulously cut and sautéed rounds of eggplant, squash and tomato were adorned with roasted garlic paste and grated cheeses and stacked onto a pair of pan-fried polenta rounds. The vertical construction of vegetable slices formed a handsome tower that was kept upright by a jaunty branch of fresh rosemary used as a skewer, with its tip at a summit a good 6 inches above the plate. A piquant reduction of basil oil and balsamic vinegar was squirted across the napoleon and around its perimeter; its flavor was in bright contrast to the cheesy veggies and we longed for a little more of it.
I'm one of those people whose suspicion meter starts beeping when the words "our house specialty" are printed on the menu next to a pricey dish. Worse, I have a thing about avoiding tomato-based fish stews from restaurants I don't know well enough to trust, having endured my share of tart, bitter stews of overcooked seafood made tough by acid canned tomatoes. Fortunately for me, I put aside my hang-ups and ordered the Azure Cafe's San Francisco-style cioppino.
This was a spectacular fish stew ($26). Sweet, fresh scallops, mussels, shrimp, haddock, and a dramatic half lobster - each one perfectly and delicately cooked to its own requirements - were swathed in a mellow, concentrated, thick, herby, magical red broth. Beneath the seafood, we found the hidden treat of perfectly cooked linguine. Here was a stew to recommend and to return for.
The dishes we tasted captured what is wonderful about Italian food when it's freshly made to order. The food looks great, too - this kitchen knows a thing or two about presentation. And the meal was enhanced by the music being supplied by pianist Matt Fogg. His was a low-key concert that did not impede conversation.
This Main Street cafe seems to have found a niche among visiting shoppers during the daytime, and loyal locals at night. Easy to see why, with the combination of well-prepared Italian food, reasonable prices and live music. Service is equally admirable; our waitress was a charmer and she knew her menu well." |