Review: La Pietra Cucina (1)
Be careful what you wish for.
Last November, in my original review of La Pietra Cucina, I complained about the strangeness of the dining room, which was a small room adjacent to the massive space that once housed MidCity Cuisine. I hoped for a grander space to showcase chef Bruce Logues irrepressible Italian cooking. Then, in May, the restaurant closed for a short while and reopened using the entire footprint, repurposing the original dining room as a private dining space.
So what, then, could my hypocritical (and apparently hypercritical) heart possibly find wrong with that? Wait for it ... I hate the new space. I miss the slightly disjointed but quirky feel of the original room.
I know, I know. It isnt so much that the space has been redesigned, but how. Deep maroon with gold accents make up the palette — walls the color of Elviras lipstick; heavily gilded picture frames holding weighty paintings of monarchs and horses; chairs swathed in dark yellow velvet. Frank Sinatra croons through the speakers. Its like someones rococo fantasy of what a fancy Italian restaurant should be — which is fine, I guess, except that once again, it doesnt match Logues cooking in the slightest.
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(Photo by James Camp)