January 2007 deadline: Friday, December 15th @ Noon
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The Arcadia News
features restaurant reviews each month. Sauce 7132 E. Camelback 480-321-8844 Hours: Sunday through Thursday 11 a.m. – 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. – 10 p.m. Scottsdale’s new Waterfront continues to be the new “in” place to dine. One recent restaurant entry is a pizza place called Sauce. Their space in the waterfront development is just south of Camelback, across from the Nordstrom parking garage. It has high ceilings and industrial-style exposed vents. The walls are painted with a warm palette of tomato red and avocado green and are decorated with black and white vintage photos of Italy and Italians. Diners are greeted with a large wall-mounted menu that features individual gourmet pizzas, chopped salads, lasagna dishes and grilled panini sandwiches along with a satisfactory list of wines, beers and Italian bottled sodas. One orders and pays at the counter. Then you are given a number to take with you to the table of your choice, and wait for a staff member to bring you your food. My companion and I each started with a salad – his Caesar ($5) was the usual mix of romaine and Parmesan, although was missing the croutons, and bathed in a standard dressing. My choice of Cucumber, Tomato, Feta, Olives & Red Onion ($5) was an interesting blend of crunchy veggies. We split an individual Sausage & Caramelized Onion Pizza ($9). Chunks of yummy Italian sausage and clumps of sweetly browned onion were nestled in cheese atop an amazingly thin crust. The caramelized onions were so scrumptious, Sauce should put them on everything and change their name to Onion. Companion’s pronunciation when ordering his “prose-cute-oh” Panini at the counter was embarrassing, but that did not stop me from accepting his offer of trading half his Prosciutto, Salami, Turkey & Mozzarella Cheese Panini ($7) for an equal portion of my Baked Beef Lasagna ($9). I got the better part of that deal. My lasagna was layered with an uninteresting meat sauce and an odd-tasting, lightly orange-colored cheese between strips of pasta. I would have much rather had tried another of the interesting pizza combinations such as Portobello & Artichoke ($8) or my own order of the Panini companion had shared, with its fresh bread and lean Italian meats. Delicious! The meal ended nicely after we requested a server bring the desserts we had ordered earlier. Companion’s Cheesecake ($4) was strangely stiff, as if it were frozen, but was a substantial slice of wonderful on a thick crumb crust. My Tiramisu ($4) was a perfect presentation of sweet cake, cream and cocoa without any overabundance of espresso flavor that might otherwise overpower the tasty treat. All in all, I would say Sauce hit most notes, but next time I will stick to the pizza and panini. Ciao! |
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