THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 17, 1995 TAG: 9509140058
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BROWN H. CARPENTER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
THE SPAGHETTI WAREHOUSE serves large portions of food in an upbeat, noisy ambience. Just eat and unwind. Take your kids. And your neighbor's kids. The Warehouse prices promote generosity. You won't go broke by picking up the tab.
The Warehouse is one of the few chains not near a shopping mall. It's at 1900 Monticello Ave., adjacent to downtown Norfolk. Ensconced in an old three-story brick storage building, formerly used by Prices Appliances, the Warehouse looks as established in that area as the venerable Doumar's Barbecue across the street.
The formula works. On a recent Saturday evening, our party of four waited 20 minutes for a table, even though we had phoned ahead to be placed on the seating list. And the Warehouse can feed almost 400 people.
Weeknights are less crowded, the management says.
Once inside, customers can admire the solid brick walls and genuine wooden beams in the ceiling. The vast dining space is highlighted by a trolley car in the center of the floor. The tables within it are a lure for kids. The walls are decorated with so many old advertising signs, it's difficult to count them.
No surprise, the menu is dominated by spaghetti dishes, none over $8.99. For a slight extra charge, you may switch to fettucini, linguini, ziti or angel-hair pasta.
Toppings? They range from meat sauce to meatballs, from beer chili sauce to classic tomato. Seafood and chicken entrees are available. For the health-conscious, primavera, marinara and spicy marinara sauces are low in fat, cholesterol and calories. And price. Each of the guilt-free dinners is under $5.
If you're not in the mood for spaghetti, the Warehouse offers such familiar Italian favorites as lasagne, fettucini Alfredo, four-cheese manicotti, cannelloni Florentine and ravioli. No pizzas, though, except on the children's menu.
The meal price included plenty of delicious warm sourdough bread with garlic butter and a choice of minestrone or a house salad. However, the fresh, garlicky caesar salad was well worth the extra 79 cents.
We ordered the chicken Tettrazini ($6.99), seafood marinara ($6.29), Incredible 15-layer Baked Lasagne ($6.99) and Spaghetti Feast for One ($7.99). All ranged from good to very good.
The Tettrazini - sliced chicken breast sauteed in a creamy white sauce with mushrooms, scallions and Romano cheese - got high marks but could have used a splash of white wine during the cooking process.
The seafood marinara contained shrimp, scallops and white fish. The sauce, laden with tomatoes, garlic and onions, was tangy though not overwhelmingly so.
The evening's favorite was the lasagne. Made from scratch, it contained Italian sausage, noodles, meat sauce and three cheeses. Tender and tasty, the lasagne drew raves from around the table although a couple of shakes from the red-pepper-flake jar really brought out the flavor.
The Spaghetti Feast was aptly named. The pasta was served with meatballs, meat sauce and an Italian sausage. It was a lot of food, enough to take home, in fact.
We split two desserts: Turtle Cheesecake and tiramisu (each $2.99). The cheesecake had a graham cracker crust layered with fudge chocolate on the bottom, drizzled with a caramel topping finished with pecans.
The tiramisu, a traditional Italian recipe, was made with sponge cake, rum-flavored filling and cappuccino cream icing, all covered with chocolate syrup. Calories never tasted so good.
One further note: For a chain restaurant, the Spaghetti Warehouse has a nice variety of table wines and beers. ILLUSTRATION: ROY A BAHLS COLOR PHOTOS
The restaurant is one of the few chains not near a shopping mall.
Incredible 15-layer Baked Lasagne with houes salad and sourdough
bread, $6.99.
by CNB