THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 18, 1994 TAG: 9409150172
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Restaurant Review
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY
STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: KILL DEVIL HILLS LENGTH: Long : 147 lines
CRISP CRUSTS just beginning to crack, a row of steaming Italian loaves lies across the counter at Petrozza's delicatessen.
In glass cases below, homemade Oriental sesame noodles are laced with carrot slivers, Greek meatballs beckon from beneath a sumptuous red sauce, and a dozen different desserts - all outrageously decadent - overflow with curled chocolate shavings, fresh fruit compote, and rich, hand-whipped cream.
There is barely enough room to turn a cartwheel inside the little lobby of this unusual gourmet eatery.
But the finest cuisine of at least four countries is created within this 1,500-square-foot room.
``I used to think we couldn't do anything but Italian,'' said Lou Petrozza, who opened the Outer Banks deli with his wife, Lee, in 1989. ``But then we saw barbecue at a famous Italian delicatessen in New York. That opened the door for us. Now we do food from all around the world.
``We're just making it up as we go along now,'' Petrozza, 33, said last week. ``We're going to keep growing, though. We gotta. We got too much heart invested in this business.''
A graduate of New York's Culinary Institute of America, Petrozza first visited North Carolina's barrier islands six summers ago. While vacationing with a friend, the Italian chef noticed the need for a full-scale deli on the beach. So he quit his job as a hotel chef and opened his first business.
The Dare Centre strip mall on the U.S. Route 158 bypass hasn't been the same since.
From 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays - and throughout most Sunday afternoons as well - customers pack Petrozza's with carry-out requests.
There are no seats in this place, not even a counter to lean against. But the full restaurant menu offers people more than a dozen complete hot meals to go, at least 20 styles of sandwiches, an a la carte menu from which to design your own, a half-dozen daily specials, and a variety of salads, pastas and breads to bring home. Most of the meals cost less than $7. Most of the entrees feed at least two people.
All of the food - from breads to pasta to pastries - is created fresh daily on the premise.
On a sunny afternoon last week, a friend and I stopped by Petrozza's for lunch. We carried our feast back to his house and ate outside on the deck. It was the best - and biggest - lunch I've had.
We took a long time just deciding what to eat in the overwhelming lobby of this out-of-the-world eatery. Besides the usual deli cheese wheels, sliced meat and gargantuan pickles, Petrozza's is stocked with wines, cooking supplies and spices.
Cans of artichoke hearts, boxes of couscous and bags of falafel mix are stacked on the shelves. A huge glass jar of sun-dried tomatoes sits by the cash register. And refrigerator cases are filled with plum tomato basil red sauce, just-made spinach fettuccine and all kinds of mouth-watering menu helpers.
Finally, my New Jersey friend picked his old stand-by favorite: an Italian hero ($5.50). I chose a daily special, tortellini in creamy pesto ($6.25). And, of course, we both had dessert.
More than two feet long and piled at least four inches high, the hero was made on fresh-baked bread, still soft and warm. Inside, pepperoni, cooked salami, capacollo, mortadella and provolone cheeses were sliced thin and layered. A light oil and vinegar dressing lubricated the flavorful sandwich. Hot peppers added extra zest. Black olives were optional.
``Have you ever seen a sandwich as huge as this?'' my lunch date asked as he struggled to finish half the hero. ``It's absolutely fantastic. Even better than the ones you get in New York.''
The pasta special was equally ambrosial.
Served with a two slices of buttery garlic bread and a pint of shrimp bisque (or green salad), the entree came in a deep-dish carry-out container. The soup stock was made from steamed shrimp, carrots, onions and celery. Sherry was added to offset the seafood taste. Heavy cream created body. A dash of paprika - and just enough cajun spices - zapped the broth with bite and formed a fantastic, filling appetizer.
In the aluminum platter, just-made tortellini was curled around a rich cheese filling. Mounds of the egg noodles, which take 20 minutes to knead, swam in the heavy cream sauce alongside wedges of locally grown tomatoes. Garlic, black pepper and olive oil brought spice to the fresh basil pesto. Crushed pecans added crunch and sweetness. And Romano cheese, made from sheep's milk and imported from Italy, gave the dish a distinct dairy taste that would be difficult to emulate.
The entire meal was marvelous. Lunch was so filling, in fact, that we had to save our desserts for after dinner. Dinner, incidentally, was all of the leftovers from the afternoon Petrozza's party.
``We use more than two dozen ingredients in most of our offerings and switch things up a little bit now and then,'' Petrozza said while slicing squash at lightning speed. ``The food might change slightly from week to week. The daily offerings change, too. And we've just begun growing some of our own herbs - chocolate mint, lemon verbina, pineapple sage - a whole lot of crazy things you can't really find around here otherwise.''
Although the fit-for-Greek-gods desserts filled doilies on three shelves, my friend and I had no problem selecting our sweets. He was dying for ``a real cannoli'' ($1.95). An admitted choco-holic, I could not resist ``flourless raspberry chocolate truffle cake'' ($1.95), one of pastry chef Chris Mashburn's famous works of art.
About six inches long and lightly refrigerated, the cannoli was a crispy, somewhat sweet shell packed with filling. Cheese and sugar are whipped together for the inside. But the creamy concoction squishes well out the ends, making finger licking a necessity.
The cake almost killed me.
Because it's cooked without flour, the chocolate batter does not rise much. The four-inch-tall finished product, therefore, is almost completely fudge. An entire cake weighs about four pounds and is topped with thick fudgy frosting. For garnish, a fat, juicy raspberry is plopped beside a melt-in-your-mouth truffle on each slice. The dessert is as lovely as it is sinful - and that's saying a lot.
``We tried at the beginning of this business, but we just can't buy anything pre-made,'' said Petrozza, who arrives at his deli to start preparing pasta by 7 a.m. each day - three hours after the pastry chef gets to work. ``We want things a certain way. So we end up doing everything ourselves, from scratch.
``It's disheartening, sometimes, sending gourmet meals out in plastic or styrofoam,'' the chef said.
But once you get that fabulous food spread out on your own table, you know you're sampling the beach's best culinary creations - in the comfort of your own home. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by DREW C. WILSON
Petrozza's Deli and Pasta Shop owner Lou Petrozza Jr., right, and
pastry chef Chris Mashburn are the culinary wizards behind counter.
PETROZZA'S DELI
Where: Kill Devil Hills, 1712 N. Croatan Highway (U.S. Route 158
bypass) at the Dare Centre strip mall
Phone: To place an order (919) 441-2519; For daily specials (919)
441-1642
Hours: Tuesdays through Saturdays 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Sundays 11
a.m. to 7 p.m.
Prices: Entrees, which include bread and soup or salad, $5.75 to
$8.50; sandwiches from $3.25 to $8.50; salads, desserts, fresh baked
bread to go.
Seating: No seating is available at the deli. All food is
take-out. Call-in orders are accepted.
Drinks: Carry-out bottled beverages, beer and wine are available.
Soda fountain drinks to go.
Credit Cards: Not accepted. Local checks and cash only.
Catering: Available for small or large events. Advance notice
required. For more information or to schedule an event, call (919)
441-8787.
by CNB