THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 23, 1995 TAG: 9507200190
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Restaurant Review
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NAGS HEAD LENGTH: Long : 122 lines
GRANDMOTHERS ALWAYS think they know someone when you mention a last name.
``Smith? John Smith? I think I went to grammar school with a Smith boy back in '36,'' they say.
``What a coincidence,'' I think, sarcastically. ``My buddy just might be that guy's great-nephew.''
So last week, when I told my visiting grandmother that we were going to check out a new Outer Banks restaurant, Maione's, I barely paid attention to her when she said, excitedly, ``Maione? I knew a Maione girl back in Jersey. Went all the way through school with her. Her folks ran a bakery - a great bakery. They were an institution in Trenton. Maybe it's the same family!''
``Yeah, Gran, right,'' I thought.
She was.
Joseph Maione and his children, Al and Virginia, ran Maione's bakery in Trenton, N.J., until the late 1950s. Al and his wife, Rose, opened a bakery and restaurant by the same name on the Jersey Shore in Lavallette 30 years ago. Their son, Joe, began his own Nags Head eatery this summer.
Gran had gone to school with Virginia and Al Maione - and had eaten dozens of loaves of the family's fresh baked bread.
``I'd heard a lot about North Carolina's beaches from our Jersey Shore customers. So on my way back from Florida three years ago, I drove through and checked out the Outer Banks,'' Joe Maione, 49, said Wednesday from his 200-seat restaurant.
``This place reminded me a lot of the way the Jersey Shore was years ago. So I bought the last corner lot on the bypass, at a traffic light, and had this place built over the winter.
``It's one block off the beach - just like our restaurant in Jersey,'' Joe Maione said, smiling. ``We've already had a lot of our Jersey friends join us here.''
The new building was custom-constructed on U.S. Route 158, across from the Outer Banks Mall. Maione's opened its double doors July 1. Most of the employees are local residents.
But the fare is traditional, New Jersey-style Italian - flavored with a bit of Outer Banks flair.
Appetizers, for example, range from jumbo shrimp cocktail to bruschetta. We began our meal with the bruschetta, ($4.95) a house specialty consisting of crusty Italian bread smothered with mozzarella cheese, crushed tomatoes, romano cheese, basil, garlic and other aromatic spices. More doughy than a pizza, more cheesy than garlic bread, the concoction was filling and tasty, a great opening act for the main event.
Dinners span the gamut, from Hatteras stuffed flounder and lobster tail to lasagna and Delmonico steak. Seafood suppers are served with a house salad, Italian dinner rolls and a choice of potato or pasta side dish. Pasta dinners come with salad and bread.
About the size of dollar bills, the fresh baked sourdough rolls were warm and soft. Real butter in ramekins sat alongside cloth, burgundy napkins. The salads were unusual and large: thick cucumber chunks, sliced black olives, tomato wedges and sweet pickled peppercini lounged on a bed of torn iceberg lettuce.
I ordered an evening special, garden ravioli ($10.95) - a vegetarian dish that was as delightfully presented as it was delicious.
Big, fat and bursting with cheese, the homemade ravioli was striped green and golden, a combination of spinach and egg pasta, stuffed with sweet red bell peppers, ricotta and romano cheese and seasoned with fresh basil and oregano.
On top, a sun-dried tomato pesto added an unusual flair and texture. Rich, flavorful and not too spicy, the robust sauce had an almost roasted flavor that wonderfully complemented the cheesy pasta.
Gran chose her favorite dish of all time: linguine with clam sauce ($11.95). A regular offering on Maione's menu, the huge portion brimmed over the bowl and was covered with golf-ball-sized clams. Although most evening specials feature pasta made on the premises, other menu items come with dried pasta. The linguine, though dried, was perfectly prepared, said Gran - a formidable cook and culinary critic in her own right.
``These clams are so sweet,'' she said, twirling the long linguine strands around her fork. ``I've never seen them this small and sweet.''
Joe Maione said he had hoped to get the larger clams in last week's shipment. But the Chesapeake Bay seafood company he buys from supplied the smaller, little neck clams instead. Gran said she was glad he'd had to substitute. The little necks, she insisted, were far better suited to the light, white sauce.
``I make food homemade, like meatballs from my kitchen. I serve customers what I would serve friends in my dining room at home,'' said Al Maione, who came out from the kitchen to meet Gran, his old school chum, and assisted his son during the restaurant's first few weeks. ``Not frozen. Not pre-made. This stuff is the real thing. That's my wife and boy in the back there now. They do it right - I helped teach them.''
With two generations of bakers behind him, it is not surprising that Joe Maione's desserts are some of the best bets in his new restaurant. Gran and I split the traditional Italian ender - cannoli ($2.95) and shared my favorite sweet, tiramisu ($3.50). Better than any I've gotten in the South, the cannoli had a crisp, thin shell surrounding a creamy filling sprinkled with chocolate chips.
The tiramisu, however, should receive top honors of the night. The meal was divine - but the tiramisu was an almost religious experience. A giant slab of the pie-cake-pastry stood almost 4 inches tall, oozing freshly whipped cream across the plate. Two layers of fluffy lady fingers were iced together with soft milk chocolate, mascarpone cheese, espresso coffee and the whipped cream.
If my dinner date hadn't been 70 years old, I might have had to fight her for the last bite.
Al Maione seemed delighted to find a Jersey friend in the midst of the isolated Outer Banks. Before we left, he brought Gran a color Chamber of Commerce poster illustrating all the highlights of downtown Trenton. The long-lost classmates spent about 15 minutes reminiscing about who lived where.
Then, as we were about to push our stuffed selves away from the table, Al Maione gave us the family farewell. He kissed his hand, flourished it in our direction, and walked away calling, ``Love yous.''
Al and Rose Maione have since returned to their Northern residence.
But their son, Joe, and his Jersey gem will remain on North Carolina's barrier island beaches. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by DREW C. WILSON
Joe Mainoe, left, is the third generation of his family to enter the
food business, following in his parents, Rose and Al Maione's
footsteps.
by CNB