THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 14, 1995 TAG: 9509120078
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: ON THE TOWN
SOURCE: SAM MARTINETTE
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
The noise level was so high at Open Wide Restaurant on Granby Row in downtown Norfolk on a recent weekend evening that little Amy made monkey noises for quite a while before her mother noticed her lips moving.
The 3-year-old likes to make that hooting sound her favorite Gibbons at the Virginia Zoo produce - that long, drawn out whoooop sound that Lefty and Cindy make when the crowd looks bored.
There was nothing boring about the crowd at Open Wide. We were lucky to walk right in and get a table. Everyone who came in while we dined had to wait, and the scene around the main bar resembled a cocktail party with groups of four to eight people queueing up for seats.
The new eatery on downtown's Granby Row - the elegantly restored first block of Granby Street that also houses art galleries, a fine tobacco shop and other upscale businesses - is owned and operated by Phil Haushalter, who made his rep at Phil's Grill in Virginia Beach. The restaurant was several months in the making.
Having opened without fanfare about a month ago, the restaurant offers casual dining in two rooms that once housed Murray's Tavern and Wolfie's, part of what used to be Norfolk's Tenderloin District, known as Main Street. So exclusive it has no permanent sign, Open Wide isn't listed by phone except under the owner's name.
The lounge area, with a bar that winds its way like a well-fed serpent - with inlaid tiles instead of scales - along one wall, and a second, smaller bar, also offers window seats overlooking Granby Street. Tables in the dining room cluster under pale yellow walls hung with art for sale.
The crowd was glamorous in a trendy way. Attractive young women in baseball caps, shorts and hiking boots. Handsome lads with tied-back hair, polo shirts and jeans. There were families as well, with toddlers younger than Amy.
The service was friendly and there was a lot to watch, good because the general buzz of conversation drowned out even the strident jazz played over the sound system, or maybe it was vice versa.
The food was disappointing in its ordinariness. The menu seems suspended somewhere between post-modernism and the mom and pop foods of the fifties, with its mix of goat cheese appetizer, hand tossed pizza, meatloaf, and chicken pot pie. The prices are low enough, with a rack of pork short ribs at $10.25, but they could have been more tender and the house sauce so sweet it overpowered their taste. The pot pie ($6.95) we tried was adequate, but indistinguishable from the frozen pies of old. The warmed goat cheese and salami ($6.50) appetizer was unavailable, but the home-made salsa served with a basket of chips ($2.50) was excellent.
The dinner menu offers lasagna ($7.35); meatloaf with mashed potatoes ($6.75); a half-chicken, roasted, served over mashed potatoes and vegetables ($9.75); and nightly specials.
A pint of microbrewery beer from the tap behind the bar will cost you $3, a bottle of domestic $2.75. Wines by the glass or bottle were limited the night we were there, but the restaurant had opened a week or two earlier for lunch and it was only the third night for dinner. There is a full bar for those who like the strong stuff.
A luncheon ``sandwich board'' offers roast beef, pastrami or chicken salad ($4.50); salami or turkey ($4.25), even bologna or tuna salad ($3.95) on sourdough rolls, with a choice of chips, potato or pasta salad, slaw or soup. A pizza at lunch is $4.25, and meatloaf with mashed potatoes, gravy and vegetable is $5.25.
Open Wide and its Granby Row neighbors are hosting a big party tonight, from 5 to 8 p.m., with food and drinks available and live jazz from Against All Odds. For information on the ``Opening Night'' party, call the Downtown Norfolk Council, 623-1757.
Open Wide (122-124 Granby St., 623-8512) seems to be doing a bang-up business, and we'll go back again to sample the more exotic menu offerings. The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner Monday through Friday, and for dinner on Saturday and Sunday. It's a grand place to look at, with a good-looking crowd. Lefty and Cindy would like it. Their friend Amy did. by CNB