Slice
Portland, Oregon: Nostrana
Previously in our West Coast Pizza Madness tour: Apizza Scholls, where our party of eight housed almost four pies. After dinner there had ended, only one brave soul—This Is Pizza's Adam Lindsley—dared join me for a second stop at Nostrana immediately after. (The rest of the folks retired to the Horse Brass for drinks, some vowing to meet us later in the evening for the third and final stop.)
Though I'm not a fan, I'm used to the notion of Neapolitan-style joints leaving pies uncut. I've never seen one offer scissors for the job, however. As This Is Pizza's Adam Lindsley noted: "...There's some kind of joyous youthful nostalgia that comes with picking up those scissors and cutting into your pizza as if it were construction paper, and Adam and I actually did a pretty good job of dividing the pie into six equal slices with them." [Photographs: Adam Kuban]
Nostrana
1401 SE Morrison Street, Portland OR 97214 map); 503-234-2427; nostrana.com
Pizza Style: Neapolitan, and it's VPN-certified
Oven Type: Wood-fired
The Skinny: Co-owned and helmed by Cathy Whims, who's kind of a big deal in Portland dining, Nostrana may be a better bet for its nonpizza menu items
Price: Margherita pie, feeds one, $11
When I gave some local friends my Portland pizza itinerary prior to the trip, they said I needed to add Nostrana to my fact-finding mission, so off we were to the fifth and penultimate pizzeria of my two-day visit to Stumptown.* Some quick research on the googs told me that Nostrana was a VPN-status pizzeria. VPN, of course, being the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, an organization that certifies interested pizzerias as making "authentically" Neapolitan pies according to various pizza parameters—ingredients used, preparation methods, pie dimensions, and ovens and equipment used.
It turns out that this would be the first of five VPN-certified pizzerias I would visit in five days. What did I learn from visiting five VPN-certified pizzerias in five days? I'll tell you in my next post. For now, let's deal with Nostrana.
I have no photos of the pizza. After snapping the one above, I realized the atmosphere of the place didn't seem welcoming to weirdo food-blogger photo sessions. As befits the homebase of a Beard Award–nominated chef (Cathy Whims, Best Chef Northwest 2009 finalist), it's a classy joint. Kind of Northwest chic—all concrete-modern with plenty of wood accents and subdued lighting throughout the almost hangarlike dining room. Follow the soaring arc of a ceiling criss-crossed with wood rafters and your eye lands on a large, beautiful wood-burning oven serving as a focal point.
What 'This Is Pizza' Said
An excerpt from Adam Lindsley's account of our Portland pizza binge:
"...As for the pizza itself, it didn't rock my world. It's far from the best Neapolitan-style pizza I've had in the United States, and not even close to the top of the list for even the Pacific Northwest. The best thing about it is the sauce, as it's a pretty standard San Marzano blend. The rest of the pie seems a step down in quality from other VPN-certified pizzerias I've visited, such as Tutta Bella and Ristorante Picolinos in Seattle. The crust that night--crisper than most Neapolitan pies--was a little bland, and the mozzarella was on the thick side. It's not a bad pie by any means, just not an outstanding one...."
To my eye, the place was packed with well-dressed folks sipping wine who all seemed to be out for a night of upscale-casual dining. It just didn't seem like the place to whip out a honkin' SLR. Plus, the lighting was not conducive to a pizza porn shoot.
Anyway, I'll just say it: I didn't find the pizza that inspiring at Nostrana. We ordered a Margherita pie as a benchmark. I had intended on getting a second pie—something with a little more personality—but based on the plain pie, I stopped short. The crust was bland. The sauce, while a fresh-tasting San Marzano tomato concoction, could have benefited from some extra seasoning. And fresh mozzarella is fresh mozzarella—mild and delicate by nature. Without a flavorful crust and a more spritely sauce, here it just added to the one-note nature of the pie.
After meeting up at the next pizza stop with an old Portland buddy—the guy who had recommended Nostrana (it's his favorite restaurant in the city)— I relayed my impression.
"No! You have to do pizza as part of the overall experience there," he told me. "My girlfriend and I go and order pizza, appetizers, an entrée—the whole thing. You have to make a night of it."
So the antipasti, primi, and secondi, are the stars of the show, apparently. Not surprising, given that Nostrana executive chef–co-owner Whims spent 20 years at Genoa, one of Portland's most influential restaurants and the go-to place for fine-dining there until the recent restaurant boom gave it some serious competition. (Whims left Genoa in 2002 and started Nostrana in 2005. Genoa itself closed last year, a victim of the economy, competition, and changing dining habits; after finding new investors, however, it will reopen in a retooled format later this month. For further background on Whims, Culinate has a nice interview with her.)
Both magazines are from the same publisher, hence the similar look and food theme for the November issue. Portland Monthly's cover features a Nostrana pie; on Seattle Metropolitan's cover is a pizza from Serious Pie.
After this bit of insight, backed up by a second Portland friend, I thought I had a better understanding of Nostrana with regard to pizza. It just may be less a pizzeria and more a well-regarded Northern Italian restaurant that just happens to serve VPN-certified pies, should you want them. I think it's also telling that when the magazine Portland Monthly issued its Best Restaurants 2009 list with Nostrana among them, there was nary a word about the pizza (despite the fact that the issue's cover photo shows a Nostrana pie coming out of the restaurant's oven).
After the effusive praise my friends gave the place, I'm sure I'll go back with them the next time I visit PDX. And I'll approach it with their M.O., trying all the different menu sections—and maybe the pizza. If I have room.
* No, I'm not talking about the coffee. One of the city's nicknames is Stumptown.
Previous Stops on the Pizza Madness 2009 Tour
Apizza Scholls (Portland, Oregon)
The Amazingly Cool Wy'east Pizza Trailer (Portland, Oregon)
Escape from New York Pizza (Portland, Oregon)
Ken's Artisan Pizza (Portland, Oregon)