Radda Featured in NightLife!
May 20th, 2007
Simple Elegance
at Radda Caffe Bar
by Kevin Lambert
Lori Hassler has the eyes of a person who has been elbows deep, for some time, in the myriad life experiences that define ‘character building’. She has the eyes of a chef, a restaurant owner, a world-traveler, a wife, and a mother. Along with her partners, Chef Ben Leitner, brother Daylon Greer, and managing partner John Doholis, she has survived three years in the ultra-competitive Scottsdale F&B landscape with the Radda Caffe Bar in North Scottsdale. One gets the feeling that you can’t do or say much to surprise those eyes, but they widen and come alive as she begins to describe her vision of what the restaurant means to its customers. “We live in a brand new world (Scottsdale),” she says. “People look at Italy as the ‘old’ world, but when you actually walk in to a restaurant or house, it’s modern on the inside. Radda reflects more of what’s going on in Italy today. Many American Italian restaurants try to keep it ‘authentic’, you know, the pasta house feel and the Frank Sinatra on the stereo. That’s not really what we had in mind for Radda.”
The interior is defined by the sharp, crisp angles of a modern approach, with a minimalist sentiment reflected by the limited number of dining tables, stainless steel mini-chandeliers, and classic wooden furniture and artwork.
The philosophy of ‘less is more’ guides the culinary fare that Hassler and Leitner prepare with masterful gourmet techniques. “We’re more about a fresh approach to cooking,” Hassler explains. “Everything is cut and grilled to order- nothing comes off a heat plate. In that way we’re more like traditional Tuscan restaurants. We like the classic recipes- Peposo, a Chianti beef stew; Duck sauce, called Sugo d’Anatra- the traditional recipes we love. We also have a flair for modern chutneys and wine sauces. In Tuscany, it’s very game and vegetable oriented food: trout, quail, wild boar, duck, a lot of beef. We put out a meat and vegetable kind of diet. There’s really no competition with places that come out and try all these crazy concoctions with food. At Radda there’s not a ton of ingredients to dazzle and confuse you. I call it elegance through simplicity. It’s what Ben and I appreciate about Italian foodthere are fewer ingredients, so those ingredients are showcased through the length of cooking. It’s well-built, handcrafted food. A lot of people get really carried away with a lot of ingredients, and I think you lose something when you do that. Little bits and swirls of things that people don’t know the names of- it’s not good for the kitchen or the guests. Our clients like the fact that we promote healthier dishes here; there’s not a lot of fat in our food. The Italian verbiage might sound unusual and interesting, but it’s not that complicated. We offer a cleaner approach to dining.”
When you go to Radda, Lori recommends the Grilled Chicken Caesar salad, which she will be modifying in coming weeks to feature an unusual technique of actually grilling the romaine lettuce along with the chicken. Also try Radda’s famous Peposo, traditional thick peppered beef stew, slow simmered for hours, and served over grilled bread (It was rumored to have originated in the kilns of Florence at the Duomo construction site to feed the workers in the rafters). If neither of these choices suits you, go for the Tagliatelle al Sugo d’Anatra, a Tuscan specialty with wide noodles in elegant tomato duck sauce; or try the Drunk chicken, a beer-marinated grilled chicken breast, served with truffle marinated portobello mushrooms and topped with red wine reduction.
“We have taken the tenets of Tuscan cooking and put a modern spin on it,” says Hassler, who, in between words, has been checking on the bar, running food, stepping back into the kitchen, and interacting with guests on the floor, all in one purposeful, yet effortless flurry of activity. She has a place to run, so the woman with the ‘been there, done that’ look in her eyes goes back to going there, and doing that. For the best and freshest of Tuscany, come visit Radda Caffe Bar in Scottsdale and prepare to be dazzled with a simple elegance in both style and food.
