Enoteca: Not Just that "Downtown Tucson Pizza Place" Anymore - The Dinner Entrees and Desserts Will Surprise You!

Enoteca is the place that I and hundreds of other downtown Tucson workers go to for a quick but delicious slice of pizza. It's right across the street from the Pima County Superior Court, and it's a favorite of employees and jurors alike. Though they serve wine and beer, you don't often see patrons partaking of the beverages in the middle of the day.

But at night, gone is the cafeteria-style pizza vending and magically, Enoteca is a charming cafe with competent entrees and desserts.

After being turned away at the busy Cafe Poca Cosa, my dinner partner and I ambled around downtown Tucson, hoping to stumble into something that we'd never noticed before. Downtown Tucson is like that-- while ambling I discovered a barber shop, thrift store, and patisserie I'd never noticed before (and I've been working in the downtown area for years). Walking toward Superior Court, we saw Enoteca charmingly lit up with tiny white lights, and less densely populated than other area restaurants. Even though I associate Enoteca with a quick slice, we thought we'd give it a try.

Enoteca has a small patio in the front, facing a busy downtown intersection. It was a beautiful night, so we chose the patio, and honestly never noticed the downtown traffic and pedestrian noise the entire meal. Inside, a steel blues guitarist played, providing a nice audio backdrop for those enjoying al fresco dining on the patio.

Enoteca sports a decent wine list-- I'm no sommelier, but my dining partner is a fan of wine and selected an Argentinian for herself and a Riesling for me (my pathetically undeveloped palette can only handle a sweet wine). We were brought garlic bread much like garlic knots, with oil for dipping. I usually try to avoid the bread basket, but these looked good enough to sample, and I did. Decent.

We skipped hors d'oeuvres (thought the descriptions made it hard for us to pass them up) and ordered entrees with accompanying salads. Though the salads were standard-- fresh greens, tomatoes, canned black olives, onions-- the dressings were unimpressive and strictly store-bought. My companion's bleu cheese had nothing special about it, and my "creamy Italian" looked more like gelatinous Italian, and had a sweet undertone that I didn't like.

We didn't have much time to enjoy our mediocre salads, as we were only halfway through them before our entrees arrived. I had the Seven Seas Vesuvius-- linguini with a spicy marinara and shrimp, scallops, calimari, and mussels. My friend had a vegetarian pasta dish, which I can't for the life of me remember the name of. The Seven Seas Vesuvius, however, I can speak of, and it was loaded with seafood. So often I'm disappointed with seafood pasta dishes because of the scant use of seafood, but this dish was brimming with the stuff. The shrimps were huge, and a little overcooked and chewy (as they often are in pasta dishes), but the mussels still in shell were delicious, as were the scallops. The portion size ensured that I'd have a decent meal the next day, and the dish was served hot. Though sending out a hot dish sounds elementary in the restaurant business, I'm constantly surprised at how often I'm presented with a warm meal. And I like my food straight from the heat.

Stuffed though we were, it was a birthday celebration, so dessert was mandatory. We each selected a triple chocolate mousse, and soon discovered that we should have shared a serving. The dark chocolate mousse topped with milk chocolate mousse topped with white chocolate shavings was delicious, but sweet, and hard for one person to finish.

Service was a little spotty, but not terrible. Our waiter seemed new to the waiting game, and was stiff and overly formal. Besides the mid-salad entree presentation, we also had to wait for silverware and condiments, which our waiter forgot about. When it came time for the check, we could see our waiter lollygagging around the back of the restaurant, and I finally gave up on waiting for him to return and went to find him. When we received our check, we found that our desserts had been comped, so all was forgiven. I'm sure a little experience will turn him into a Grade A waiter.

As far as pricing: most entrees are in the mid- to late teen range. I believe my seafood pasta was $18, and my friend's vegetarian pasta entree was $14. I normally cringe when pasta costs more than $10, but allowances must be made for the generous seafood addition to my plate. Per-glass wine was about average-- about $8 a glass for the less expensive wines.

All in all, our meals were better than average, and we would be happy to return.