Stelline Pastaria
2501 Parmer Lane, Suite 550, 339-8823
Open Monday-Thursday, 11am-10pm;
Friday & Saturday, 11am -11pm
I suppose that everyone’s concept of Austin is the city as it was when
they
first came to it. In my mind, Austin is a city that extends from
Ben
White Boulevard on the South to Anderson Lane on the North to Lake
Austin on
the West and Pleasant Valley on the East – an area wherein I can
identify all
the telephone exchanges by neighborhood. Clarksville native Andrew Lee
defines
his hometown in relatively the same way; yet, he is the proud co-owner
of
Stelline Pastaria, a pleasant family restaurant snugly tucked into the
corner
of a large shopping center at the busy intersection of the MoPac access
road
and Parmer Lane, in what is very surely Austin. Lee and his
partner,
chef Harvey Harris, sometimes refer to the restaurant’s neighborhood as
“the
frontier.” And the gently rolling pastureland between Austin and the
tiny
hamlets of Pflugerville and Round Rock was just exactly that only a few
short
years ago. Today, the neighborhood still has a few pastoral patches, but that
is changing
rapidly. Austin’s burgeoning high-tech businesses continue to build in
the
area, and developers are following suit, providing housing developments
and
shopping malls to accommodate the new arrivals who come to staff them.
Lee and
Harris have one of the few upscale, sit-down family restaurants in
the
immediate area. Lunchtime at Stelline is populated with many high-tech
business
types, and the restaurant evidently has a good, solid reputation in the
chat on
the Net.
Returning to Austin from parts North, a friend and I stopped in at
Stelline
for lunch recently and enjoyed a very satisfying meal. We started with
an
appetizers: Carciofini Fritti ($4.95), perfectly fried artichoke
hearts
in a light, crisp batter flecked with black pepper that are paired with
a
divinely astringent, fresh lime/garlic aioli; and Focaccia Con
Salmone ($4.25), grilled, fresh flatbred with a tasty topping of thin strips of
smoked
salmon, tangy Texas goat cheese, red onions, and capers. The appetizer
portions
here are very generous – plenty enough for two people to split –
which
makes them an incredible bargain considering the reasonable prices.
The Stelline lunch menu features many other bargains. My friend chose
the
Zuppa E Caesar ($4.95), a soup of the day and Caesar salad combo
that
included my favorite Stelline dish so far. The fennel, white bean, and
sausage
soup is definitely in the running for the best bowl of soup I’ve tasted
this
year. The earthy peasant dish is a rich, fennel-scented broth full of
cannelli
beans, carrots, and plenty of hearty sausage; it’s simply marvelous.
Since eggplant is something I love but rarely cook at home, I chose
Focaccia con Melanzane ($5.75), excellent grilled eggplant with
roasted
peppers, caramelized onions and goat cheese on herbed focaccia from the
Panini (sandwich) section of the menu. The hefty sandwich was
served
with a large order of roasted potatoes, a very filling lunch. So
filling, in
fact, that dessert was entirely out of the question. Returning here for
lunch
is definitely on my agenda.
The dinner hour at Stelline is populated with a few couples and a
few
families, and the people with the screaming two-year-old thankfully
left pretty
soon after we arrived. A parent himself, chef Harvey Harris has a kids’
menu
available for the asking, and the simple, child-pleasing dishes have
been
approved by his own children. The grown-up dinner menu is also
value-priced,
which should be another incentive for family dining. There are several
delightful pasta dishes in the range of $5.25 to $10.95, with
vegetarian,
chicken, sausage, and seafood choices paired with a variety of sauces.
There
are a few pizzas, too, in the $6-7 range, plus a fine selection of
entrees.
We began this meal with an order of Calamari Fritti ($3.95), a
large platter of lightly fried, small pieces of octopus served with a
steaming
hot bowl of marinara. After such a large portion of calamari, my friend
opted
for a large Caesar Salad ($3.95) for her entree. While she enjoyed her
salad,
we concluded that it could have used a more dynamic or assertive
dressing to
complement the crisp greens and garlic croutons. I ordered the
Maiale
Affumicato ($10.95), tender medallions of smoked pork tenderloin in
a
marsala wine sauce with sun-dried cherries, roasted garlic, a hint of
molasses,
and cracked red chili. The pork was paired with garlic, mashed
potatoes, and
the vegetable of the day, perfectly saut�ed carrot matchsticks.
Overall,
this was a very pleasing dish, although I honestly detected no hint of
red
chili in the sauce; it could have used that interesting counterpoint.
The homey
mashers could have used a little more garlic for my taste, as well.
Determined to sample desserts this trip, I chose the
Cinnamon-Espresso Gelato
($3.95) with homemade biscotti and Cappuccino ($2.50). The gelato was
exquisite
– the cinnamon and coffee flavors well-matched in a dreamy confection
that
managed to be both light and creamy at the same time. The desserts are
made
in-house, and if the gelato is any indication, the other selections
should be
stellar, too.
Chef Harris honed his considerable Italian cooking skills in a
five-year stint
at Reed Clemmons’ popular downtown eatery, Mezzaluna. At his own
restaurant,
Harris has tailored the menu and the price range to his new
neighborhood;
because the restaurant is still in its infancy, he is still developing
just the
right mix of dishes to attract both the business diners and the
families in
his area. Stelline’s interior is done in black, white, and grey, all
angles and
sleek, shiny surfaces. Especially impressive are the wall sconces,
interesting
metal sculptures with light streaming out of star cutouts. The
service
staff is well-informed and eager to please.
The residents of Austin’s northern high-tech frontier are very lucky
to have a
restaurant the quality of Stelline so close at hand. Considering the
quality of
the food and the reasonable prices, Stelline is worth a trip from
anywhere in
the city for its very own sake.
This article appears in April 28 • 1995 and April 28 • 1995 (Cover).