Tree House Italian Grill
2201 College Ave., 443-4200
Lunch, Monday-Friday, 11am-2:30pm; Dinner, Sunday-Thursday, 5-10pm; Dinner, Friday-Saturday, 5-11pm
There are restaurants you visit to see and be seen. Then there are restaurants you visit that are more like comfortable friends that accept you as you are. There are restaurants you visit where you look for the newest dramatic creations of established masters or hot young Turks. Then there are restaurants you frequent when you want familiar, finely executed favorites. There are restaurants you visit where the surroundings are so beautiful, you are transported to another world altogether. Then there are restaurants … the contrast falls apart here.
Tree House Italian Grill is unpretentious, familiar, and gorgeous. It’s just off the über-trendy South Congress boulevard of hipster heaven, but it’s miles away in sensibilities. Which isn’t to say that it isn’t a serious restaurant with ambitious intentions. It’s just that the emphasis is on South, not on Congress. You don’t have to slip into Manolo Blahniks or even black leather to feel right at home here. However, the unrivaled patio makes it an ideal location for a date when the emphasis is on your date, not the other cosmopolitan swilling singles.
It calls itself Tree House Italian Grill, but the restaurant neither resides in a tree or is even predominately a grill. It is Italian, though, as the fragrant perfume of garlic in olive oil that greets you at the door will attest. The tree in question is the 400- to 500-year-old live oak that anchors the patio. It is on the scale of Treaty Oak, before the desecration. Its generous limbs provide such ample shade and heat temperance that even in the dog days of summer, an evening on the patio is utterly sublime and comfortable. Not content to let Mother Nature do all the decorating, the patio has been landscaped lavishly with gazebos, arched bridges, ground cover and flowering plants, climbing vines, and high walls that block the hubbub of the Avenue. The inside, too, is sumptuously done up with ornately painted stucco walls and very dim lighting. We always promise to try dining indoors at Tree House, but our resolve crumbles when we get a glimpse of the marvelous al fresco option. Next time it rains, though …
As for the food: It’s honest, fresh, uncomplicated, and delicious. There are more than 20 pasta options (more if you do the math and extrapolate all the possible combos). On our last visit we sampled penne arrabbiata (broccoli, prosciutto, mushrooms, red chili, and garlic in marinara and basil sauce, $9.50), spaghetti carbonara ($10.25), spaghetti with olive oil and garlic ($5.95), and the fish special of the day (drum with fresh spinach and roma tomatoes, $12.50). We all began with small Caesar salads ($5.95).
The salads were surprisingly authentic and gutsy with a generous dose of anchovy. The croutons betrayed the attention paid to this ubiquitous and usually maligned salad. They were perfectly dried, toasted, and infused with garlic. The salads were nicely dressed and just the correct size to awaken an appetite, not suppress it.
Each of our entrées were delicious and precisely prepared. The pasta was properly al dente, the fresh broccoli’s integrity was maintained, the carbonara was sinful, and the garlic and olive oil sauce was lovely in its simplicity. The fish was a delightful surprise, too — loaded with just-wilted spinach, the gentle acidity of the tomatoes set it off nicely. There’s nothing ground-breaking about the fare, but there is something special about its execution. The wine list, too, is suitable, not surprising. This isn’t the place to discover some obscure Sicilian vintage, but one where you’ll find a very reasonably priced familiar bottle to accompany your meal. A meal that, thanks to its surroundings and careful preparation, becomes a dining experience.
This article appears in September 21 • 2001.