314 Pasta & Prime

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  This was our second visit and it won't be the last .My filet was great and the pasta with crabmeat tasty and big enough to share. This is the type of place for people like me who sometimes just want a good meal. This was a good meal.And good service, with a smile! What more could you want ? When I heard he opened a meat and pasta place with an endless salad I had to laugh. That couldn't be more different than the previous place.But it works. This time around it is a perfect fit and I am sure when he opens the east end location it will be a perfect fit there.

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  Posted on 08.19.12 Michael B.

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  BACK TO BASICS SOLID COOKING = PAVING THE GOLDEN ROAD TO EAST LIBERTY!!!
  
  Hello Peeps! The life of a domestic goddess has been keeping me chained to my stove lately but I finally broke out tonight with the gang to checkout David Racicot's reboot in Oakmont.
  
  314 Pasta & Prime is an attempt to hit the restart button for Racicot in Oakmont since Notion, his previous gastronomic palace, failed to draw a regular crowd out in Oakmont.
  
  Local Yocals bitched that Notion was too much concept and not enough food AND that's why they are YOCALS! If you wanna dump 20lbs of food down your gullet go to Denny's you dumb ass!
  
  So, from that idea was born Pasta & Prime - a Italian themed pasta and chop house, elevated to the very best that simple perfectly cooked food can be! Here simple elegant preparations of steak and pasta equate to delicious value for the average Joe. This seems to be the perfect combo for the yocals because they filed in one after the next tonite!
  
  Wisely, Racicot is making simple BUT perfect food. Prime steaks cooked perfectly finished with garlic butter. Large portions of perfectly cooked pasta with delicious sauces. Perfectly cooked steakhouse sides that respect the ingredients and bring out their natural flavors!
  
  I had the house made mozzarella which was wonderful with grilled bread doused in a garlic butter. Simple yet flavorful! All tables get an endless family style house salad - again appealing to the value obsessed costumer - my only complaint was that is was a tad bit overdressed. For my main I had the salmon and a side of perfectly cooked asparagus both with garlic butter and lemon - this was perfectly cooked and delicious! Everyone in my gang loved their meals and we all agreed that we'd definitely return with other friends and family.
  
  That's when I realized what Racicot is doing. He is not betraying his amazing talent and star studded career by pandering to the masses PER SAY...he's going back to basics in the most perfect, delicious, respectable way and winning at the yocals game! They are equating dollar value with food on the plate. And I think a prime steak for $28 is a deal (sorry cheep-asses)! So he's getting them in there and they are happy with the perfectly cooked food and the portions and the simple appealing menu AND YOU KNOW WHAT...HE'S BANKING THAT CASH FOR EAST LIBERTY BABY!!!
  
  It's no surprise he's headed to East Liberty to open a second restaurant more in the spirit of Notion and more for the hip, young and willing urban crowd! Although the new location is very hush hush amongst the foodies - Racicot is gonna make it happen with the steady cash/flow of diners at 314 Pasta & Prime!
  
  Brilliant, My Dear Watson!
  
  GO HERE IF:
  1) You think Ruth Chris Steakhouse and Morton's are FUCK FACES and you want a perfectly cooked steak for a competitive price!
  
  2) You have kids and family and are looking for a simple but elegant dinner that kids will eat and parents will love!
  
  3) You want to support the awesomeness that is David Racicot and all the good/potential he has to bring to the Pittsburgh food scene!!!

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  Posted on 07.14.12 Nina P.

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  My review is based on several lunches I have had at the restaurant.  It's a very simple theme, country chic I guess you could call it.  The menu is a collection of 4 or 5 appetizers and 3-4 salads and 4-5 pastas.  You basically pick your pasta noodle, your sauce and then a protein (shrimp, chicken etc.)  
  
  On my first visit, I had the fra diavolo pasta sauce, which wasn't thick with peppers like normal, but smoother and full of the taste you would expect.  Almost as if they blended in the chunkier bits to a nice, silky finish.  The salad bowl was bottomless and could have had a nicer selection of lettuce. (not a fan of iceberg)
  
  On my second visit, I tried an appetizer, and this is where it got good.  I ordered the meatballs.  They were roughly the size of baseballs and there were three of them in sauce with shaved parmesan on top.  Accompanying the appetizer and what REALLY made it great, was the tastiest grilled italian bread that had been brushed with olive oil and garlic rubbed, then grilled.  I could have just made the appetizer and bread a meal, and wound up taking most of my pasta in a take away container.
  
  The place is simple, a little more pricey than the fare you might get at lunch time in Oakmont, but as you can tell, since I've gone back twice now, obviously found it worth it the price.

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  Posted on 04.14.12 Eric F.

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  314 Allegheny River Boulevard was the former site of notion, Chef David Racicot's ultra-modern intimate restaurant.  For those who don't know, Chef Racicot was the head chef at Lautrec at Nemacolin where he was a James Beard finalist and awarded the Mobil 5-diamond award (which is given to less than 40 restaurants in the US and includes famous places like The French Laundry and Alinea).  Suffice it to say, he's the real deal.  With plans to move notion to East Liberty in the middle of 2012, notion has temporarily closed and Chef Racicot has opened an Italian bistro called 314 pasta & prime.
  
  The interior of the restaurant has undergone a significant transformation.  Removal of the bookshelf that separated the entryway from the dining area makes the room appear larger.  The walls have been repainted and decorated to evoke an Italian villa.  Whereas notion was a never bring your kids to kind of place, 314 pasta & prime is very family friendly, most evidenced by a wall painted with chalkboard paint.  There's a big bucket of sidewalk chalk for kids to draw on the wall.  For my 3 and 5-year old, that was the highlight of the evening.
  
  Having just opened less than a week ago, the restaurant is clearly in the early stages.  There was only 1 red wine, but it was a delicious, dry, approachable Montepulciano d'Abruzzo that went very well the cusine (after all, nothing is better with Italian food than Italian wine!).  We started off with a variety of different appetizers.  The fried calamari was lightly breaded and served with marina and a tasty lemon aioli.  The spinach & artichoke fonduta was decadent and blew the doors off any previous version we had of this popular appetizer.  We had the beef and pork meatballs which they said was Chef's grandmother's recipe and the mozzarella which the chef makes in house on a daily basis.  Both were delicious and we easily would have ate more if we didn't have entrees coming.
  
  As you might garner from the restaurant's name, the menu mainly consists of pasta and steaks.  There's a variety of different mix and match pasta and sauce options.  There's also all-you-can-eat house salad that is complementary to the entire table.  There are different chicken preparations as well as lamb chops and swordfish.  For the kids, everything on the menu was available in smaller portions.  Both of my kids had the fusilli with marinara.  My 5-year old proclaimed it delicious and he ate his entire bowl.  I went for a NY strip and it was one of the best steaks I've ever had.  It was rubbed with sea salt and rosemary, cooked to medium-rare perfection, and finished with an herb garlic butter on top.  Each bite was a burst of flavor.  True to their name, 314 pasta & prime only serves USDA Prime steaks which only make up the top 1-2% of steaks.  Normally, you can only find that kind of steak in places like Ruth's Chris or Morton's.  Naturally, USDA Prime steaks are a bit more expensive, but the end result makes it worth every penny, especially if you're a steak-lover.
  
  314 pasta & prime doesn't take reservations, but I suspect that may change once word gets out about how good this place is.  Word has already gotten out a bit because the Saturday night that we visited, the entire dining room was full.  It was a vibrant and energetic atmosphere.  I also loved that they had the Godfather soundtrack playing in the background.  Overall, we had an excellent dinner and plan to be back many times in the future.

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  Posted on 01.22.12 Glenn C.

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