Beneath new possession.
For devotees of a selected restaurant, these three phrases are sufficient to stir apprehension, carrying with them the specter of undesired adjustments to the menus and a decline in service.
Followers of Joe’s Pasta Home, one in all Rio Rancho’s oldest and most beloved eating places, probably felt a few of that unease final fall, when longtime homeowners Joe and Kassie Guzzardi offered the restaurant to native businessman Nadeem Shariff and his household.
Over the course of 23 years, the Guzzardis had constructed Joe’s into Rio Rancho’s most beloved restaurant. A non secular cousin to the pasta-and-red-sauce locations of Joe Guzzardi’s native New York, the restaurant provided Italian immigrant meals with recipes derived from Joe’s Sicilian grandmother. It was a spot the place the homeowners wished you to really feel, as they said on the web site, “like you’re becoming a member of us for the normal Italian Sunday dinner in our dwelling.”
No surprise, then, that Shariff and his household have been fast to announce that little at Joe’s would change beneath their management. In a letter posted on the restaurant’s Instagram web page, the Shariff household promised to keep up the “authenticity, high quality and traditions of Joe’s Pasta Home.” That included retaining employees and leaving the menu largely untouched.
4 months into their tenure, it seems to be just like the Shariffs are adhering to that promise. Each the menu and décor at Joe’s seemed largely the identical and acquainted faces staffed the place throughout a latest lunch go to.
Joe’s Pasta Home occupies a freestanding constructing on the fringe of Nation Membership Heart, a strip mall on Southern dominated by the cavernous Elevate Trampoline Park. Inside is heat and comfortable. A trompe l’oeil portray of an Italian coastal scene decorates one wall. The hearth burning within the nook fire was appreciated on the chilly, windy day.
The lunch menu is straightforward, with a number of appetizers and salads and a handful of pasta dishes priced at $12 to $13 – a number of {dollars} extra for shrimp dishes. There’s a separate dinner menu with steaks, salmon, pork chops and a better number of pasta dishes. As with lunch, costs for dinner are fairly affordable, with most entrees checking in at beneath $25.
I used to be there for lunch with my pal from north New Jersey whose information of Italian meals is unimpeachable. The meal began off with some good Italian bread, its mushy sponginess excellent for sopping up tomato sauce. It was served with butter and seasoned olive oil. Lacking was the tomato topping they used to place out with the bread.
The 5 appetizers on the lunch menu begin at $6.95 for the Tortellini & Meatball Soup and run as much as $11.95 for the Fried Calamari. The calamari, introduced in corkscrews slightly than rings, was a bit rubbery, however the crisp, peppery breading and dip duo of tomato sauce and herby, garlicky pesto cream sauce redeemed the dish.
There are 4 salads on the menu costing $9 to $10. The fixings within the Backyard Salad ($9) – combined greens, cucumber slices and some grape tomatoes – have been vibrant and recent, though the shredded carrots described on the menu have been lacking. It got here with a really tart and thick ranch dressing.
Spaghetti and Meatballs are the true bellwether of an Italian restaurant, and Joe’s model ($12) seemed appetizing, a tangle of thick noodles beneath vivid pink tomato sauce dusted with pecorino Romano. The sauce, stripped to its tomato essence, was good, however the pasta was a bit previous al dente and the meatballs, a fine-grained mixture of beef and pork had each the scale, and, sadly, the density of golf balls.
The Parmigiana dishes are available in a alternative of hen ($13) or eggplant ($12). The eggplant model arrived beneath a mound of sauce and melted mozzarella. The eggplant was robust and the crispy coating didn’t stick with it. It was served with a facet of spaghetti and tomato sauce.
The perfect dish we had was the Manicotti Bolognese ($13), pasta tubes filled with ricotta and herbs beneath a layer of meaty sauce. The candy and creamy ricotta filling balanced the acid of the Bolognese, and the slow-cooking of the sauce left the meat very tender.
For dessert, we grabbed a few cannolis ($6.50) to go. These have been excellent. Numerous chocolate chips studded the candy ricotta filling and the fried pastry casing stayed crisp even after a few hours within the fridge.
Whereas the meals was a combined bag, the service was stellar. The server, a veteran of the place, was pleasant and attentive, checking in on us typically and maintaining our waters crammed.
Gluten-free choices are restricted to a number of the proteins on the dinner menu and unbreaded variations of the hen and eggplant parmigiana. If the brand new proprietor desires to make a change, he would possibly begin by ordering a number of bins of gluten-free pasta.
The departure of Joe and Kassie Guzzardi has left some have some huge footwear to fill. My expertise means that the custom of nice service continues at Joe’s, even when the meals isn’t on the extent of M’tucci’s Moderno, the opposite distinguished Italian restaurant in Rio Rancho.