Cala Lily Café plants fine food and hospitality in Richland

By Ann Haigh

I keep missing out on the Mediterranean mussels -- plump bivalves that other diners rave about. They're offered mostly on weekends and move fast from kitchen to consumption. So I haven't snagged one yet. No matter. There's plenty else to enjoy at Cala Lily Café.

Chef/co-owner Rick " Chico " Rivero fulfills a dream with this 50-seat restaurant in Richland. Hunkered down as it is behind a dreary facade, in a strip mall along Route 8, it can be difficult to spot. Inside, you'll find an interesting kitchen and amiable staff juxtaposed with a decidedly lackluster decor. But the food is good, so just view the setting as a starter home for this promising restaurant.

Rivero runs an intense kitchen. Still, he pops out to greet and schmooze with diners, sometimes sending out chef-gift tidbits -- once a remarkable Scottish smoked salmon, with shrimp tartare and olive focaccia. This savvy chef understands the satisfied-customer business equation, but it's his personality that drives him to please.

Wife Connie and partner Paul Anzaldi, sharing front-of-the-house duties, also extend an honest hospitality. And the servers pick up on these vibes. At the top of your restaurant rating score card, please check: enjoyable experience, nice people, fun.

Anzaldi, a computer-software developer with an interest in wines, worked with purveyors to devise an international list of surprising breadth for such a small, start-up restaurant. He says matching wines to menu items guided his selections, along with attention to a range of prices, addressing different diners' needs. Explore offbeat Southern French and Italian selections at fair prices.

The eclectic menu records Rivero's life experiences. Of Mexican descent and born in Spain, he lived in Germany, France, Texas and Alabama, then learned Italian working for 24 years at Rico's in Ross. Actually, the huge lineup of offerings, so excessive for a 50-seat restaurant, would benefit from trimming. But Rivero says efforts to retire dishes evoke customer complaints. At any rate, such bounteous choices keep things lively for repeat diners.

Rivero enjoys tweaking traditional dishes with personal touches. Outstanding oysters Rockefeller Cala Lily include the requisite Pernod but also a deft dash of pistachio nuts. Pristine raw oysters on the half-shell come not only with cocktail sauce, but also with pico de gallo, a spicy Spanish relish that begets a Rivero version called "pico de Chico" -- nine different chilies, four vinegars, vegetables, potatoes and pureed specialty lentils, all cooked down for hours.

Don't miss the delicious poblano chile relleno, stuffed with Spanish drunken goat cheese, given texture by marinated roasted tomatoes. For an aristocratic appetizer, try blackened duck-breast carpaccio, anointed with Spanish cabernet Sauvignon vinaigrette.

Seasonally designed salads are never afterthoughts. Summer's ripe tomato and good mozzarella salad disappears as soon as the season wanes.

In winter, substitute a satisfying roasted- and grilled-vegetable mix -- asparagus, eggplant, broccoli, red and yellow sweet peppers, zucchini and grape tomatoes -- served chilled with champagne vinaigrette. All vinaigrettes employ housemade herb-infused extra-virgin olive oil. A surcharge brings accompaniments -- roquefort, cabrales, gorgonzola or stilton cheese, or anchovies.

One of the menu's entree sections, "classic specialties," features wiener schnitzel, cannelloni al forno, bouillabaisse and the restaurant's signature: paella de Alicante. I've had it twice, can't cotton to it and am not sure why. Perhaps it's authentic to Rivero's birth town (Alicante), but it's foreign to my expectations.

I'd rather indulge in pistachio-crusted tuna steak with Danish brie embellishment and garlic lemon butter. Or the tender, grilled, bone-in 18-ounce veal rib chop, served with a mushroom duxelle and rich chausser sauce. Regularly a pork loin rib chop, and sometimes a special lamb porterhouse, will boast yummy caramelized fresh fennel, wild mushrooms, red wine and light horseradish cream. Many other seafood, meat and poultry dishes await exploration.

All entrees include a starch and vegetable. The vegetables rotate seasonally. The starch can be risotto, fingerling potatoes or a whimsical crush of smashed potatoes -- from raspberry leek to enchilada.

Bread and desserts are farmed out to private bakers. The soft dinner rolls hail from Friendship Farms in Latrobe. I've had a chocolate sweet and Granny Smith apple pie, but the hot tip steers you to chambord Lily -- a chocolate-covered chocolate-raspberry ice cream ball with chambord sauce.