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To hear Mike Pijanowski describe it, Nine on Nine isn't just a good place to have dinner; it is also quest to bring culinary perfection to Pittsburgh.
There are lots of good restaurants in town, he explains, but it seems that they tend to reach a certain level of quality then level off. That’s a trap that Pijanowski, the 32-year-old entrepreneur who also own the DejAVu Lounge in the Strip District, plans to avoid.
“I opened this restaurant because I wanted a place to eat in Pittsburgh that would have that continued commitment to quality” says the Steel City native.
It’s a goal that’s being undertaken in a casual, Pittsburgh kind of way — upscale, fine dining without the attitude, as Pijanowski puts it.
“You can come here in pretty much anything but a ballcap and not feel out of place,” he says. “And we’re doing this at reasonable prices.”
The French fusion menu was crafted by another Pittsburgh native, executive chef Richard DeShantz, who brings 16 years of fine dining experience, having worked at places from the Hyehold in Moon Township to restaurants in Colorado, Miami and Chicago. He turned down a job opportunity in Martha’s Vineyard, New York – the summer playground of the East Coast rich and famous – to return to Pittsburgh (longtime friends with Pijanowski, they have also teamed up to open Café Richard in the Strip).
Each city has its unique prejudices and preferences when it comes to food, DeShantz says. Though a hometown guy, he says he’s still trying to get a feel for exactly what Pittsburghers want in an entrée.
“So far, I’ve toned it down a bit from what I used to do in some other places,” he says, a move that seems to be working, based on the overwhelmingly positive feedback he’s gotten thus far.
From his years in the business, he’s learned a two-part formula for great food and restaurant success, he says.
The first thing is to have great ingredients, with the emphasis on great. “We are constantly looking for the best we can find,” he says.
That means looking beyond Pittsburgh and even beyond North America for ingredients. The carnaroli rice comes straight from Italy. The barramundi is shipped in from Australia. The Honolulu Fish Company flies in much of the restaurant’s other seafood overnight.
In recent weeks, the pair has traveled to Toronto, Washington D.C. and New York in a continuing effort to visit the continent’s top restaurants in an effort to better their own.
“We’re still searching out the best ingredients,” DeShantz says.
Even the teak wood floor was imported after a trip to Costa Rica.
The second thing is technique, he says, and with that comes an elegant simplicity. It’s a philosophy of food that’s reflected in the restaurant’s subdued shades-of-blue color scheme, created by Courtney Lynch, of the design firm, the CP Group. The menu, too, is an exercise in tasteful understatement. Consisting of a clear and concise list of entreés, followed by the ingredients and prices, it’s notably lacking the flowery praise and exotic-sounding descriptions prominent on some upscale restaurant menus.
“I don’t like it when chefs use words like ‘macerated’ or ‘infused,’” DeShantz says. “I like to keep it simple and explain what you’re getting, so that you can sit and order and feel comfortable.”
Thus, the Sauté Barramundi is listed as just that, belying the artistry that goes into its preparation. The same goes for the Jameson Rack of Lamb and the other dishes that have brought capacity crowds almost every night during the restaurant’s first two months. On a recent and otherwise quiet Tuesday, walk-in customers were being turned away at 6 p.m. because the place was already booked for the night.
The restaurant is really only at one-third of its eventual capacity, Pijanowski explains. He and DeShantz say that Nine on Nine is a work in progress, from the menu to the interior design, the goal is continual improvement, to avoid the atrophy that Pijanowski feels has affected some other restaurants. By December, Nine on Nine will open a lounge in an adjacent room, and a rooftop deck should be in place sometime next year.
With Pittsburgh expecting a surge of Downtown residents in the next few years, Pijanowski envisions Nine on Nine as a sort of crown jewel in the section of Penn Avenue that’s quickly becoming the city’s Restaurant Row, complemented by August and Henry’s, Cafe Zao, Sonoma Grille and other upscale and trendy dining spots popping up.
“We’re still new, but we can really make this something special,” he says.
Nine on Nine is open for lunch Monday-Friday from 11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m. Dinner hours are Tuesday-Saturday from 5-10 p.m. Reservations are strongly recommended. For more information, call 412-338-6463. •
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