Getting to the root of Italian dining
By Jennifer Vento
Seacoast Online - Tuesday, October 15, 2002

Ryan Cram, left, sous chef and Jason Bowmar, garade manager, begin to prepare for the upcoming dinner hour at Radici in Portsmouth. Staff photo by Carrie Niland

PORTSMOUTH - It takes five hours to make a batch of restaurant Radici’s tomato sauce.

The ingredients include stewed tomatoes, carrots, onions and celery but no dried herbs. Its secret?

"I can’t tell you," said Radici Executive Chef Stephen Diehl. "I came up with my own sauce that no one would have. It’s an old world style tomato sauce."
Diehl, more commonly known as "Reno," mixes a little tradition in with his own love for food as he prepares such sauces and specialties for Congress Street’s newest Italian restaurant.

Radici, which means "roots" in Italian, opened Sept. 25. The idea behind it is to bring people together around good food, reasonable prices and a relaxing atmosphere.

"We wanted to create a very warm, comfortable environment for people," said manager Kevin Powell.

The restaurant’s walls, which formerly held The Crazy Cat Lounge and, before that, The Elvis Room, now boast sage green paint and soft, dim white lighting. Its menu offers a variety of Italian salads, pastas and vegetarian dishes.

Diehl, a Portsmouth native, starts cooking around 11 a.m. each day. His pasta specialties include chicken and sausage cacciatore with fettucine, for $15.95; shrimp, scallop or monkfish scampi with linguine, for $15.95 and vegetarian dishes, such as tuscan grilled vegetables and pasta fajiole.
The restaurant makes a special effort to cater toward vegetarians, offering five vegetarian dishes a night as well as guaranteeing meat-free sauces and egg-free pasta.

Diehl, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, said he’s constantly concocting new ideas for the evening’s specials. On a recent Friday evening, he offered up a charbroiled swordfish, served over a puttanesca sauce.
"It’s kind of spiritual for me," Diehl said, "You get into a rhythm. You have fun with food."

Radici is the third restaurant on the block operated by Jay McSharry. McSharry, who opened Jumpin Jay’s Fish Café in May of 2000, and followed with the Raw Bar in April of this year, acquired the space vacated by The Crazy Cat Lounge and spent $100,000 in renovations to create the concept of "Italy today" in Portsmouth.

Radici’s focus, he said, is to offer a more reasonably priced menu than Jumpin’ Jay’s to a more universal palette - without the wait. Unlike Jumpin’ Jay’s, Radici does not take reservations, but will operate on a first come, first served basis. Its goal is to keep entree prices under $15, though a few items on the menu - mostly seafood - pop slightly over that.
"I think we’ve slowly been able to build a name of good food and service," McSharry said. "It’s still the same high quality. There’s no reason not to strive for the best service and food you can."

McSharry said he chose to open Radici at the Congress Street location for two reasons. He couldn’t find anything else in town that offered what he felt was a reasonably priced Italian menu - with a focus on vegetarian dishes that don’t all include pasta - and he wanted to continue drawing the city’s night life farther uptown.

"I felt it would bring synergy to this area of town," McSharry said.
His goal is to establish Radici with 38 seats, plus a bar. In the coming months, he hopes to add an additional 40 seats and a late-night music series in the room formerly occupied by Elvis Room bands.
Perhaps the most characteristic feature of Radici is the collection of expansive photographs framed on the walls, which depict small Italian shops and eateries, as well as Italian landmarks, monuments and country views.
The photographs, taken by Seacoast Newspapers Chief Photographer Deb Cram, represent a candid, modern Italy. Cram took more than 2000 photographs on a recent trip to Italy. More than 50 are currently on display.
"Deb is the artwork," McSharry said. "She is my decorating budget."
In addition to the menu and the artwork, Radici’s bar offers 38 different wines, including Tiefenbrunner Pinot Grigio and Bertani Due Uve. Powell said that serving the traditional wines is an attempt to further educate people on Italian wines and ways.

"We want people to understand what the roots are all about," he said.
Radici opens at 5 p.m. daily. For information, call 373-6464.

<back to News Reviews