DINING REVIEW: Deli gets all dressed up

Quick, think of a local restaurant with an extensive, creative beer and wine list, a delectable small menu of sandwiches, salads and a few entrees, shady al fresco tables along the street and (the Holy Grail of urban dining) ample free parking.

Chances are you are not thinking of Black Tie Gourmet, the little catering company on West Colorado Avenue that for five years has also operated a small deli, but you’ll find all this and more at this easily overlooked little eatery.

Owner and chef Derek Howard recently changed the name of the deli to Terrazza Grill and gave the menu a slightly Mediterranean makeover.

Most of Howard’s business is still in catering, but Terrazza shows he can also run a mean cafe.

The inside of this west-side house is cheery but a little cramped. The best advice is to take advantage of the shady street-side dining while the weather is still warm.

At lunch you can’t go wrong with the Black Tie Burger ($7.25), a half-pound of juicy, ground round that’s hand-formed and cooked to pink perfection, then served with good, gooey cheddar on a sturdy, chewy ciabatta roll. We dressed it up with bacon and avocado from the deli menu.

Just as good, and generously proportioned, is the Grilled Pesce Insalata ($11), a fillet of blackened tuna or salmon set in a wreath of spring greens with cucumber, olives, tomato, egg, avocado, sprouts and sun-dried cranberries. The heaping salad almost spills over the plate.

Deli sandwiches — such as the Bistecca Panini ($9), with sliced, medium-rare roast beef and provolone with roasted peppers, black olives, lettuce, onion, tomato and pesto mayo on grilled ciabatta — all use Thumann’s all-natural meat, and you can taste the quality. Too often roast beef cold cuts bear only passing resemblance to the real thing. Here they taste unmistakably like an expertly cooked steak.

Dinner is where the biggest changes have come — and where the restaurant has the most potential and the most challenges.

The menu is new, and consists of a dozen or so bistro-style choices, including steak, shrimp and sea bass.

The tables are flawlessly set, and the glassware has the simple elegance that lets diners know they could be in for a treat once they order.

The wine list includes more than 40 reasonably priced and interesting bottles ($21-$43), all available by the glass. Terrazza also offers an extensive list of good bottled beers.

A fabulous way to get a taste for the restaurant would be a few glasses of sauvignon blanc on the patio with an order of the mussels ($8.95) in a classic French garlic, shallot and white wine sauce. These are not the big, mealy, green-lipped mussels flown in from the Pacific, but smaller, darker Atlantic mussels — and they’re wonderful.

Dinner entrees proved not as consistently impressive. Some dishes delighted. Veal Picatta ($12.95) — with tender, pounded veal cutlets in a bright lemon and caper sauce — was excellent. The small dinner salad that accompanies each entree was an enticing mix of spring greens with fresh vegetables.

But a pepper steak ($14.95) with a brandy glaze had too much flavor, and a sea bass fillet ($14.95) too little.

Most disappointing was that all dishes came with the same two sides: blanched green beans with almonds, and fettuccine with marinara sauce — both were fairly good but left me feeling as if I were at a banquet, not a fairly nice restaurant.

Terrazza Grill can survive in the same kitchen as a catering business, but only if the catering side does not show in the dining room.

Terrazza Grill
★★★
(Fab lunch, spotty dinner)
Address: 1005 W. Colorado Ave.
Contact: 487-1933, coloradoeats.com/blacktie
Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturdays; 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Sundays
Entrees: $8-$16
Vegetarian: Yes
Alcohol: Beer and wine
Credit cards: Yes