RESTAURANTS: The tapas at Capi’s make more out of less
By Jack Schnedler
Tapas at Capi’s include Fried Green Tomatoes & Shrimp Remoulade
(foreground), Artisan Cheese Sampler (upper left) and Tuna Tataki.
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LITTLE ROCK — Transfer Mies van der Rohe’s famous architectural dictum that “less is more” to restaurant parlance, and the end result could well be tapas.
Tapas - small portions meant to be ordered a few dishes at a time as appetizers or even full meals - are still a relatively novel concept in central Arkansas, where the dining-out mantra tends to be “more is more.” (They can be found as part of the fare at Ciao Baci and Rumba! Revolution!)
Now tapas, whose homeland is Spain, are gaining a higher profile here as the heart of the menu at month-old Capi’s, the breezy new endeavor of Trio’s owners Capi Peck and Brent Peterson.
Tucked into the Pleasant Ridge Town Center space previously occupied by defunct Imagine a Restaurant, Capi’s boasts a distinctive piece of interior decor. Dominating the bar, it’s the eye-catching sculpted skeleton of a post oak tree rescued from razing and hewed by woodworker artist Keith Norton. It actually has been given a name: Stella (from Quercus stellata, the Latin designation).
Capi’s menu arrangement is distinctive as well, divided into Small Plates, Salad Plates, Sandwich Plates (lunch only), After Five and After Five Sides.
Those Small Plates are the tapas, which Peck describes as “a grazing experience” and “my favorite way to eat.” She understands that tapas “are going to be a bit of an education around here. Some people just want a piece of meat and a big ol’ baked potato.”
Capi’s first-month diners have included a lot of Trio’s regulars, but Peck believes “the concepts of our two restaurants are different enough that they won’t be robbing each other of customers.”
Peck says she first wanted to call the new restaurant Snackatorium, the whimsical name of the hybrid high-school cafeteria and theater in the movie comedy Hamlet 2, which played here a few months back.
But she and Peterson, along with managing partner Robin McCreight, settled on Capi’s.
Wife Marcia and I, aided by two friends on one occasion, sampled eight of the 14 Small Plates created by executive souschefs Shanna Birdwell and RyanLandry. Almost all the tapas served during three dinners and a lunch were winners, with the only thumbs-down going to the Sea Scallop Ceviche ($7), whose thinly sliced and marinated bivalves had an uninviting texture.
The most magnificent of the tapas was the Artisan Cheese Sampler, the menu’s priciest item at $15 and meant for two to four people.
Arrayed on a sleek rectangular platter, it featured three flavorful cheeses (Humboldt Fog chevre, a two-toned cheddar and an aged gouda). The cornucopia of accompaniments included sliced Granny Smith apples, purple grapes, port-soaked apricots and cherries, fig preserves, tapenade, lahvosh flatbread and ciabatta (from Silvek’s, like most of Capi’s breads).
Marcia and I turned the Artisan Cheese Sampler into two courses, coping with the rushed arrival of that evening’s main dishes while we’d only half consumed the generous cheese presentation. We set the remainder aside and returned to it later as de facto dessert.
The most artful of the tapas was the Tuna Tataki ($9), a miniature work of architecture that evoked a two-story pagoda - with flat, crunchy fried wontons serving as floor and ceiling. The raw tuna was pristinely fresh, the avocado salad worked well as a complementary component, and the wasabi/soy drizzle provided zing without overwhelming the other tastes.
Also superb was the Bruschetta ($5), whose ingredients maychange from day to day. Our plate held two small circles of bread topped by beef tenderloin with horseradish aioli, plus two others garnished with mushrooms and goat-cheese pesto.
As Marcia observed, “These are great, because the chef isn’t afraid of using tastes. If it’s horseradish aioli, you definitely get the horseradish. But the tastes don’t overwhelm the dishes. The beef slices shone through and were melt-in-the-mouth tender.
The pesto was a delicious complement, but you still knew the mushrooms were the main ingredient.” Thumbs went up as well for the Fried Green Tomatoes & Shrimp Remoulade ($10), the True Blue Crab Cake ($7) and the Calamari Picante ($7).
One of our companions, a professed connoisseur of cheese dips, gave a positive nod to Ryan’s Queso Fundido ($8 and intended for two people) - a mix of melted jack and goat cheeses infused with roasted poblano chilis and honey drizzle. “It’s notyour standard Arkansas cheese dip, for sure,” he said.
Even though all but two of the tapas are priced under $10, we discovered that it’s possible to run up more of a bill than you might expect by ordering one of this and one of that and one of yet another little dish.
The five After Five dishes, the closest things to a main course at Capi’s, are pretty darned petite by Arkansas standards. One, in fact, is called the Petite Beef Tenderloin Celeste ($12). It’s a four-ounce grilled filet dressed up with a port wine demi-glace and herbed butter. Marcia gave it a plus mark.
The Sea Scallops Stella ($11), described on the menu as a “trio of large scallops,” to my eye were of modest proportion.
The taste was invigorating, thanks to the sauce.
A medley of vanilla beans, vanilla vodka cream and Peruvian pink salt, it gave an intriguing tinge of sweetness to the tender scallops.
The Truffled Vegetable PotPie ($10) left me shrugging;
there was too much puff-pastry crust for my taste. The dish’s best feature was the textural contrast provided by the toasted hazelnuts.
One After Five item each evening is a seafood special. Once it was a superlative preparation of Sablefish ($14) in a miso broth. This delicate wild species, seldom seen on Arkansas menus, comes from Alaskan waters and is also known as black cod or butterfish.
Th e A fte r Five s co m e unaccompanied, so we fleshed out a couple of the meals with After Five Sides. We thought the Catalan Spinach ($3) fell short by being too watery and rather bland.
Notably better were the Wild Mushroom Risotto ($4.50), Pacific mushrooms with a white wine infusion; the Magical Mushrooms ($5), portobellos with asparagus, pasilla chilis, olive oil, thyme and sherry;
and the Fried Green Tomatoes ($4.50), thinly sliced and virtually grease-free.
As is the case at Trio’s, Capi’s tempts diners with desserts flourished on a tray at each table.
We succumbed one evening to the Key Lime Pie ($5.50) and were happy with its intense flavor and top-flight grahamcracker crust.
In step with the Spanish roots of tapas, we drank wines from that Mediterranean nation off a list as astutely chosen as the one at Trio’s. The red Garnacha de Fuego ($25), as well as the white Vina Godeval ($27) and Raimat Chardonnay, ($25), gave pleasure.
Service was mainly cordial and knowledgeable, although we were brought a Capi’s Caesar Salad ($5) at one dinner rather than the Ensalada de la Casa with chipotle Caesar dressing that we’d ordered.
The rushed arrival of our second courses while we were still engrossed in the Artisan Cheese Sampler echoed the toorapid pacing at lunch, when the dessert tray materialized while Marcia was still enjoying her Tuna Tataki.
Less may well be more, in portion sizing or architectural detail.
In these instances, however, we would have welcomed more in the way of time between courses - because almost all the dishes deserved to be savored fully.
Capi’s Address: 11525 Cantrell Road (Pleasant Ridge Town Center) Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday Cuisine: Tapas, salads, other light fare Credit cards: AE, D, V, MC Alcoholic beverages: Full bar Wheelchair accessible: Yes Carryout: Yes Reservations: Yes (501) 225-9600, www.capisrestaurant.com.
This article was published December 5, 2008 at 3:11 a.m.
Weekend, Pages 59 on 12/05/2008
