My spouse and I ate dinner at Cure on a Saturday evening in
late September 2017. We booked our table online using the Open Table
reservation system; weekend reservations are recommended. Cure is open for
dinner on Wednesdays through Mondays (closed Tuesdays).
Cure opened in December 2011 on
the street level of a building at the corner of Butler Street and 54th
Street in Lawrenceville. It occupies the corner building of a row of homes that
house shops and other bars and restaurants (including Allegheny Wine Mixer,
Full Pint Wild Side Pub, and Happy Bellies, with Pusadee's Garden across the
street). Parking is available on surrounding streets.
The long and somewhat narrow but
high antique tin-ceilinged space offers cozy seating at tables, some of which
share a long wooden banquette bench on one side. A tiny bar offers additional
seating for about four patrons; the bar seems to be utilized for overflow
dining rather than drinking while waiting for a table. A few steps up from the
main dining room is the open kitchen, which diners must pass through/by to
reach the restrooms. (For that reason, the restaurant cannot be considered
completely handicap-accessible.) Dining room décor includes the aforementioned
original ceiling and reclaimed barn wood walls. Clever pig memorabilia offers
an amusing detraction, and meat hooks as coat hangers keep with the restaurant
theme.
Chef-owner Justin
Severino has been nominated several times as Best Chef Mid-Atlantic by the
James Beard Foundation, and he has won a similar award twice from Food &
Wine magazine. He graduated from the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute and previously
worked at downtown restaurants including Eleven and Elements, and for several
renowned California restaurants including Manresa. Chef also co-owns and
operates nearby Spanish restaurant Morcilla with his wife Hilary. Both Cure and
Morcilla have received awards/nominations from James Beard, Bon Appetit, and Pittsburgh
Magazine. The Severinos also operate newly opened Superior Motors in Braddock (and
previously, the now-shuttered Salt of the Earth in Garfield and Union Pig &
Chicken in East Liberty).
Cure serves locally-sourced seasonal contemporary cuisine
with a Mediterranean flavor and a focus on meat and charcuterie. The Cure menu
is extensive, and everything sounded appealing, so we decided to splurge on the
multi-course $85 per person tasting menu so that we could sample the
restaurant’s best dishes, which included the following:
- Six mostly delicious savory appetizer “snacks”, delivered in groups of three, including beef tartare lettuce wraps, a perfect oyster (with bright-tasting citrus mignonette), trout rillettes, charcuterie (including blackstrap ham and lardo [we liked the rye crumbs and radishes, but not the whipped back fat]), Lyonnaise potato, and coddled egg.
- Salad (while delicious, beautiful, and plentiful, we have never had a salad as part of any tasting menu)
- Ravioli (this was our favorite dish, with cheese, corn, and walnuts)
- Pork tenderloin (with sauerkraut, mustard, and potatoes)
- Bruleed goat/chevre cheese (served with flatbread and cherries and sesame tahini sauce, we appreciated the idea of this unique cheese course more than the combination of its flavors)
- Five dessert “snacks”, including a pizzelle, strawberry gelee pate de fruit, macaron, rosemary madeleine, and blueberry ice cream with peach preserve (the last two items were our favorite part of this course)
Cure was on our “bucket list” of Pittsburgh dining, and our
meal was an overall success.
