Scott McGehee changed my life.

His Boulevard Bread Company on
Kavanaugh gave me the equivalent of the hunting club and golf club
membership I never wanted. Now I have a pastime. Every Saturday, and
sometimes during the week, I drop by for a loaf, or three, of artisanal
bread to build a meal around. I might add to the bag a luxury
condiment, Tuscan olive oil, exotic cheese, in-season organic produce
and critical raw ingredients like duck fat, buffalo mozzarella and
stock.

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There are more attractions, but other
Boulevard-besotted types know what I mean. Among devotees, there had
been something of a frenzy about the much-delayed Za Za, the “fine
salad and wood oven pizza co.” now open for lunch and dinner in
Lucchesi’s former space in the old Heights theater on Kavanaugh.

McGehee is partnering in the new
venture with John Beachboard, the amiable former musician who learned
cooking from the sink up under McGehee, much as McGehee himself went to
California for on-the-job guidance from the legendary Alice Waters of
Chez Panisse.

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Quickly: Za Za is a five-star winner on
food. But heed this warning: I don’t expect any let up in the crowds
for a good while and there are some service kinks yet to be smoothed.
It’s a sleek little space — modern but not in a harsh, techno way, with
a dining loft and a scattering of patio tables (all with molded plastic
chairs a bit narrow for some of us).

Your eye is immediately drawn to the
tubular wood-encased chimney of the pizza oven, a 700-degree,
hardwood-stoked inferno that can turn out Italian-style pizza (thin
crust, modestly applied toppings) in five or six minutes.

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Za Za is self-serve, confusingly
arranged enough that a greeter is generally on hand to guide you to the
proper station. For pizza and salad (and, at dinner, family-style
grilled steak and shrimp entrees — $38.50 and $32.50 respectively — are
available) you line up by the array of dozens of gorgeously fresh salad
toppings — romaine, arugula, sugar snap peas, corn, olives, etc. etc.
You can name your own ingredients or choose from house standards —
Asian (gingery and crunchy with fried wontons), Santa Fe, Steakhouse,
shrimp, spinach, Greek and Cobb. The last had the usual hard-boiled
egg, blue cheese, chicken, avocado and bacon bits and it was a heaping
pile of salad, mixed and dressed in a big bowl, then plated. It’s a
crunchy bargain for $7.50 and no wonder the Heights ladies who lunch
are rushing the place.

If you’ve ordered a pizza, you get a
number to carry to your table, a la Bonanza Steakhouse. But you won’t
wait long. We got the classic margherita — a smear of sweet San Marzano
canned tomatoes on a perfectly thin, crispy, slightly salty,
oven-blistered crust, with a few discs of fresh mozzarella, some
quartered cherry tomatoes and four fresh basil leaves. It costs $9.50.
It could pass for Italian, with flying colors, in any pizzeria in
Naples.

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Those attuned to American-style pizza,
piled high with cheese and meat, might wonder, “Is that all there is?”
Remember, less can be more. Still, I don’t doubt a few will try Za Za
and say they prefer the ranch dressing-drowned iceberg and
crackery-crust pizzas at a popular pizza parlor nearby. Different
strokes and all.

Pizza choices: The Perilla is a goat
cheese pizza with mozzarella and prosciutto; the classic four seasons
comes with mushrooms, olives, artichoke hearts and prosciutto; the
Atomica, with capers, anchovies, parmesan, mozzarella and tomato, and,
finally, there’s this savory beauty, a house-made Italian sausage pizza
that includes caramelized onions, garlic, bell pepper, arugula, fontina
and parmesan. A pizza with potato and rosemary is a perfect side dish
for the family-style steak and shrimp dinners, cooked on cast iron
skillets in the pizza oven.

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When McGehee does something at
Boulevard he does it right, whether it means heirloom beans and duck
confit for cassoulet or trucking out to Brenda’s for the best tortillas
in the state for Mexican dishes.

The standard is equally high at Za Za.
Choice salad ingredients. A wood-fired oven with real Italian pizza.
And then there’s that gelato line, with the Italian-style ice cream
served at just the right soft consistency, warm enough that the flavors
sing. Getting the imported gelato machine working was one of the
pre-opening holdups.  I’m not sure yet they’ve quite achieved the
ultra-smoothness that distinguishes Italian gelato (a notable exception
was satiny strawberry yogurt). But they are delivering superb flavors.
Raspberry stood out, also limoncello and coconut. Pistachio, chocolate,
tiramisu and banana also beckon. There’s cookies and cream for kids of
all ages. Gelato costs $2.95 for a small and $4.50 for a large, but you
can sample multiple varieties in the same cup. The chocolate-hazelnut
must be good. It’s been sold out every time we visited.

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You fill your own soft drinks and tea,
or grab a bottle of water, beer, etc. Many interesting Italian wines
are sold by the glass (good for the dinner hour, when lingering seems
more in order than at lunch; the wines are priced very modestly to
sell) and there’s also draft beer (Moretti, Fat Tire and Bud Light),
positioned by the serving line for espresso, gelato and other desserts
(caramel turtle brownies, blondies and lemon bars, all for $1.75). That
gooey, buttery blondie? Single richest thing I’ve eaten just about ever.

Serving tip: If you don’t want salad,
just pizza, I was told you could advance straight to the cash register
in front of those ordering salads or order it at the coffe/ice cream
station.

After the rave, these final thoughts:
Za Za couldn’t live up to the impossible pre-opening buzz.
(Surprisingly, given Boulevard’s occasional hiccups, service has been
reasonably good in the face of the onslaught of customers and the
learning curve required to figure out the ordering and delivery
system.)  The restaurant is, after all, not exploring bold new culinary
frontiers. For all the care given to ingredients, preparation and
presentation, a  cynic could still say, accurately, that it’s still
mostly pizza, salad and ice cream.

What’s wrong with that, you ask? Not a thing, friends. Not a single thing.

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Za Za

5600 Kavanaugh Blvd.

661-9292

Quick Bite

Lunch for two: Split a big salad and pizza for
$17. Dinner for three or four or more: Split a 38-ounce ribeye, a big
salad and pizza with potato, around $55, not a bad deal for this
quality. Gelato will tantalize you, but if you really want a rush of
sugar and butter, get a blondie bar.

Hours

10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Thursday and until
10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Sunday hours of noon to 7 p.m. are
expected, but not yet.

Other info

Reasonable prices. Wine and beer. Credit
cards. Loft seating requires a hike up stairs if the handful of tables
on the main level are occupied.

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