Suntree's Tuscany Grill adds German flavor to Italian menu
Tuscany Grill is everything you’d want in a neighborhood restaurant: spacious yet intimate and never too loud, formal enough to have tables clothed under glass, a wood-and-stone look; yet casual enough to admit guests in shorts and have servers who don’t dress up.
Everyone knows the owner, because the owner greets everyone, and if she knows you well enough, will sit a while to talk food. Longtime customers have “their” tables. The wine menu is one of the best-thought in Brevard. Service is excellent.
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The menu, which traditionally has been somewhat Mediterranean in style — to call Tuscany an “Italian restaurant” probably would apostrophize it. It always had a rather eclectic list of offerings, including first-class salads, steaks and its own, atypical versions of classics like veal piccata ($19).
It’s a go-to, a once-every-month-or-so standard and so you get accustomed to what Tuscany has and therefore prepared to order it, right? Wrong. Tuscany now has, among other things, a German chef once featured on Martha Stewart’s TV program, and a whole new twist to the menu apparently is coming down die Straße.
It has made its appearance on FLORIDA TODAY’S Flavor! menu with flaedle (beef broth with pancake), a sauerbraten dinner and Black Forest cake, and it was an auspicious one.
But because the pasta meal Tuscany served, cappellacci con zucca, was magnificent, we’ll look at it first. This is described as “house-made semolina pasta stuffed with roasted butternut squash, pumpkin and parmesan, tossed in an amaretto cream, served with prosciutto crisps, shaved Parmesan and toasted almonds.”
That does it no justice and neither do the photographs. These were rosettes of thin pasta that held dollops of full-flavored squash and pumpkin, beautifully arranged into a larger flower on the plate for a substantial serving. The amaretto did not overpower and the prosciutto crisps were bright, oil-less alternatives to bacon. The almonds and shaved cheese completed the complex favor of the dish and the art with which it was presented.
Gina Pierce Bach, owner of Tuscany Grill, please leave this dish on the winter menu.
As for the sauerbraten, we went in with some doubt; this is a meal She Who Cooks prepares regularly, as our mom did. If you’re fussy about a soufflé, you can be downright evil about a meal like this, here served with traditional spaetzle and red cabbage.
There was nothing to be evil about, because the meal was sturdy, German goodness: thick slices of lean, tender beef with slightly-tart/slightly savory sauce and the spaetzle in which to swirl it, accompanied by Rotkraut with a touch of spice. It. Was. Perfect. The only thing missing was mom, who would have gone crazy over it.
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Wait! How can anyone forget the flaedle? I haven’t had this since my college days in Milwaukee, and this version was identical to that: marvelous in its simplicity, with properly thin, shredded pancakes in beefy broth.
Dessert was Black Forest cake and very much like the traditional German version was it: not terribly sweet, with macerated whole cherries and a little cherry puree over chocolate sponge cake. The only failing we could find with it — with the meal — was that it was covered with whipped topping, which it didn’t deserve. After that meal, big deal.
Never mind. That’s it. Just go.
Tuscany Grill
Four stars
Address: 7640 N. Wickham Road, Melbourne
Hours: 4 to 9 p.m. Sundays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Fridays; 5 to 10 p.m. Saturdays
Call: 321-757-7220
Online:tuscanygrill.net
WiFi: Yes
Other: Full bar and wine list; live entertainment at piano; specialty coffee beverages; catering; private rooms for special events.
Flavor!
FLORIDA TODAY Flavor! month continues through Oct. 31, with three courses available for $35 per person. For additional information and a listing of restaurants and menus, go to http://appsrv.flatoday.net/diningmonth/flavor
About our reviews
Restaurants are rated on a five-star system by FLORIDA TODAY’s reviewer. The reviews are the opinion of the reviewer and take into account quality of the restaurant’s food, ambiance and service. Ratings reflect the quality of what a diner can reasonably expect to find. To receive a rating of less than three stars, a restaurant must be tried twice and prove unimpressive on each visit. Each reviewer visit is unannounced and paid for by FLORIDA TODAY.
Five Stars: Excellent. A rare establishment to which you’d be proud to take the most discerning diner.
Four Stars: Very good. Worth going out of your way for. Food, atmosphere and service are routinely top notch.
Three Stars: Good. A reasonably good place with food and service that satisfy.
Two Stars: Fair. While there’s nothing special about this establishment, it will do in a pinch.
One Star: Not recommended. Don’t bother.
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