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Boulder Restaurant Profile | ALBA RISTORANTE
The change from Full Moon Grill to Alba Ristorante was precipitated when the restaurant was displaced from the space it occupied for 15 years, diagonally across the parking lot from McGuckin Hardware in The Village shopping center. Sunflower Market leased the space formerly occupied by the Village 4 movie theater, and it needed Full Moon Grill’s location for its loading dock. At that point the dominoes started tumbling, says Rick Stein, who owns the restaurant with his wife, Susan. For starters, the move gave him the opportunity to correct a name that never quite fit. “I thought it was a good name when we chose it,” Stein says with a shrug, “but people thought we were a Chinese restaurant.”
Finally, Alba is the white-truffle capital of the world. The fall truffle market, held this year from Sept. 29 to Nov. 11, brings restaurateurs, gastronomes and producers from around the world to sample, sniff and purchase the precious tartufo bianco, which sold last season for upward of $2,800 a pound. The Steins, who have traveled widely in Italy, want their Alba to reflect the warm hospitality and explosive flavors they experienced in the trattorias of Piemonte. “The name Alba better reflects what we do,” Stein says. The Cherries Stay In trade for the former Full Moon space, shopping center landlords offered part of the outlying building once occupied by Canterbury Oak & Brass. It boasted the best of both worlds: better visibility and access from the street, plus a wide sidewalk that Rick and Susan Stein began to envision as a perfect 40-seat patio, with a pergola, fountain, fireplace, and walls to screen out parking-lot views and the harsh western sun. The vacant space also enabled Chef Greg Keesy and Sous Chef Eric Lee to weigh in on proper kitchen design. For 15 years, at Full Moon Grill, some of Boulder’s most inspired fine dining came out of a kitchen built for the Burger Bar of Boulder. “It was set up completely wrong,” Rick Stein says, “but we made it work.” The chefs also collaborated on a menu that gently tweaked the Full Moon Grill’s offerings. It includes many old favorites, including pan-seared duck breast with dried cherry sauce, and the popular crispy polenta and grilled pear appetizer, served with a dolce latte Gorgonzola sauce. Plates of the duck breast have been flying out of the kitchen since the dish was introduced “six, maybe seven years ago,” says Stanford. An attempt to update it with fresh peach sauce did not go over well. “It was great, it was delicious, but people cried out for cherries.”
While the restaurant was in transition, chefs and management brainstormed new dishes. Relaunching in late August, at the height of the Colorado growing season, gave Keesy and Lee the perfect palette of ingredients to show off: fresh vegetables and herbs, summer fruit and tender greens. The Alba kitchen works with local food producers, including Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy, Cure Farms and Hazel Dale mushrooms. “We hit up the farmers’ market, looking for things that are seasonal and fresh,” Keesy says. Pesto-stuffed wild Alaskan salmon, served with local corn and fresh tomatoes, is one example. “We’re not going crazy with new flavors, but doing familiar things and doing them well,” says Lee. Keesy likes to experiment with free-form ravioli, in which ingredients such as sweet peas, mint and morels are placed, but not sealed, between sheets of fresh housemade pasta and served over mâche with a lemon beurre blanc. Adds Stein: “We like to keep things simple. As the saying goes, sometimes the most important ingredient in a dish is the one you leave out.” While the Alba space is larger than the restaurant’s original location, the Steins opted to go for more elbow room rather than greater capacity. About 60 may be seated in the dining room, at larger tables and banquettes with more space between them. An antique chandelier and an 8-foot pine dining table from Europe anchor the high-ceilinged room. Warm butter-yellow walls, white wainscoting and large mirrors give it a classic yet contemporary feel. An expanded bar area offers both booth and counter seating, as well as a bar menu with small dishes and pizzas.
The wine list, always a strong suit at Full Moon, expands with more Piemontese wines. A certified sommelier, Stanford loves to help guests pair wines with their menu choices. Alba Ristorante’s wine list includes 14 of Piemonte’s famous red wines, from the aromatic Vietti Barbera d’Alba 2004 to an elegant 1996 Angelo Gaja Barbaresco. Eight red wines and nine whites from around the world are offered by the glass. Because the Steins also own Chautauqua Dining Hall, most of the Full Moon staff spent the summer working there before making the transition back to Alba. Thus, Full Moon fans will see plenty of familiar faces—including those of the Balinese pig statues that formerly graced the old location. Look for them, Stanford says, on the wall that separates the dining room from the bar.
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