Being a food blogger gets you at the cool kids’ table at restaurant openings. Pele’s Wood Fire treated a motley crew of us just before it opened to rave reviews on New Year’s Day in Riverside at the corner of Park & King Streets. Pele’s ushers in a new kind of Italian-American cuisine that is so much more than pizza.
Being a food blogger means one eats, writes, posts. Smart restaurants owners know that treating a group of foodies to an exclusive seven course dinner will get their fingers moving and the Internet a buzz, and in return people at their tables. We don’t just like to eat. We like to write about our experiences.
Our seven course meal lasted more than four hours. Some of that time was spent photographing the food once it hit the table and before anyone was allowed to dig in. This is that rare event when everyone at the table has their heads in their phones. And that’s a good thing. We tweeted and posted to Facebook photos and info as we ate.
Our dinner at Pele’s Wood Fire was on a Thursday night, so when I got home later that night, I lay like a beached whale in a food coma and wasn’t about to try to write for Food Porn Friday. I’d give myself the week.
Here are my favorites in order of how much I liked them:
Mushroom Formaggi Pizza
Garlic ricotta, roasted seasonal mushrooms, fontina, fresh thyme
The pizza takes two minutes to stretch and top, then only 90 seconds to bake in the wood-fired ovens at 1400 degrees.
Truly the best pizza I’ve ever had.
Black Pepper Spaghetti Carbonara 
Smoked bacon (pork bellies) , Parmesan, tomato, egg-yolk cream
This dish was in tight contention for my favorite. I took two helpings which was a big mistake considering steak was next.
Iced Seafood
Raw oysters, Mayport shrimp,
Dungeness crab
While the seafood was great, the cocktail sauce was out of this world. It had just a little something extra in it that made it magnificent, but alas they wouldn’t reveal what it was.
Arugula and Brie
Arugula and sweet grass dairy brie, red pepper, roasted onion vinaigrette, truffle honey, pistachios
I could eat this all day.
White Chocolate Cheesecake
With amarena cherry glaze and a chocolate-espresso pot de creme
This was a clear favorite of the table, as many left with a second helping for the next day. (One of three desserts!)
Other specialties of the evening were bread made in-house with a light smokey flavor, Lemoncello chicken wings, chicken Caesar salad, margherita pizza, coal-fired rib-eye, tiramisu, and zeppole (Italian donut holes) and Italy’s Segafredo coffee.
Pele’s has an open kitchen design with a great bar area. While they offer 50 beers on tap, there are only about 12 wines by the glass. I was surprised at only one chardonnay option at $10.50 per glass. They make up for it with their by-the-bottle prices which are quite good for the 40 different available.
One of my favorite features is Pele’s hands-free restrooms. With a wave of the hand you get your water, your soap, your towels and your door opened when you leave.
Pele’s Wood Fire is worth the drive to Riverside for all my fellow Beach dwellers. It will soon be open seven days a week for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
While I usually prefer to eat my greens because I really do love all kinds, I realized that I can also get them in at breakfast. I mean, who eats spinach at breakfast even when they like it?
