We're about to begin what I always think of as the brunch season. The weather is warmer and there's a string of weekend-ish things that happen this time of year, not just the vernal holidays, Mother's Day and Father's Day, but weddings and graduations, too. We kicked the first warm Sunday in months off with a gaggle of brunchers visiting Katie's Pizza and Pasta in Rock Hill.
It's a fine thing that restaurants in strip malls no longer seem to be made from a cookie-cutter mold. Despite the complaint of one curmudgeon saying that Katie's is full of interesting things, his tone of voice putting quotation remarks around the phrase, it's indeed pleasant to look at. Lots of daylight pouring in from both the north and south sides, and in clement weather, there are outside tables, albeit overlooking the parking lot.
Passing on the blood orange mimosas, not from virtue but from later commitments that afternoon, we shared a plate of the fried artichokes, artichoke hearts topped with curls of cheese and a drizzle of balsamic reduction. They were snapped up so quickly, I didn't get a photo of the plate, just a single, flower-like artichoke heart and a sliver of cheese on my plate. A plate of these delicious guys and a glass of wine would make a fine light lunch or dinner another day.
One of us, in a fit of self-control, ordered the heirloom tomato and burrata salad. Yes, real heirloom tomatoes at this time of year, and for March, they were pretty tasty, nudged along by a lemon-balsamico vinaigrette, and blessed with the burrata, rich and creamy mozzarella-beatified. And absolutely beautiful to the eye, a bonus after this long winter.
A fritatta with mixed mushrooms, some Swiss chard, bits of pancetta bacon and tallegio cheese made good use of the flavorful mushrooms. Alongside came fingerling potatoes in what seemed to be a pan roast rather than the menu's mention of hash, but they were fine, nicely seasoned and certainly no disappointment. Another fritatta, this one with asparagus as well as the pancetta, topped with fontina cheese and a generous dribble of that balsamic reduction, put the spotlight on small, sweet pencil-diameter asparagus, very nice indeed. Potatoes with that, as well, of course, as well as with the 3 wood oven eggs dish, the eggs broken into a small dish and quickly cooked in the pizza oven. It came with a fat link of fiama sausage, un-greasy, well-seasoned with just a little heat and a faint mutter of fennel in it. Alongside were calabrese peppers, little round red guys with sweet flesh and fiery seeds and membrane, who'd been brushed with olive oil and popped in that same oven briefly.
A side order of fennel sausage brought crumbles of meat, its licorice-ish flavor calling out for pizza.
The sweet option was lemon ricotta pancakes, just as tender as ricotta pancakes should be, lightly sweet on their own, making the whipped cream a better topping option, for me, than the maple syrup. Pomegranate seeds sprinkled across the cakes gave a little crunch and some tartness to things. An order of crispy pancetta bacon brought four curled-in-a-circle pieces, very crisp indeed, a tasty option and far lower in fat than four strips of ordinary bacon would have been. It's an idea worth copying.
Service as sunny as the day was, with good attention to enough coffee and of the correct type. Katie's brunch stands out, particularly in this part of St. Louis County where there are few Sunday morning alternatives. And they do it on Saturday as well.
9568 Manchester Rd., Rock Hill
314-942-6555
Brunch Sat.-Sun.
Credit cards: Yes
Wheelchair access: Good
Smoking: No
Brunch entrees: $8-$18