Petra is located in the middle of a very tough neighborhood. It's dangerous to start a restaurant next to Metropolitain and Mono Loco and across the street from OXO.
But Petra has pulled it off. After less than a year in business, the restaurant is proving it can hold its own even while surrounded by some of Charlottesville's best.
Petra's basement-like setting makes for cozy indoor dining, but you also can sit outside on the votive candle-lit patio to watch the world of Main Street go by. Enlarged magazine covers like Vogue, The New Yorker and L'Illustration line the stressed walls, providing splashes of artsy color in the otherwise completely white restaurant.
Co-owner and chef Eric Garcia named the restaurant after his grandmother. Kathy Barefoot, Garcia's wife and a recent mother, is the other co-owner and heads the wait staff.
Petra is subtitled "An American Bistro," but the gourmet fare is too eclectic to classify. Chef Garcia likes to focus on the main meat item in a dish. He develops the side dishes to flavor and complement the plates, but the fresh seafood and cuts of meat are the stars of the show. Of the eight entrees, only the fettuccini dish is vegetarian, but you could easily make up a meal based on the delicious appetizers.
The goat cheese ravioli ($6.50) is served in one large piece as opposed to traditional individual squares. Although not a large serving by any means, the ravioli is filled with fresh goat cheese and topped with tangy marinated tomatoes with a hint of balsamic vinaigrette and is an excellent choice.
Tomatoes stewed with onions, garlic, herbs and corn top another fine appetizer, the garlic polenta ($6.50). Polenta is a corn flour that is boiled and made into dough that is then baked into a cake. Heavy and hearty but topped nicely, the polenta turns country fare urbane in what we dubbed "peasant chic."
Around half of Petra's entrees on any given night are seafood options, but the only maritime appetizer is the whole-shell mussels with basil pesto and white wine broth ($6.75). The shellfish themselves are delicious and the broth refreshing, though a bit too salty.
For those patrons looking for seafood in a main course, Petra offers a shellfish pasta ($16.50) that includes shrimp and mussels with fresh linguini, tomato concasse, mixed peppers, onions and fresh herbs. The lemon white wine sauce is so subtle that it's almost nonexistent, but the ingredients are all fresh and tasty. Because the sauce is so light, there is no real flavor base, and the dish tastes somewhat like items marked "low-fat" on some menus.
An intriguing adaptation of cordon bleu, the chicken ($16) consists of poultry breast stuffed with goat cheese over polenta, portobello mushroom, green beans and corn and pepper relish. The cheese is strong but simply wonderful, and the chicken combines well with its dressing. This dish is one of the best chicken preparations anywhere in Charlottesville.
The local beef hanger steak ($17.75) is good but could be better. The meat is flavorful but slightly tough. Accompanied by shitake mushrooms, mixed peppers, green beans and fresh gnocchi, the dish is a pleasantly unusual choice. The cabernet reduction adds a subtly elegant red wine flavor.
A generous salmon filet ($15.25) over spinach, yellow squash and zucchini arrives atop a risotto palette with a roasted garlic cream sauce. Risotto is moist and thick Italian rice cooked in stock of fish or meat. Delightfully tender, the fish is wonderful in flavor as it melts in your mouth. The risotto is a nice compliment to the salmon but the sauce is slightly heavy.
If any of the entrees are mild in flavor, the desserts more than make up for them. The vanilla crŠme brulee, a custard topped with caramelized sugar and torched across the surface, is a must for those who have never experienced it. Petra's brulee varies from those at most restaurants because it is served in a very shallow bowl.
The chocolate-roasted almond cake with raspberries and homemade banana ice cream is a true delight. The cake is extremely rich and almost the consistency of fudge. The ice cream is dreamy and obviously is not scooped out of a carton and slapped with a "homemade" label. Banana is an excellent fruity complementary flavor to the chocolate overdose.
The white chocolate mascarpone cream and strawberry parfait is served in a tall, elegant glass. This soft, mild Italian dessert cheese blends deliciously with cake and strawberries for an original treat. All three desserts are $5.
The stretch of restaurants near the Downtown Mall in which Petra is housed includes several extremely classy establishments. Petra is another perfect addition. Its austere, elegantly sterile decor may give the diner a sense of being in a basement, but with food this delicious, one sees no reason to come back above ground.
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