Tag: Ecco on Overton Park

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Memphis Chefs Personalize Barbecuing: Part 1

Barbecue sushi from Poke Paradise (Photo: Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh)

If you’re a Memphis chef, chances are you’ve thought about creating some kind of barbecue. Or maybe you already have.

But what would be your “signature” barbecue? Even if the idea is still in your imagination?

Tamra Patterson, chef/owner of Chef Tam’s Underground Cafe: “If Chef Tam created her style of barbecue/meat, it would be barbecue catfish stuffed with a barbecue jambalaya. No matter what I cook, I always have to infuse my love of Cajun food and Cajun culture.”

Jonathan Magallanes, chef/owner of Las Tortugas: “My style would be twice-cooked for an extra texture. First, braised like carnitas with whole orange, bay leaf, lard, lime, and green chile. Then flash-fried in peanut oil. At Tops Bar-B-Q, I ask for extra dark meat on the sandwich. That bark and meat crust is divine. Then I would use a chipotle salsa. Pork is braised in a huge copper kettle. Chipotle, cilantro, lime, and onion for garnish. I like to do the whole rack of ribs this way, or shoulder. Crispy pork is the best pork, as it accentuates and concentrates the porcine flavor.”

Mario Grisanti, owner of Dino’s Grill: “I make my own barbecue sauce, but I make it sweet. I would make a beef brisket and smoked pork barbecue lasagna with layers of meats, mozzarella cheese, etc. Thin layers of each covered in barbecue sauce.”

Chip Dunham, chef/owner of Magnolia & May: “One of my favorite barbecue dishes I’ve created is our Tacos con Mempho. I smoke my own pork shoulder for 12 hours and serve it on two corn tortillas with American cheese melted between them, avocado salsa, and tobacco onions. At brunch, we simply just add a scrambled egg and it’s a breakfast taco. Another one of my favorites was our barbecue butternut squash sandwich. We roast butternut squash and toss it with some Memphis barbecue sauce. It’s a vegan sandwich that satisfies the biggest meat-eater.”

Kelly English, chef/owner of Restaurant Iris and The Second Line: “If I were to try to put my own fingerprints on what Memphis already does perfectly, I would play around with fermentations and chili peppers. I would also explore the traditions of barbacoa in ancient Central American and surrounding societies.”

Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh, Poke Paradise food truck owner: “I made a roll with barbecue meats a long time ago. Made with Central BBQ ribs. I made them plenty of times when I hung out with my barbecue friends. I did it in my rookie years. Inside is all rib meat topped with rib meat, barbecue crab mix, thin-sliced jalapeño, dab of sriracha, furikake, green onion.”

Armando Gagliano, Ecco on Overton Park chef/owner: “My favorite meat to smoke is pork back ribs. I keep the dry rub pretty simple: half brown sugar to a quarter adobo and a quarter salt. I smoke my ribs at 250-275 degrees using post oak wood and offset smoker. … The ribs are smoked for three hours and spritzed with orange juice and sherry vinegar every 30 minutes. After three hours, I baste with a homemade barbecue sauce that includes a lot of chipotle peppers and honey. Wrap the ribs in foil and put back on the smoker for two hours. After that, remove from the smoker and let rest in the foil for another hour. They should pull completely off the bone, but not fall apart when handled.”

FreeSol, owner of Red Bones Turkey Legs at Carolina Watershed: “I am already doing it with the turkey legs. We are smoking these legs for hours till they fall of the bone. … We [also] flavor them and stuff them.”

Ryan Trimm, chef/owner of Sunrise Memphis and 117 Prime: “Beef spare ribs are a personal favorite of mine. A nice smoke with a black pepper-based rub followed by a fruit-based sweet-and-spicy barbecue sauce is my way to go.”

And even Huey’s gets in on the act. Huey’s COO Ashley Boggs Robilio says, “Recipe created by Huey’s Midtown day crew: Huey’s world famous BBQ brisket burger. Topped with coleslaw and fried jalapeños.”

Continuing to celebrate barbecue month in Memphis, more chefs share ’que ideas in next week’s Memphis Flyer.

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Tonica to Open in Early February

Tonica, a new Midtown restaurant, will open in early February. (Credit: Sabine Bachmann)

Tonica will open in early February at the location of the old Marena’s restaurant at 1545 Overton Park, two doors down from Ecco on Overton Park.

Tonica is a new bar/restaurant from the people who brought you Ecco and Libro: Sabine Bachmann and her sons, chefs Armando and Mario Gagliano, and John-Paul Gagliano, who is general manager for all the restaurants.

“January 31st to February 3rd is kind of our target date,” John-Paul says. “We’re only going to be starting off Thursday through Sunday for service — 4:30 till right now.”

Describing Tonica, John-Paul says, “We’re trying to get as close to a Mediterranean Spanish style. Kind of a European style. Real flowers. Upscale. We’ve redone the whole building. Completely remodeled building. All hand-made cabinetry. We’re renovated our entire kitchen. We have a back dining room, another private room.”

At the rear of the restaurant is “a New Orleans alleyway. When the weather gets better, we can put tables back there for outdoor seating.”

Ecco diners will be able to take advantage of Tonica. “Summertime, springtime when we have additional seating outside, any overflow, you can grab a drink and we can bring you back to Ecco when your table is open. Or you can stay there and eat. I think they will compete with each other.”

Ditto for when people finish eating at Ecco. “After you finish at Ecco — last call is at 10 — you can go to the other restaurant and enjoy the same kind of atmosphere, same craft cocktails you can get at Ecco for a later service.”

As Armando said in an earlier Memphis Flyer interview, “It’s going to be a bar, but a bar that serves food.” It will be a “neighborhood bar,” where people can get small plates and more substantial dishes. But, he said, “I don’t want that to be considered a tapas bar or anything like that, but it will be more focused on the cocktails. We’re going to put more focus on the cocktails and the wine list.”

And, he says, “The food is not going to be an afterthought. It will be really good — a Spanish influence with a little bit of Italian-Mediterranean twist.”

John-Paul says: “We’re going to have a selection of paellas. We’ll have traditional Serrano ham croquettes. We will have different ceviches. Fried chicken wings made with Spanish chiles. Spanish spice chicharróns, among other things.”

Bachmann, who visited Spain last July to research the lifestyle, food and drinks, and atmosphere, came up with the name “Tonica” to pay tribute to the country. “The Spanish national drink, believe it or not, is gin tonics, which in Spain is ‘gin tonica,’” Bachmann told the Flyer.

“They are very known for their different types of gin tonics,” Armando said. “They do a lot of tonics with gin and different spirits and herbs and liqueurs.”

Customers will be able to order plenty of Spanish-inspired gin and tonics and house gins imported from Spain, as well as European and South American wines.

“We’re going to have an extensive gin list,” John-Paul says. “Mary Connor Jones is our beverage director. She’s creating the cocktail list.”

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Mario Gagliano is Making Music in the Kitchen

Mario Gagliano (Photo: Michael Donahue)

Growing up, Libro at Laurelwood executive chef Mario Gagliano would rather shred guitar than a head of lettuce.

“I was definitely musically inclined at a young age,” says Gagliano, 27. “I got a cheap guitar from my mom for Christmas when I was in the fourth grade. Just one of those things I picked up on pretty quickly. Just strummed notes, messing around with my fingers, putting them at random spots.”

He was serious about music. “I was a rapper. I was pretty mean with it, too. But there was so much money going in and none going out. I was paying for studio time. Paying for discs. At that time, I had to pay to perform for shows and all this. And one day I was just, ‘What am I doing this for?’”

He helped out at Fratelli’s, which at one time was owned by his mother Sabine Bachmann. Gagliano, who joined his brothers Armando and John-Paul Gagliano, began as a server and dishwasher and later became head cook.

But, he says, “It was just a job. Granted, it was my mother’s business and all. I was in my late teens, early 20s. I just wanted to do other things. I wasn’t really focused on that.”

Things changed after his mother opened Ecco on Overton Park. “I was at Rhodes College playing basketball one day a few months after Ecco opened and Armando calls me and says basically they need somebody on ‘garm’ [garde manger]. I didn’t really have a choice. I dropped the basketball thinking I’m going to come help one day. I came back the next day. I was on that cold side for five years.”

Mario eventually began cooking. And he got feedback. “You would get servers coming back, ‘Hey, compliments to the chef.’ Or seeing the plates come back empty. I really started getting satisfaction: ‘Hey, I made somebody’s night with that food.’”

His cooking career was sidelined for a few months after he fractured his wrist. He couldn’t go to work, but, he says, “I was infatuated with cooking shows. I was able to read books. I couldn’t do anything because this was right when the pandemic was going on. Nothing much to do. Nowhere to go. All I had was food and trying to figure it out, trying to get as much knowledge as possible.”

Mario then went to work at Libro, also owned by Bachmann, inside Novel. “I was pumped. I was super excited to get back there and put what I learned to use.

“It was the first time I was cooking without Armando being there. He was at Ecco all the time. Any time I had a question about anything I would ask him. Because he wasn’t there, I had to do things the wrong way and figure out the right way to do it by messing up.

“I would just tweak things. Instead of doing this like this, I’ll do it like this ’cause it seemed to come out better. Trial and error.”

Monthly specials were daunting. “I figured out how to come up with a good dish. However, I’m still not one to understand, really, what it means when someone ‘puts themselves on a plate.’ I get that it’s something you come up with. But I just need to really understand the ‘express yourself through a dish’ kind of thing.”

His popular jackfruit pulled-pork vegetarian sandwich is one of his recent specials. “It was kind of left field.”

Mario is confident in his career choice. “Oh, yeah, 100,000 percent without a doubt. I get far more satisfaction doing this than music or anything else. I can’t imagine what else I’d be doing if it wasn’t this. You’ve got the camaraderie of the kitchen. You have a high-stress job. You have a challenging position. You have to be creative. You have to put in long hours. You’re going to make mistakes. These are all things I don’t feel like I could do anywhere else and get as much fulfillment out of it.”

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Ecco and Libro Executive Chef Armando Gagliano Pays Homage to Childhood Dishes

CREDIT: Armando Gagliano

Echoes of the past drift through Ecco on Overton Park in the form of tantalizing aromas. Executive chef Armando Gagliano occasionally features his take on Italian and German dishes his mom, Ecco owner Sabine Bachmann, served when he was growing up.

“I’ll do all the stuff she used to cook for me and my brothers,” Gagliano says. “Some of them have been on the menu as my take on the dish. I’ll change it up just a little bit, but I always try to incorporate things that I remember growing up that my mom fed us. Put it on there as close to what my mom used to serve us.”

Rouladen, a German dish his mother, who is German, made for them, will be a special January 8th and 9th at Ecco. The family-inspired dish also will be available throughout January at Libro, where Gagliano is executive chef and his brother, Mario Gagliano, is head chef.

Armando Gagliano

Rouladen

Growing up, Gagliano and his brothers ate more pasta than potatoes. “My mom mainly cooked us Italian food ’cause German food is always braised meats and potatoes and onions.

“We didn’t have a lot of money growing up, so we probably ate pasta five nights a week. It’s so cheap. It’s one of the best things somebody can eat.”

They served Mama’s Pasta, a “spicy Southern bacon pasta,” as a springtime/summer special at Ecco. It’s “like a South American dish mixed with Italian pasta. It’s bacon that she rendered. She chopped up the rendered bacon with tomato sauce. And she’d usually put in a little hot sugar, hot sauce, and garlic. It was a spicy marinara, but instead of using ground pork or something like that, it was bacon.”

Spaghetti puttanesca is a childhood dish that also shows up at Ecco. “That’s a very old Southern coast recipe. There are different variations of it, but it primarily consists of garlic, capers, kalamata olives, anchovies, and then some sort of whole or diced-up tomatoes, or tomato purée. We use tomato purée. It’s what the fishermen would get to eat after they came back into the docks after being out in the Mediterranean fishing. They would use anchovies to make this dish.”

Rouladen, a Christmas tradition at their home, is “essentially a sirloin steak that you pound the hell out of with a mallet till it’s really thin. You brush Dijon mustard on it and line it with bacon and thinly sliced yellow onions. You roll the whole thing up like a fruit roll and either tie it off or use toothpicks, then sear that in a large pan. After it’s browned on all sides, take it out, and in the same pan put carrots, onions, celery and cook those down until they’re soft.

“Then you’re going to hit it with red wine. However much you want to use. You deglaze all those vegetables in chicken or beef stock. Preferably, beef stock since that’s what you’re cooking. Bring that to a boil. You return the seared rouladen that you set to the side back in the pot and reset the temperature to a very low simmer. Then after about two hours, they’re done. And you can let them go longer if you want them more tender.

“You take them out. And all the vegetables and wines and juices it was cooking in, throw that in a blender. Blend it up really well and then press it through a sieve or a colander. Those juices are the gravy. With the vegetables, it’s already thick enough. My mom would always boil some potatoes to go with them. You over-boil them till they’re really soft. [We use] baby new potatoes. Put them whole on the plate and mash them. Put the rouladen on top of those mashed potatoes, and the gravy goes over all of it.

“It’s a very rustic dish. Rouladen and gravy. It’s a German pot roast kind of deal.”

Ecco on Overton Park is at 1585 Overton Park; (901) 410-8200. Libro is at Novel bookstore at 387 Perkins Extended; (901) 922-5526.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

The things we ate in 2014.

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Last winter, Holly Whitfield of the I Love Memphis Blog announced that Memphis is in the midst of a spectacular “Foodnado.” How apt! My cursory count of restaurants, breweries, and sundry food-related places that opened in 2014 adds up to 40, and not all of them in Overton Square.

But, then again, a lot of them are in Overton Square. Babalu Tacos & Tapas opened in June, offering tableside-prepared guacamole and lots of sharing plates. The place has been packed since. In August came Jimmy Ishii’s Robata Ramen & Yakitori Bar with a fine menu of ramen noodle bowls and skewers. Lafayette’s Music Room, an homage to the original much-loved, circa-’70s Overton Square bar named for the recently passed away ace bartender Lafayette Draper, opened in September and features wood-fired pizzas and a music schedule set at palatable hours. Schweinehaus, a cheeky Memphis take on German food, also opened in September. There’s beer, brats, and the occasional lederhosen sighting — what’s not to like? If you need olive oil, there’s the Square Olive, and there’s more music and fun at the Chicago-based Zebra Lounge.

Justin Fox Burks

Robata Ramen & Yakitori Bar

The most recent addition to Overton Square is Belly Acres, a farm-to-table burger restaurant, the latest of three burger-centric places to open in Memphis. This trend has our full endorsement. Belly Acres has a fantasyland interior and a menu that demands to be gone through one burger at a time. Down the street, there’s LBOE (Last Burger on Earth). Its menu raises the bar with such burgers as the super spicy Lava Me or Lava Me Not and the garlic-laden Love Stinks. Oshi Burger Bar downtown has something for everyone — beef burgers, tuna burgers, vegetarian burgers, gluten-free buns. They also have great milkshakes.

Justin Fox Burks

Oshi Burger Bar on South Main

Plenty of glasses have been raised at the taprooms opened in 2014 at High Cotton Brewing Co. and Memphis Made Brewing Co., and Memphis promises to get buzzier still in the new year with Pyramid Vodka. Wine in grocery stores finally passed, and while that doesn’t happen until 2016, local liquor stores are making the best of it with growler stations and more.

In grocery-store news: Whole Foods opened its expanded store in East Memphis, which includes a site-specific barbecue restaurant and a growler station. There’s the new Fresh Market in Midtown, and Kroger continues to show its commitment to Memphis in updating its stores, most recently the one at Cleveland and Poplar. Plus, there’s been some buzz about a Trader Joe’s opening sometime somewhere. We shall see.

In coffee news: Everybody freaked out when Muddy’s Bake Shop announced a new Midtown store in August 2013. Muddy’s Grind House opened this fall and offers a little of everything, from coffee to breakfast eats and yoga. The Avenue, near the University of Memphis, has great coffee and treats with Christian fellowship. There’s also Cafe Keough downtown in a gorgeous setting with a great cafe Americano. Tart offers quiches and more — a great go-to place when expectations are high. Ugly Mug took over the Poplar Perk’n space, and Jimmy Lewis, who founded Squash Blossom, returned to the scene with Relevant Roasters, selling wholesale, environmentally sound, and worker-friendly coffee with the motto “Every Cup Matters.”

After a few false starts, the Riverfront Development Corporation came through with Riverfront Grill. It serves a sophisticated but not too syrupy Southern menu and also has some of the best views in Memphis. Also new this year to downtown are the Kwik Chek spinoff Nacho’s, Marie’s Eatery in the old Rizzo’s Diner spot, and Cafe Pontotoc. Rizzo’s moved into the old Cafe Soul site, and there’s the Love Pop Soda Shop, a nifty craft soda shop.

In East Memphis, Skewer, serving Yakitori and ramen, opened in January. 4 Dumplings opened around the same time, and, as its name suggests, the menu is built around four dumplings. The vegan dumpling with tofu is not to be missed.

Since at least four people mentioned to me that Jackson Kramer’s Bounty on Broad is “secretly” gluten-free, I’m guessing it’s not really a secret. The dishes at this lovely farm-to-table spot are thoughtfully done and a delight to look at. The menu changes frequently, but at a recent dinner, there were mussels in fragrant coconut milk, charred broccolini, and creamed kale served over polenta. Also gluten-free is the Hawaiian import Maui Brick Oven, serving brick-oven pizzas and grain bowls.

Justin Fox Burks

Bounty on Broad’s Jackson Kramer

At Ecco on Overton Park, Sabine Bachmann’s cozy neighborhood restaurant, there are heaping dishes of pork chops, delicate pasta dishes, and artful cheese plates — something for every appetite. Strano Sicilian Kitchen & Bar serves a great roasted carrot soup and Italian classics from meatballs to pizza.

At press time, Porcellino’s, Andrew Ticer and Michael Hudman’s latest venture, was due to open “any minute now.” File this one under “This Should Be Interesting.” This is a butcher shop/sundry/coffee spot/wine bar offering grab-and-go sandwiches, fresh pastas, cured meats, house-made pastries, and more.

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Thanksgiving Upgrade: Try this Delicious Recipe from Chef Armando Gagliano

CREDIT: John Klyce Minervini

John Klyce Minervini

Ecco chef Armando Gagliano

Johnny Carson once said, “Thanksgiving is an emotional holiday. We travel thousands of miles to be with people we only see once a year—and then discover that once a year is way too often.”

But hey, at least the food is good—right?

This year, upgrade your Thanksgiving dinner with a recipe from Ecco chef Armando Gagliano. On its face, it’s a creamy soup of butternut squash. But what sets this dish apart is the inclusion of Bartlett pears.

“I’ll admit, the combination is unusual,” says Gagliano. “But I think it works well together. You get the creamy, savory flavor of the squash and the sweetness of the pears. Garnish with a few toasted walnuts for an earthy crunch, and some micro-greens for a green, citrusy taste.”

Maybe you’re digging the soup, but don’t want to make it yourself? Starting next week, you can order it off the menu at Ecco ($7). Chef Gagliano recommends serving it with a whole roasted chicken and a glass of viognier. Happy Thanksgiving, y’all!

Armando Gagliano’s Butternut Squash Bisque
90 minutes
5 servings

Ingredients

3 medium butternut squashes, halved and seeded
1 bartlett pear, slightly underripe, peeled and seeded
1 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp allspice
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
1 cup toasted walnuts
micro greens or parsley

Preheat oven to 450. Fill the bottom of a baking dish with a small amount (½ inch) of water. Roast squashes in baking dish for 45 minutes – 1 hour, until tender when poked with a fork. Meanwhile, in a pot, combine sugar with 8 cups water and bring to boil. Poach pear for 20 minutes in boiling water.

Allow squashes to cool slightly, then scoop out the flesh, discarding the skins. In a large pot, combine squashes, pear, and cream. Add spices and stir to combine. Puree in a blender. Return to pot and heat through. Add salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with toasted walnuts and micro greens. Serve immediately.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Now open: Strano and Ecco on Overton Park

CREDIT: justin fox burks

The kitchen doors fling open inside the swank new Sicilian restaurant at Cooper and Young.

Out walks Strano‘s owner and head chef, Josh Steiner, some two-day stubble failing to camouflage that Steiner celebrated his 23rd birthday on May 30th in conjunction with the restaurant’s grand opening.

The third of four siblings, Steiner spent his childhood in the kitchen with his Moroccan and Italian grandmothers. Soon he was working at Russo’s, the family’s Italian restaurant in Germantown, collecting kitchen equipment for his birthdays, working with Karen Carrier at Beauty Shop, and taking a three-week culinary crash course in Sicily.

Sourcing ingredients from his family’s nearby 100-acre farm and using FedEx to overnight his fish — a nod to the 11-hour expiration rule of his Italian mentors — Steiner takes a traditional approach, avoiding heavy sauces and focusing on foods like vegetable couscous and stuffed eggplant.

The twist is in the presentation, like the column of white oak wood smoke that emerges from the glass chamber on top of the grilled swordfish ($26).

justin fox burks

Josh Steiner

Steiner also uses an anti-griddle, he explains, while dashing back to the kitchen and emerging with a blob of caramel on the end of a toothpick that morphs into a dab of rich sauce in seconds. The anti-griddle flash-freezes salad dressing, which then melts in front of customers, or honey, which becomes marble hard before dissolving.

He adds caviar to drinks at the bar, which changes the flavor midway through, and injects strawberries and grapes with carbonation, using them instead of soda water in sangria.

“You can’t create recipes. Every recipe has already been done. So the only way to do it is how you present it. I feel like people eat with their eyes, their ears, their nose, not just their mouth, and so I play with senses, I play with textures. I even play with time,” Steiner says.

But it’s not all flash and new-age. “Grandma’s Meatballs” ($8) come from an old family recipe.

“My great grandmother sautéed them for just a split second, just to change the color on the outside. I’m talking so they’re still as rare as can be in the middle,” Steiner says. “And then she let them sit inside her marinara sauce for 24 hours while it’s on a low simmer. And that’s how you get them so moist and falling apart.”

Sabine Bachmann anguished over the name of her new Overton Park restaurant, heavy on Italian and Mediterranean influences, before settling on Ecco on Overton Park.

“Ecco is an Italian word. It means ‘here it is.’ I thought it was appropriate,” Bachmann says.

Lounging on the back patio during a recent Sunday, snacking on hot wings and sipping a cold drink, Bachmann pointed out a small plot of grass that one day will produce tomatoes and herbs for the restaurant. She spent her childhood in Germany, Italy’s dairy country, and France, where the family vacationed frequently; her dad made his own wine, and her neighbors were goat herders.

Her upbringing heavily influenced the atmosphere and menu for the restaurant.

“To me, food is not only about nourishment, but about people getting together around the same table and enjoying their time together,” Bachmann says. “I like the concept of how they cook over there, which is to use really good ingredients and don’t mess with them a lot.”

Armando Gagliano, her 25-year-old son, is the head chef and created most of the menu after dropping out of nursing school recently to pursue cooking. According to Gagliano, the orange-glazed Berkshire pork chop ($19) has emerged as a customer favorite.

Served with white wine risotto and an apple-onion chutney, he uses a spiced orange tea brine and cooks the meat sous vide to retain moisture.

Other menu items are the linguini with kale pesto featuring Tuscan kale and pesto Genovese ($10); chicken legs with marinated lemons and olives ($16); and a vegetarian lentil stew with tomatoes, potatoes, onion, garlic, and tofu ($10).

“People should live to eat instead of eating to live,” Gagliano says. “That’s kind of a stupid little cliché that chefs say.”

Maybe so, but as the breeze wafted through the patio, the Ecco staff conversing over an unhurried meal, it seemed fitting.

Here it is indeed.

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

A Visit to Ecco on Overton Park

Ecco on Overton Park opened a few weeks ago in the old Fresh Slices location in Midtown, and owner Sabine Bachmann says that in that time she’s spotted a few repeat customers.

It makes sense. I could easily picture this restaurant becoming a regular spot for those in the neighborhood. Indeed, when we stopped by for dinner on Saturday, it appeared that many of the folks knew each other.

While the wait staff wear a uniform of plaid shirts and jeans, Ecco is on the nicer side of casual. The walls have been painted a stark white and hung with paintings of bright, primary colors. The booths are gone, and in their place are wooden tables seating two, four, and six. There are a few tables on the small front patio and more seating on a back deck.

We started with the cheese plate ($15) — imported cheeses with olives and tapenade.

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It was served on a thick wooden cutting board and the cheeses (a good mix of a strong blue cheese and mild cheeses), olives, and slices of bread adorned with a sprig of flowering broccoli rabe was so artfully arranged that it looked like the subject of a still painting.

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Both Pam and I ordered the orange and fennel salad ($9).

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Pam, who’s the food editor of Memphis magazine, says she’s seeing oranges pop up in dishes all over the place. If this salad is any indication of what’s out there, then I’m all for this trend. The sharpness of the orange slices, the thin slices of fennel, the subtle champagne vinaigrette — it all worked. I will be ordering this again.

Pam’s husband Tony opted for the Tuscan bean salad ($10), with red onion, sage, pancetta, and lemon vinaigrette.

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This was another favorite at the table, with the beans perfectly done.

For her entree, Pam ordered the Cioppino seafood stew ($15, served Fridays and Saturdays only).

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The stew has a tomato base and shrimp and white fish. Feelings were mixed on this one — from spot-on to almost there but needing a bit more oomph.

I ordered the spinach ricotta gnocchi with garlic butter ($10).

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Ecco’s menu, I should note, has a generous selection of vegetarian dishes. The menu is divided into pasta, pork, chicken, beef, seafood, and vegetarian sections. All the pasta dishes on the current menu appear to be vegetarian — linguini with kale pesto, porcini ravioli, garden vegetable linguini.

This spinach gnocchi veers from traditional gnocchi, as there’s no potato involved. Instead, the gnocchi is made with the spinach and cheese. It was very good, akin to spanakopita filling, and the garlic butter offers a good accent. My only complaint about this dish is that it is a might skimpy for an entree.

For Tony, it was the orange-glazed Berkshire pork chop ($19) served with white wine risotto and an apple onion chutney.

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There were cheers about this beast of a chop — especially about the citrus (more orange!) and the hint of sweetness.

We finished the meal by splitting a fine and boozy tiramisu.

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Ecco was also offering a panna cotta topped with a choice of fruit. The couple at the next table ordered this dessert, which was delivered to me by mistake. I thought about claiming it as my own by destroying it with my spoon. I resisted because that wouldn’t have been at all neighborly.

Ecco on Overton Park is open Tuesday through Thursday, 5 to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday, 5 to 10 p.m.