Piola

Have you heard the good news? The little house with the amazing Italian food has opened up a few months after a fire gutted the house housing the restaurant. Obviously the immense response from my post a few months back told Piola that Fort Worth would not buy some excuse like "my restaurant is on fire." So, in response to you, loyal readers, Piola opened back up with a new interior but the same delicious food.

For those that don't know, Piola is at Mattison and Haskell, and right on the edge of the UNT Health Science Center. The restaurant is in an old house which they hae completely remodeled thanks to the fire. They have also kept the great patio out back.

Pursuant to a restraining order I'm not allowed in the front of the restaurant so I took the opportunity to dine al fresco. Al fresco, in Italian means, "sexy". So as I sat outside, dining al frescoly, I reviewed the menu and narrowed my selection down to six options which I then grilled the knowledgeable waiter about. Previously, I ate the veal involtini (literally, "al fresco cow") so this time I decided to go with a pasta dish. I had the Smoked Chicken Fettucini. It was a form of fettucini with a garlic cream sauce, mushrooms, chicken and some truffle stuff.

I started a new paragraph to emphasize this next point. You should sell a close cousin for this dish. Keep the brothers and sisters around for extra kidneys but this dish is worth at least a first cousin. It is creamy, chickeny and smokey. Which you would not have picked up from the name of the dish. My waiter even said it was one of his favorites. Probably because he has learned not to say bad things about what he's selling.

The chicken parmigiana also got good reviews and looked like they cooked up the breast of some giant 5 foot tall Indian Chicken. I know they exist because a man whom I have no reason to doubt told me about them. He said Campbell's uses them for their soups. Well Piola also uses them for their "parm". It's was reported as delicious and "get your fork off my plate, freak".

If you need a unique place to go with good food and great atmosphere check out the new and improved Piola. Let me know if you've been since they opened back up.

Piola is located at 3700 Mattison Avenue on the corner with Haskell. Park on the street or in the parking lot to the south.

Button's

I've been fairly anonymous up until now but I am about to give you all a big hint of how to find me. Keith Hicks at Ovation has a sweet gray beard that makes it a good eight inches down from his face and a full mustache with a completely shaved head. I will now attempt to grow this out. I'll be the white guy that looks like Keith Hicks. You'll recognize me easily as the pale white guy who's trying too hard to be cool. Somehow Chef Hicks does it without trying.

Recently, Mrs. FWHITW I brunched at Buttons after hearing great things about the brunch buffet. I had previously been to Ovation (when Hicks was there) and experienced the Chicken and Waffles sensation so I knew this was going to be good, but I wasn't prepared for a new love. Biscuits with a beef gravy so thick and rich it could have had its own cream gravy on top of it. In fact, I think I'll ask for that next time.

In Hick's'seses' style, Buttons is a soul food restaurant with room for a band and styled in a soulful manner. I'm sure he would take this as an insult but I kept expecting to see Foxxy Cleopatra come out from the kitchen at any moment. He has masterfully converted the old 29 Degree Tavern into a place that sort of makes you forget that you're in the Central Market strip center.

"Thanks Hole In the Wall guy, but I can't eat decorations, what about the food"

New, bearded, shaved head HITW guy says Shut Yo Mouth!

But I will tell you. The brunch is a combination of breakfast and lunch items, but I am going to submit a resolution to the Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner Council of America asking that they remove biscuits and gravy from the sole possession of breakfast, and require fried catfish at every breakfast. Your options consist of jalapeno cheese grits, biscuits and gravy, bacon, pork sausage, corn cakes, french toast, I think a potato hash, macaroni and cheese, green beans, baked chicken, fried catfish and some fruit. That sounds like a typical brunch....if you grew up in Heaven.

Now, let me save you some time and stomach space - skip the baked chicken, the green beans and the fruit. The green beans tasted great and the fruit was fresh but both are lacking in the requisite grease content. Plus, you can eat green beans when your doctor tells you to stop living and go on a diet. Until then, also skip the baked chicken. It was good, but I only got it to taste it to tell you that. I try to avoid baked chicken because you know its judging the other contents of your stomach. Uppity hens.

Get double scoops of the grits. They have spice, cheese and southern awesome seeping through them. I imagine that Atticus Finch ate jalapeno cheese grits every day. Hence his fictional oratory powers. Then, get two biscuits and rip them in half. You can touch your food in a buffet line, as long as you don't put back what you touch (new rule effective since my last trip). Cover those things up with the thick brown beef gravy that looks suspicious. Trust me. Besides, you ate and drank more suspicious things at random parties in college so don't be shy. Load up. Get some french toast, pile on some macaroni & cheese and finally, top it all off with catfish. That should work for the first trip.

The suspicious looking gravy was easily the table favorite, with the super tender catfish coming in second, and the grits in a close third place. Everything else tied for fourth. It was all delicious, but Keith raised the bar with the gravy. Really, my only complaint was that Keith wouldn't let me stroke his beard.

Check it out and when you see me rolling with my sweet new beard, don't get jealous. You too can grow out the Hick-manchu.

Buttons is at 4701 W. Freeway. That's the shopping center with Central Market and Mi Cocina. The restaurant is on the northwest side of the shopping center.