Restaurateur Racan Alhoch gives no quarter to social media critics – or mediocre Italian-American food.
by Nikki Buchanan | Photography by Melissa Valladares
Back in 2019, Racan Alhoch started turning out the Jersey-style Italian-American pizza and pasta of his youth from a food truck he dubbed Saint Pasta. Over the years, he’s garnered a small army of passionate followers and a reputation as a social media rabble-rouser, ready and willing to go off on Yelpers who leave critical comments. He’s extra, no doubt, but there’s something refreshing about his gumption to fight the tyranny of the uninformed.
After various moves, partnership breakups and pivots (he sold bottled sauces for a time), Alhoch is finally living his long-held dream: making homey but elevated eats in a cozy brick-and-mortar space on Roosevelt Row.
For now, the menu is brief, offering cocktails, mocktails, beer, a handful of natural wines and after-dinner sippers, as well as three starters, four pastas and three renditions of chicken Parm. Short never seemed so sweet.
The restaurant world is full of anemic Caesar salads, but here, it’s a sizeable mix of crisp lettuces (mostly iceberg) tossed in bright, lemony house dressing, the whole affair heavily sprinkled with Parmesan and crunchy breadcrumbs. It’s a Caesar I would heartily hail. Pinsa (a Roman-style flatbread and cousin to pizza) is airy inside, crispy outside and super-garlicky, an excellent accompaniment to the salad. Love the melty, buttery topping, but the garlic borders on overkill. Should I gird my loins for a public takedown?
But oh, how I love the pasta! Alhoch’s signature rigatoni with vodka sauce, slow-cooked for four hours, bursts with spicy tomato flavor. Snow peas provide freshness and snap. Meanwhile, pesto gnocchi – puffy pillows of potato goodness – are bathed in light, creamy house-made pesto, while pine-nut breadcrumbs provide crunchy echo to the pesto.
Chicken Milanese, heaped with arugula, heirloom tomatoes, lemon EVOO and Parmesan, is presented on what just might be the crispiest, best chicken cutlet I’ve ever had. I’ll want this again in every permutation.
Alhoch outsources dessert to Valley bakery Chacónne Patisserie – in this case, a luxurious, mascarpone- and Valrhona chocolate-enriched stracciatella cheesecake that’s so good, New York could take lessons.
I could live without the eardrum-shattering house music, but I haven’t the slightest quibble with Alhoch’s generously portioned, reasonably priced food that feeds the soul. For this, Saint Pasta deserves canonization.
Saint Pasta
Cuisine: Italian-American
Contact: 200 W. Portland St., Phoenix, 480-803-1981, saintpasta.com
Hours: W-Su, 5-10 p.m.
Highlights: Caesar salad ($14); rigatoni vodka ($20); potato gnocchi pesto ($19); chicken Milanese ($22); stracciatella cheesecake ($12)
