Morcilla in Lawrenceville is a lesson in post-hype evolution
By Hal B. Klein / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A couple of weeks ago, a friend and I devoured a meal of small plates at Morcilla, the 9-year-old Basque-influenced restaurant on Butler Street in Lower Lawrenceville.
We’d settled in by the open accordion windows at the end of the long, hand-crafted bar with a couple old favorites — setas a la plancha, an umami-bomb appetite stimulant of crispy oyster mushrooms, runny egg yolk and pungent shallots, and the must-order costillas de la matanza (melty, gooey baby back ribs drizzled with harissa honey, za’atar and labneh).
We rounded out the spur-of-the-moment dinner on the autumnal equinox with gastronomic snapshots of the end of summer: succulent scallop crudo in a shimmering lake of Peruvian ground cherry, mint, lemon, olive oil and espelette pepper, and juicy skate wings with corn, shishito peppers, hazelnuts, brown butter and lemon.
A few nights later, I found myself back at Morcilla to have a nightcap with a friend who’d made it a point to go there during her short visit to Pittsburgh.
I planned to enjoy a vermouth cocktail or two from the drinks program led by longtime Pittsburgh bartender Lynn Falk and then call it a night. Morcilla is one of the few spots in town that offers a strong selection of the fortified wine as part of its terrific list of sherry, funky Spanish ciders, wine, craft cocktails and beer.
However, I arrived in the high-ceilinged, taverna-style dining room just as the trout plate hit the table, and there was no way I was going to pass up the opportunity for a few bites of what for years has ranked among my favorite fish dishes in Pittsburgh.
I was, however, too late to experience the delicate touch of vanilla oil and blue cheese on the spiced Salty Pork Bits chorizo — a flavor combination my friend said she craves every time she returns to Pittsburgh.
That trout, slathered with zesty, herbaceous salsa verde and topped with fried artichokes, was an early staple of the restaurant.
It isn’t a stagnant one, though. At Morcilla, even old favorites evolve. Not too long ago, the kitchen started serving the whole fish deboned and laid out like an open book for a more refined presentation.
Biking home following a second spontaneous visit to Morcilla in as many weeks after having last dined there nearly a year ago, I started thinking about the satellite of restaurants that opened in the middle of the previous decade, including Bar Marco, Senti, The Vandal, Chengdu Gourmet and The Café Carnegie. All have matured from being the buzziest spots in town to valuable staples.
Restaurants like these stick around and remain popular because they balance consistency without letting go of the lean-forward mindset that garnered the early hype. They keep the rhythm in Pittsburgh’s always-changing dining landscape. Morcilla is at the forefront.
Justin Severino and Hilary Prescott Severino opened Morcilla in late 2015 as a follow-up to the wildly popular Cure, their Upper Lawrenceville restaurant that earned widespread national acclaim — including four James Beard Award nominations for Severino — before closing in 2019.
Severino’s right-hand man, Nate Hobart, was named Morcilla’s chef de cuisine when he was just 24, but he’d already worked alongside Severino for five years.
Morcilla followed Cure’s lead. In 2016, Bon Appétit magazine named Morcilla the No. 4 Best New Restaurant in the United States and the James Beard Foundation long-listed it for a Best New Restaurant, putting it on the national map and reinforcing Pittsburgh’s reputation as a budding food destination.
Now 32, Hobart is Morcilla’s executive chef and a partner in the restaurant. He’s seemingly everywhere: greeting guests as they walk in, running plates to tables and even working the dish pit.
It’s not because the restaurant is short-staffed; Morcilla’s service is first-rate and its kitchen is humming. Hobart’s growing presence in the front of house speaks to his maturation as a restaurant operator.
“I love being in the bar area and seeing all the regulars that come here. We see them weekly or every other week,” Hobart says. “For the first five or six years I never really came out of the kitchen at all.”
Meanwhile, Prescott Severino continues to manage Morcilla’s daily operations and handle the wine program. For the past few years, Justin Severino’s focus has been on Salty Pork Bits, his award-winning charcuterie business, which operates out of the USDA-approved facility in the restaurant’s basement.
Hobart and chef Ezra Shapiro work together to craft a menu that’s a blend of beloved standards, seasonal dishes and familiar favorites with seasonal twists.
“We have a core of seven to 10 dishes people come here specifically for — the oxtail, the ribs, the mushrooms, the charcuterie. Having those gives us the flexibility to try new things all the time,” Hobart says.
When I returned (deliberately this time) to Morcilla last week, the shift in the weather was reflected in the menu.
Out was the peach and tomato salad, in were beets prepared in much tastier fashion than the goat cheese and arugula combo that often serves as a standard-issue fall salad. At Morcilla, we were served chunks of the taproot (which could have been cut a little smaller) bolstered by rose labneh, Honeycrisp apples, pistachios, Banyuls vinegar and cilantro.
Along with the lush seafood stew, it was a reminder that there is a lot to look forward to as the weather cools.
“Working with younger local farmers like ‘Joddo’ [Jason Oddo of Coldco Farm] helps the restaurant to keep evolving,” Hobart says. “They can grow what’s new to them, and we can see what we can do with those ingredients. It feeds both ways.”
Hobart credits Prescott Severino’s management, the ability to attract and retain staff long term and the collaborative nature of the kitchen for keeping the restaurant humming. A balance of loyal regulars mixed with a steady flush of first-timers — somewhere between 60% and 75% on any given night — keeps spirits fresh, too.
“It still feels to us like we’re a new restaurant in a lot of ways,” he says.
That feeling is reflected in the latest addition to the large-plate menu (previously limited to the aforementioned trout and roasted chicken with crisped Calasparra rice): smoked beef short rib. Hobart says it took a few months to perfect the plating.
Now spread over a bed of velvety sweet potato tahini, crunchy-creamy fried sweet potatoes and acidic roasted pepper, the short rib feels like an event when it arrives at the table. If the tender slices of beef, elegantly carved and plated like shingles along the dramatic rib bone, had a touch of finishing salt it would be a strong contender for the best beef dish in Pittsburgh right now.
One other way Morcilla still feels like a new restaurant: It’s busy, and, at times, boisterous. If you want to go — and you certainly should, especially if it’s been a while — make a reservation.
3519 Butler St., Lawrenceville; morcillapittsburgh.com