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Femme de Joie was cheered when she heard that Chef Jeff Cerasaro was slated to open up shop again in the old Fiesta Azteca spot on Park Marina Drive (long-time residents will remember that as the old Jolly King when The Knight's Inn first opened in the late 1960s; since then a series of restaurants has come and gone). Say what you will about Chef Jeff - and M. de Joie has heard a lot of opinions about the man himself - he knows how to cook.

After three visits to Tortuga, Femme de Joie can safely say without fear of contradiction that she has absolutely no idea who's in charge or what's going on in the kitchen; it just gets confuseder and confuseder.

On her first visit, M. de Joie arrived at 12:30 PM. There were 2 booths occupied. It took four minutes to connect with someone to seat her and another ten before her order was taken. The prices on the menu were reasonable but the menu seemed to be overextended in offerings. There were some standard coffee shop staples, plus some old Pio Loco standards like smoked salmon dressing and pork naranja; they served breakfast, lunch, and dinner. When M. de Joie ordered steak tacos, the waitress asked, “Do you want, uh, the beans and stuff?” At 1:00 the waitress came back with a report that it would just be a minute. Ten minutes later she came back and reported there had been a mix-up, something about an order of fish tacos being taken by “her girl” and they were making the steak tacos right now.



A few minutes later the food actually arrived with steak tacos, beans and stuff. The tacos had chunks of steak that were juicy and flavorful. The mango salsa was mostly mangoes with no other flavors. The beans were completely tasteless; the rice had a slight tartness that may have been from a tomatillo salsa. There was a pile of plain shredded white cabbage which seemed to have no purpose except to fill out that edge of the plate. A glass of sweetened iced tea was very sweet indeed.

On her second visit, M. de Joie was seated promptly. There were five full tables and a crowd at the bar, so this was an improvement. But the menu had been completely overhauled and it looked like all traces of Chef Jeff had been scrubbed away. It was a very ordinary diner menu - club sandwiches, burgers, salads, with nary a taco in sight.



Turkey burger with potato salad.

The turkey burger was cooked all the way through - appropriate when dealing with poultry - but the only seasoning was a pinch of salt, so the sandwich was very bland. The potatoes in the salad were a bit crisp; the dressing was undistinguished. Overall, the meal reminded M. de Joie of the diet one might get in the hospital when recovering from surgery.

There was yet another menu set before her when M. de Joie made her third visit, a combination of the first two: Diner delights meets quasi-Mexican.

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A cup of creamy broccoli soup was really quite delicious, thin but creamy with a mild broccoli flavor. There was an odd little clump of semi-melted cheese bobbing on top.



The Tortuga Tortilla Special was a wrap with grilled chicken, asparagus, Cheddar cheese and pico de gallo, seved with black and white beans and grilled vegetables. This should have been wonderful but was a huge disappointment all the way around. On her first bite, M. de Joie noticed a weird bitter taste that turned out to be very old, tough stringy asparagus. Nothing could cover up that unpleasantness, not the chicken, the not-quite melted cheese, or the bland pico de gallo. The rest of the plate was no better - the black and white beans were cool-to-lukewarm and the grilled fresh vegetables (squash, carrots, yellow bell peppers), while perfectly cooked, sat in an enormous puddle of oil that rapidly seeped out toward the rest of the plate. Later that evening, Femme de Joie was still acutely aware of that virtually inedible lunch.

What's going on at Tortuga Bay Grill? It's a bright and pleasant space that could be home to a spiffy retro-lounge diner, but while the service has improved, the kitchen has lost its way and gotten into trouble. M. de Joie hopes that someone can step into the lead here and improve the food and execution.

edit: Tortuga Grill is now closed.

Tortuga Bay Grill, 1815 Park Marina Drive, Redding, CA, 229-0755. Open for breakfast (Saturday-Sunday only), lunch, and dinner. Beer and wine. Credit cards. On-site parking. Vegetarian and vegan options. Website at Tortuga Bay Grill.

Pio Loco first opened in 1986 in a former pizzeria on Lake Boulevard as a non-traditional Mexican restaurant; when the old gymnasium at the Pine Street School became available in the mid-1990’s, Chef Jeff Cerasaro upped sticks and moved to the considerably more roomy downtown location. Within the past few months Pio Loco has undergone some pleasant changes: the bar was moved downstairs, a dance floor was added along with a plant-filled room divider, and a new earthy Mediterranean color scheme completed the update.

About ten years ago the mainly quasi-Mexican menu expanded to include fusion dishes such as Pork Tenderloin Naranja (pork with sake, mandarin oranges, and cilantro) and sides like risotto and balsamic spinach. In 2007 the Mexican /fusion dishes were scooted to the side when Cerasaro decided to turn the emphasis to seafood. Whether fish didn’t sell well or customers requested the old menu is unknown, but within a year the Mexican dishes were being featured again. A few fish dishes remain (salmon with pesto, halibut con grejo) as do the salads, a few mainstream entrees (rib-eye steak, filet) and some Asian-influenced appetizers (ahi sashimi, ahi poki).

It seems, however, that more attention is currently being paid to the aesthetics of the interior than to the quality of the food coming out of the kitchen. Femme de Joie remembers eating at the Lake Boulevard location and then at the newly-refurbished Pine Street restaurant, and enjoying the food greatly. Over the last few visits she has noticed a definite decline in taste and presentation , uneven execution of many of the staple dishes, and some oddly inconsistent pricing.
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The first thing that caught M. de Joie’s eye on the menu was that the first basket of chips and bowl of salsa are complimentary; order another and that’s $1.00 for chips and $1.50 for salsa. Now M. de Joie will defend any restaurateur’s right to turn a profit, but it is standard practice at every other Mexican restaurant to simply bring another round of both when requested and figure that into the overall cost of each meal. Further, the hot garlic salsa may or may not still be offered; on one occasion when M. de Joie requested some hotter salsa, the busboy looked confused and said there wasn‘t any other hot sauce. But on another visit the garlic salsa was being served to all tables.

Among appetizers, the oyster shooters (two for $2.95) are a good bet: two raw oysters, each in its own cup, covered in a sweet, chunky cocktail sauce. These are light and fresh, what a good appetizer should be: to whet the diner’s appetite for dishes to come, not sate it with fatty, heavy globules of melted cheese or deep-fried vegetables with gooey dipping sauce.
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A lunch special: bay shrimp and avocado wrap with green salad, smoked salmon dressing on the side. This should have been great but was very bland: the green salad was out of a bag - iceberg lettuce-shredded carrot-red cabbage, with a few diced tomato pieces. The smoked salmon dressing (95 cents extra) deserves decent greens but iceberg lettuce isn’t it. As for the wrap, there was no dressing on the filling to give it a creamy cohesiveness. While the avocado chunks were ripe and the shrimp were tasty, the entire wrap was disappointing and needed quite a lot of salt to give it some flavor.

A word about that green salad: a note on the menu indicates if a salad or soup is ordered as a side with a main course, it costs $2.50. However, if you order a simple side salad or cup of soup by itself, it costs $7.95. There is no other word to describe that but rip-off (usury not strictly being correct). Imagine this: you go to meet an old friend for lunch at Pio Loco. You order your meal but your friend isn’t very hungry or is on a diet. “I’ll just have a dinner salad.” When the bill comes, there it is: $7.95 for a small plate of iceberg lettuce. Your friend is not going to be amused and that is what you‘ll both remember about the food.
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Burrito mejor with carne asada, $9.95. The carne asada shreds were tasty enough and freshly grilled, but the rest of the ingredients - pinto beans, Napa cabbage, cheese - didn’t have much flavor on their own and contributed little but bulk to the entire dish. Verde sauce was pleasantly tart but the Spanish sauce tasted like it was out of a can. This appeared to have had the sauces poured over and then allowed to sit long enough for both the Spanish and verde sauces to soak into the tortilla and congeal. It was accompanied by yet another pile of shredded iceberg lettuce and diced tomatoes.
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Beer battered halibut and chips, $14.95.

On a lunch outing, M. de Joie placed her order for halibut and chips with the waitress at 12:15. It arrived at table at 12:42 - and this when there were no more than six other tables occupied. The chips were out of a bag of frozen crinkle-cuts and had been sitting around cooling for a good ten minutes or more. The slaw was a mixture of shredded cabbage and carrots in an oily dressing without any discernable flavor save a slight sweetness. Four small halibut chunks were long on breading and short on actual halibut; what fish was there had been overcooked to a wooly texture. The fish had apparently been fried at the same time the potatoes were.

A better-than-average wine list is offered with numerous selections available by the glass for a fair price, and a couple of local vineyards (Alpen Cellars from Trinity County, Alger Vineyards in Manton), as well as a tasty selection of beers (Kona Longboard, Tangerine Wheat).

Femme de Joie feels that Pio Loco’s kitchen is attempting to go in more directions than can be accomplished with success, and the overall menu is suffering due to a lack of focus. Mexican, fish, Asian, steak, multiple side dishes and appetizers - each one deserves care, high-quality ingredients, and individual preparation, and it appears they are not getting it. There is also a problem with getting completed dishes out of the kitchen in a timely fashion. During one visit, there was one waitress visible plus the hostess and a very hard-working busboy - not enough staff to cover such a large space.

While Chef Jeff can be seen emerging from his office now and then, does he ever go into the kitchen and cook? It’s a shame to see the food and service at Pio Loco slide downhill when it had been so good in the past, and after all the work that’s gone into updating the décor. Pio Loco was at first a fine addition to the downtown business community. It is hoped this is a very temporary decline and the situation rights itself.

EDIT: Pio Loco closed a few months after righting itself; however, Chef Jeff has announced plans to open a new restaurant in the old Fiesta Azteca location on Park Marina Dive. Good on him.

Pio Loco, 1135 Pine Street in the Pine Street School (corner of Eureka Way), 530-246-2111. Open 11:30 to 4:30 Monday-Friday for lunch, dinner 4:30 to 9:00 PM Monday-Thursday, until 9:30 PM Friday and Saturday. Full bar. Vegetarian options. On site-parking. Cash, local checks, cards. Occasional live music. Club Coco Loco 9:00 PM - 1:00 AM Friday & Saturday. Website and menu at http://www.pioloco.com/