Galleria de Paco

This past Saturday, Lauren and I went to Galleria de Paco in downtown Waterloo. I remember during my first day at work that some people had said I should go inside and check out this place, but honestly, I did not know it was a restaurant until last week. My coworkers were all telling me to check out the remarkable Sistene Chapel-like ceiling floor-to-ceiling mural across the length of the interior, and with a name like "Galleria de Paco," I figured it was some artist's gallery. After doing a little research, I found out that it was an Italian restaurant that got its name from the artist that painted the mural, Paco Rosic of Sarajevo. The restaurant also features a cocktail & tapas bar in the basement called "The Catacombs."

The building even looks like a gallery from the outside. The signage is very decorative, and it has a raised streetfront windowbox that you typically see mannequins displayed in at a clothing store. Upon entering, the atmosphere just hits you all at once. The maitre'd is very formally dressed and very polite, even going so far as to pull our chairs out for us. It's also a high-back chair, cloth-napkin, waitrers-in-bow ties, instrumental-music-in-the-background kind of a place, which made Lauren and I immediately feel underdressed. The menu features four-course meals with your choice of individual appetizer, soup/salad, entree, and dessert for $25 - very reasonable. Last but certainly not least, the mural is very impressive. It is painted right on the sheetrock and I was very impressed with how detailed and maintained the painting was. I don't know enough about the Sistene Chapel to say whether or not it is a replica, but I was certainly amazed. After we got settled in and ordered our food, I found myself very distracted by the outdated furnishings inside. As a designer, I couldn't help but wonder how much some modern lighting, window treatments, and chairs would have improved the space, something minimalist that would not detract from the beautiful paintings. Lauren and I have eaten at a few pretty good places in the Waterloo area, but I have yet to find one that I've really enjoyed architecturally.

For our dinners, I ordered the bacon-wrapped tiger shrimp, lobster bisque, cornish hen in a lemon sauce, and key lime pie. Lauren had shrimp-stuffed pastry, a salad, pasta with chicken, and chocolate cake. I thought the appetizer was not cooked very good - the bacon was burnt, the shrimp was chewy and stringy, and the bed of lettuce it sat on was nasty. The final three courses remedied the weak opening, and the cornish hen was particularly exquisite (albeit messy, I don't understand how people can serve those at weddings). It is definitely not a place to go if you're not that hungry or in a hurry, and a really good place to go before or after a show. The restaurant also gets lots of patrons from the two downtown Waterloo hotels next door, so I'd assume that the downstairs bar is also a great place to grab a drink. After dinner, the maitre'd came by our table and talked with us a bit, making sure we enjoyed our evening at Galleria de Paco. He gave us this book in which people write their comments about the restaurant, and we obliged by writing how much we enjoyed the experience. The book we had was almost full and only dated back to June, and people as far away as Florida had written in it, so I can only imagine how many of these books he has laying around, and what kind of national press this place gets. Lauren and I both left very satisfied and look forward to returning for an evening of martinis at the Catacombs sometime soon.

rankings and stats:
ambiance - 5 (kind of empty when we went)
beer & wine selection - 7
food variety - 6 (about 15 different entrees, but many combinations)
service - 9
accessibility - 6 (downtown parking is like 20 cents/hr)
design - 7 (without mural, probably a 2)
taste -7
price - $$$

Would we recommend? Yes
Style - Italian four-course meal
Dress - semi-formal
Location - 622 Commercial St, Waterloo IA
http://www.paco-rosic.com/