Palm Bay restaurant is more than your average pizza joint | Restaurant Review
Station 49 is a good restaurant. One has the impression that if we return in a year, it could be a special restaurant.
Spacious indoors and out, it is immaculate, modern and smart, with patio furnishings arranged to form a dining room and art that reflects a love of classic automobiles. It is Italian in flavor, complete with wood-fired oven, but nowhere do you get that pizzeria impression, which is just fine because Brandon Basista, of Bearded Chef renown, is capable of a lot more than pies and pasta.
Service is spot-on, and the menu is wisely limited: a variety of 12-inch pizzas with names like White Truffle Bianchi (ricotta, mushrooms, white truffle oil, $18 or 12.50, lunch) and Hang 10 (tomato sauce, mozzarella, pineapple, ham, pickled Anaheim peppers and teriyaki glaze, $17 or $12.50); burgers and sandwiches, including Thai My Shroom (beef, pork and mushroom blended burger, mushroom bacon, pickled enoki mayonnaise and Thai ketchup on a brioche bun, $16); salads, appetizers and a few simple pasta dishes.
We started with arancini ($11) and what a start it was. At Station 49, these are large, with a crispy coating that retains no oily flavor, stuffed with rice and cheese. More akin to Roman suppli than the traditional Sicilian al ragu version of rice balls, they contain no vegetables or sauce, yet neither rice nor cheese lost anything to the San Marzano tomato sauce that accompanied it.
My fellow diners also went with a shared pear salad ($13.50), and they raved about it the rest of the day. This is a nicely balanced mixture of mesclun, endive, toasted walnuts and pears topped with truffled pecorino cheese and dressed with lemon-olive oil vinaigrette.
Dinners were Margherita ($11 or $15) and Sweet + Spicy ($12.50 or $17) pizzas, the latter served with chicken rather than pepperoni; and a turkey burger ($16).
The pizzas also received praise, not least because of the ease with which that chicken was subbed on. Otherwise, Sweet + Spicy meant tomato sauce, cheese, pickled peppers and honey, a substantial offering. The Margherita had sauce, slices of fresh mozzarella and basil leaves, and if Mr. Basista didn’t make that cheese in his own kitchen, he bought it from someone who did.
If I had a complaint about the pies, it was their bulk. I prefer pizza, particularly that which is wood-fired, to have a thinner, airier crust; Neapolitan style, if you will. These were by no means doughy, but still could have used an extra pull or two.
The turkey burger was excellent: perfectly prepared, without any of the rubbery texture or over-marinated flavor these things tend to have. Basista’s version was topped with a fat slice of bright red tomato, Bibb lettuce and melted brie, dressed with a lovely, light curry mayonnaise, served with a cup of truffle-Parmesan fries, which also were first rate, and garlic-lemon aioli.
Because photographs require light and light comes with lunch, we went to Station 49 fairly early, and after the meal, Basista — For what it’s worth, he didn’t see me until well after the bill was paid, when I went back and banged on his kitchen door — sent cannoli to the two populated tables in the place. Cannoli were not on the menu, possibly because he’s trying them out, but they deserve to be. I doubt he made his own shells, but that filling was exactly as it should have been: creamy and not crazy-sweet.
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Shortcomings? Well, a restaurant that serves what Station 49 does deserves better than the Coke-products-norm for soft drinks; a house-made lemonade would have been perfect, and though its wines are fine, it also deserves a liquor license.
But that’s about it. Station 49 has as much potential as any new restaurant on the Space Coast, and we think it will live up to it. This has the chance to become special indeed. See you there.
Station 49
Three and a half stars
Address: 4720 Dixie Hwy., Palm Bay
Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily
Call: 321-327-5799
Online: station49pizza.com
Surcharge: None
Other: Beer and wine; large parties and special events handled.
About our reviews
Restaurants are rated on a five-star system by FLORIDA TODAY’s reviewer. The reviews are the opinion of the reviewer and take into account quality of the restaurant’s food, ambiance and service. Ratings reflect the quality of what a diner can reasonably expect to find. To receive a rating of less than three stars, a restaurant must be tried twice and prove unimpressive on each visit. Each reviewer visit is unannounced and paid for by FLORIDA TODAY.
Five stars: Excellent. A rare establishment to which you’d be proud to take the most discerning diner.
Four stars: Very good. Worth going out of your way for. Food, atmosphere and service are routinely top notch.
Three stars: Good. A reasonably good place with food and service that satisfy.
Two stars: Fair. While there’s nothing special about this establishment, it will do in a pinch.
One star: Not recommended. Don’t bother.
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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Station 49 in Palm Bay excels at food, atmosphere and service
