A deli by day, fine dining by night

By day, it's called Geno's Big Belly Deli, with a generous menu featuring salads, cold and hot subs, wings, bread sticks, chili and a soup du jour, a daily lunch special and pizza, including specialty pies. There's the Big Belly Bomb pizza -- mushrooms, onions, green peppers, ground beef, pepperoni, sausage and extra cheese -- as well as The Barn Burner -- grilled Buffalo-style chicken, onions, sliced tomatoes and blue-cheese dressing. Do-it-yourself pizzas have 24 optional toppings, including roasted peppers, roasted garlic and feta cheese.

By night, the establishment, which opened in March 2007, reverts to Geno's Restaurant. The paper napkins are put away, replaced by linens, and candles are lit. The menu elevates to fine dining -- chicken and veal entrees, pastas and steaks. Eugene -- "Geno" -- is the chef, a native of Portland, Maine. The 39-year-old former Alaska fisherman is proud of his seafood lineup: grilled butter salmon, Maryland crab cakes, cajun or blackened tuna steak, broiled or fried cod, grilled cajun shrimp, broiled or fried sea scallops and, the piece de resistance, the Fisherman's Platter.

Lisa Giguere, 33 -- a teacher at Fox Chapel Area High School -- says the platter is the big hit.

"It's a favorite in Portland and very representative of Geno's roots," she says. "Diners get a piece of cod, a crab cake, enormous scallops and shrimp served on a bed of fresh-cut french fries."

She says her favorite dish is prime rib, slow-roasted until rare and served at dinner on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. "It's to die for," she adds.

Geno Giguere is not a chef by education -- the last job he had was as a contractor, says his wife, adding that his jobs took him across the United States.

"I learned from the school of hard knocks," he says.

His cooking instructor was his mother, who escaped from East Germany in the '60s and immigrated to the United States. But she didn't teach him how to make wiener schnitzel and spatzle.

"My mother wanted to be American, so she didn't make German dishes," he says. "But I was inspired by her obscene use of butter and cream and her experimentation. She would take someone else's recipe and change the method, put her own twist on it."

A good example of his mother's culinary legacy is Geno's Linguine with White Clam Sauce, which he shared with Cooking Class. The typical way to make the sauce is to add the cream and cheese toward the end of cooking, but the chef adds it first.

"I like to get all those flavors hot and coming together," he says.

Appetizers on the dinner menu include fried dough, sprinkled with parmesan and served warm with marinara sauce; baked brie in a ham wrap baked on homemade parmesan flatbread; French onion soup; and calamari. Seven dinner salads -- antipasto to Greek to tuna steak -- are offered. The honey Dijon and Greek salad dressings are homemade. Chicken and veal are prepared four ways, and pasta includes linguine and broccoli alfredo, spaghetti with meatballs or sausage or both, and scallop or shrimp scampi.

Geno's restaurant is the chef's dream come true -- "he's always wanted to do this," says his wife, an Indiana Township native whose great-grandfather owned a bar just down the street from their restaurant.

The chef says he was moved to open Geno's at this time in his life after a talk with his mother.

"My mother wanted to have a (bed-and-breakfast)," he says. "One day, we were watching the Travel Channel about B&Bs in New England and how popular they are. My mother turned to me and said she should have borrowed a half-million dollars and bought one, and that she wished she had tried. It was her lifelong dream."

The chef's mother passed away in 2004, at which time he decided to reach for the stars.

"I put all of my eggs in one basket and took the risk," he says.

Now he works 18-hour days, sometimes with little or no help. But he and his wife, parents of an 8-month-old daughter, Josie, are determined to realize success.

"We hope our customers feel like they are coming to our house," Lisa says.

Chef/co-owner Geno Giguere also offers this dish with a red-wine sauce, as well as scallops or shrimp with red- or white-wine sauce.

• Water

• 2 ounces extra-virgin olive oil

• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

• 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese, more for garnish

• Salt, ground black pepper and ground white pepper

• 1/4 cup dry white wine, such as chardonnay

• 1 cup drained canned chopped clams

• 1/4 cup clam juice

• 3 to 4 ounces uncooked linguine (9 ounces cooked)

• 5 tablespoons butter, cut in equal pieces

• Minced fresh Italian parsley, for garnish

Put a large pot of water on the stove to bring to a boil.

To make the sauce, place a skillet over high heat. When it is hot, add the olive oil, then the cream (see Photo 1). Whisk to combine. Add 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese, whisking over high heat, then season with a pinch each of salt, ground black pepper and ground white pepper. Bring to a boil and reduce by half, whisking occasionally to keep the cream from burning (Photo 2).

Add the wine and reduce slightly, then whisk in the clams and clam juice. Keep at boiling (Photo 3) to reduce by half -- for about 3 minutes -- then reduce the heat to medium-low to keep the sauce warm.

Meanwhile, put the linguine in the boiling water and cook until al dente. Drain and add to the skillet (Photo 4). Add the butter, piece by piece, to the sauce and whisk to melt and incorporate.

Turn the pasta into a shallow plate. Garnish the edges of the plate with additional parmesan and some parsley.

Makes 1 generous serving.

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