Dish It out
Relaxed Regatta
A nautical-themed restaurant on the Monongahela River offers a relaxing setting with savory entrees and sweet treats. ➼
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f the restaurant world is a regatta, then Patrick Duffy has won the race. The Pittsburgh native and chef at Regatta Bar & Grille in Morgantown is making waves inside the restaurant at Waterfront Place Hotel. Here, sizzling steaks and exquisite cocktails have been enticing diners near and far for more than 10 years, as the restaurant caters to locals and weary travelers alike. The Regatta serves its regulars and fulfills room service requests for 200-plus hotel rooms. “You want the locals to come, but you also have to keep the hotel guests happy. That’s the biggest challenge of my job,” Patrick says. “If WVU’s football team is playing Texas, you might have a group of Texans eating dinner. You just never know.” To appeal to everyone, Regatta offers a diverse menu, with everything from creamed chicken and biscuits to a center cut filet of beef. For lunch, the grilled chicken quesadilla is popular, as are the grilled cheese and Patrick’s famous tomato basil soup. One of the most popular dinner entries is the baked macaroni and cheese—with the option of adding lobster. “The lobster macaroni and cheese is my favorite. I have it for dinner every other night,” says Marissa Amoruso, manager at Regatta Bar & Grille. The seared Atlantic salmon—served with cauliflower-potato puree, bacon, and Brussels sprouts—is also a hit, but Patrick’s favorite is the pork loin. “We roast it until it’s rare then slice it and grill it. It’s served with a sweet potato and root vegetable hash,” he says. Then there’s the Friday crab and prime rib buffet. Just going for appetizers? Try the Boursin cheese puffs and stuffed peppers or the pad thai calamari—perfectly crispy and topped with a sweet chili peanut sauce. For dessert, the coffee crème brûlée and the flourless chocolate cake with mocha rum sauce and fresh raspberries are equally tempting. Patrick has wanted to be a chef since he was a teenager. At 15 he was working as a dishwasher at the Perry Town Tavern in Pittsburgh. “I looked at the chefs and thought, ‘I don’t want to wash dishes. I want to do that,’” he says. Determined to pursue his dream, he enrolled at the New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier, Vermont. Then he spent several years working for restaurants across the country. He was working at Table 26 in Palm Beach, Florida, when he and his wife decided it was time to move closer to family. “We had a 15-month-old son, and we didn’t have any help down there,” he says. His morgantownmag.Com
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