Alba is Stein’s new dawn of his Full Moon Grill

BOULDER – For Rick Stein, moving Boulder’s Full Moon Grill a couple hundred feet felt more like a journey of a couple thousand miles.

Stein founded Full Moon Grill 15 years ago with an eclectic menu and a soon-to-be superstar chef, Bradford Heap. Gradually, the Zagat-rated eatery began serving more northern Italian fare, reflecting Heap’s European training and Stein’s love affair with the Piedmont region of Italy.

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“For 30 years I’ve been going to Italy at least twice a year, drinking Italian wines, eating Italian food and learning more and more about Italian culture,” Stein says. One of his favorite towns is Alba, a medieval burg about 55 kilometers south of Turin in the heart of Barolo and barbaresco wine country.

“Alba means dawn in Italian,” Stein says, making it a perfect name for the new incarnation of Full Moon Grill, which moved across Boulder’s Village Shopping Center in August, after its previous space became the loading dock for the new Sunflower Farmers Market store.

Stein says the move gave him and his staff a chance to transform Full Moon into the restaurant they’d always wanted. First there was the name change, reflecting chef Greg Keesy’s northern Italian menu. Keesy, who took over the kitchen four years ago after Heap left for Chautauqua Dining Hall and eventually Niwot’s Colterra restaurant, has less of a French influence than Heap. “Like the Italians, he likes to keep the food simple – just a few flavors, so the integrity of the ingredients comes through,” Stein says.

The new restaurant, north of McGuckin Hardware, is about 10 percent bigger than Full Moon’s previous space. “We didn’t put in more tables. We wanted a more spacious dining room,” Stein says. “One of the major complaints about Full Moon was that the space was small, and the tables were small.”

Not only is Alba less crowded than Full Moon, it’s quieter. Alba’s designers suspended “clouds” – square acoustical panels – from the 17-foot ceiling to absorb sound. The bar has been moved to the front of the restaurant not only to give patrons a spectacular view of the Flatirons but also to serve as an entrance area – something Full Moon was lacking. “It’s nice when you come into the restaurant, and the bar is right there so you’re not walking into someone’s table,” Stein says.

In the kitchen, the cooking line has been reversed from the Full Moon layout. “The space we’d been in before had been a hamburger restaurant, so it was never right for us. We wanted an efficient kitchen,” Stein says.

The menu is the only aspect of Full Moon that hasn’t undergone a transformation. Alba still serves Full Moon favorites like the crispy polenta and grilled Anjou pear appetizer, and pan seared rare ahi tuna. “We did add pizzas to the lunch menu and eventually we want to add more antipasti. In Piedmont, antipasti is very, very important,” Stein says. “We’ll also be expanding our wine list to include more wines from the Alba region.”