Wild Rosemary Bistro has quite the waiting list, but your taste buds will thank you

Patience. Some people have it. Some people don't.

Hopefully, it's a quality you embrace. Why? Because you'll need it if you want to dine at the tiny, 28-seat Wild Rosemary Bistro in Upper St. Clair, located at the bottom of winding Bower Hill Road.

Started by Cathleen Enders and chef Gloria Fortunato, the two women have basically had a full book of business since they opened the doors in 2006.

I first discovered Wild Rosemary's simple Mediterranean fare during a party in 2010. The ladies were serving slices of caramelized onion-and-goat-cheese tart to hungry guests. Despite not being a goat-cheese fan at the time, it blew my mind how amazing simply prepared ingredients could taste. Four years after that first bite, I finally made it to the restaurant. A few weeks ago, I made a second visit.

The long delays between visits are partially self-inflicted but are largely because demand for a table at Wild Rosemary is high — very high. Currently, you'd be a miracle worker if you were able to get a seat before the first of the year. When you do get a reservation, hopefully your fate is better than mine. Both of my previous reservations had to be rescheduled because of a burst pipe in the kitchen. The wait between rescheduling those reservations? One month.

Patience.

But the wait? It's worth it. The hype? It's real. And the food? It's amazing.

One final tip about making a reservation: If you get a choice, go with the later seating — they only offer two times. The pace of the night slows down, and you'll feel less rushed through the overall experience.

Also, don't forget your favorite wine or craft beer, as the restaurant is BYOB.

The inside of Wild Rosemary is romantically cozy, like a warm wool blanket on a cool fall day. It's rustic, yet not overdone, despite having a dining room that is smaller than the average American living room. It's also inviting, because Cathleen greets guests with a warm hello and a smile as if she's been waiting for just you and your guests to arrive.

It's an atmosphere many try to achieve but few pull off. The one drawback of having such an intimate space is the noise. It can get loud quick, depending on the volume of the other guests. It makes whispering sweet nothings to your sweetheart slightly more difficult but not impossible.

Once seated, the chef sends out a bite on the house, a practice known as amuse-bouche. The night I visited, it was lavash, a light and airy, grilled flatbread, finished with flaky salt, ground peppercorns, and chile flakes served with sweet corn butter. The flatbread was crispy, and the subtle sweet corn flavor of the butter was a tasty preview of the simple flavors the chef had in store.

The menu at Wild Rosemary changes every few weeks with the exception of one dish: the scallops. These are a guest favorite and most likely will never go away. While the preparation might change based on seasonal availability and inspiration, you'll often find similar proteins like beef, lamb, pork and fish on the menu.

We started dinner off with the beets. Simmered in red wine, the beets were served roughly chopped and dressed lightly with oil, crushed peppercorns and salt. These were no limp, can-variety beets. These beets still had firmness and an earthy flavor that only comes when prepared straight from the ground.

For the main course, I went with the scallops. Three medium-sized, deeply seared scallops were served on top of a bed of bucatini from Fede Pasta in Irwin, wilted arugula, roasted tomatoes and batons of reggiano. A rocket salad made with arugula, white balsamic vinaigrette, salt, pepper and a sprinkle of sugar accompanied the hearty portion. The scallops were tender with no trace of grit, but the pasta was lackluster in comparison.

The other main course we tried was the pork ribs. Housemade, honey-mustard tangy barbecue sauce was slathered over a literal tower of neatly stacked ribs. These were topped with two thick pieces of garlic toast, and finished with a skewer through a half-dozen bread-and-butter pickles. The pork was so tender it came off the bone with no effort.

Other main-course items include Chilean sea bass; grilled, French-cut lamb-rack lollies; an aged, 22-ounce porterhouse steak with special steak sauce; and a grilled, 14-ounce center-cut pork chop with sweet corn relish.

The bad news: By the time you get a table, I'm sure the menu will look significantly different. The good news: Whatever chef Gloria is currently featuring, I'm sure, will be equally delightful.

Pacing between courses is slow. Chef Gloria is basically a one-woman show, so even though you've finally scored that reservation, your patience might be tested again. You'll just have to trust me that your patience will pay off.

Dessert is a must. It's an exclamation point on the end of a tasty night. We tried the coconut-cream cheesecake, which was dramatically less dense than most cheesecakes. The mildly sweet cake had big flakes of coconuts that added a sweet crunch to each bite.

If you're not willing to wait, you'll miss out on an almost-mythical gem. If you can endure, you're destined to experience greatness.

Julia Gongaware is one of the food-savvy ladies of eatPGH.com, who contribute a weekly Dining Out column to Trib Total Media.