Photo by J. Sinclair

Take a classic comfort food — say a moist, savory meatloaf. Add some unbelievable mashed potatoes (Grandma’s recipe) and those fine-dining touches that come from more than 80 years of accumulated culinary wisdom — and what do you get? A truly satisfying dining experience — one that makes you pause so you can savor each delicious mouthful.

That’s Crush 1345, a new restaurant on High Point’s Main Street. Local foodies might be familiar with its space under another name: Pomodoro. But don’t fret; the owners are the same and many of the flavors are the same. The approach, though, is different. “We call it fine dining for the masses,” jokes owner and executive chef Ronnie Stevens. “My philosophy is that food should be fun and good and enjoyed with wine.” You can certainly find all of that and more at this unobtrusive little gem just a few blocks from Furniture Market central.

A High Point native, Stevens attended culinary school at Johnson & Wales University and returned to the Triad to begin his career — 28 years strong. Stevens owned two restaurants in Winston-Salem before he and his wife found the High Point spot. From one small dining room, the couple expanded their space and won a reputation for excellent food and equally excellent service.

But then last fall, at the height of the restaurant’s popularity, they changed it. “High Point got flooded with what I’d call four-star or five-star restaurants,” Stevens recalls. “There’s a small pot in High Point for fine dining, so I decided to appeal to a larger audience.”

They did this by cutting prices, while at the same time maintaining the quality and increasing the variety. “We use the same seasonings, the same high-quality meats,” Stevens adds. “We just don’t serve such large portions. We give people the opportunity to order smaller portions. I think that’s key.”

A look at the menu — which changes seasonally — demonstrates the options. Diners can order American tapas and “Crush” plates (“crushed down to a lighter dinner size” — like the divine jumbo lump crab cake) in addition to the main plates and specials. And the current menu — the same for lunch and dinner — is sprinkled with eight vegetarian choices.

It’s a strategy that’s really working. The evening we visited, the restaurant quickly filled with couples and larger parties, keeping the kitchen hopping as two of the restaurant’s three chefs turned out dish after fabulous dish.

The two — Stevens and his culinary school roommate, Greensboro native Donovan West — have worked together off and on since their school days, and their easy camaraderie shows. Both chefs bring special touches to the table. Try West’s “steak du jour” with his signature “Dono” sauce. Crush also uses a number of family recipes, such as mashed potatoes, which come from West’s grandmother, and sharp white-cheddar olive nuggets created by Stevens’ mother.

It’s a family affair all around. Stevens’ wife, Noelle, co-owns the restaurant, creating the menus and ordering the wines on Crush’s impressive list. His mother makes most of the desserts. “Except the crème brûlée,” Stevens notes. “That’s my dish.” And the staff is part of the family there as well, with one particular person having worked for the Stevens family at all three of their restaurants for the past 19 years.

But for Crush and for Stevens, the family is even larger; it encompasses the whole community. He does all of his food shopping locally and plugs into local charities and institutions, cooking meals for the Open Door Ministries Father’s Table Food Kitchen and providing catering for a fundraiser for High Point Theatre Art Galleries.

And most recently, the restaurant has also hit upon a creative way to donate to charities that patrons feel passionate about through the “Name Your Tapas” contest. Local cooks submit their recipes for tasty tapas to Crush, the staff chooses a winner, and that recipe is featured on the next month’s menu. For each customized tapa sold during the period it appears on the menu, $1 is donated to the winner’s charity of choice.

The March/April champion was Kim Boone, whose horseradish jumbo shrimp with Creole ŕemoulade is a winner in more than one way. Proceeds go to the Humane Society of the Piedmont. A tally sheet hangs on the bulletin board in the kitchen, keeping track of the number of orders. At the end of the month Stevens writes a check, and at the end of the year, the tapas recipe with the most requests will win the charity of choice an extra donation. That leaves a mighty good taste in your mouth.