A takeout café that takes nothing for granted
Newton’s Citrio prides itself on being finicky
By Clara Silverstein

  A pulled pork sandwich sounds like pretty basic café fare, but a description illustrates the concept behind Citrio, the new café and catering companion to 51 Lincoln restaurant in Newton Highlands. 
  Every part of the sandwich, from the bread to the sauce drizzled on top, is prepared on the premises.  It all starts with the bun, a modified Pullman (soft, white bread) recipe. Next comes the pork shoulder, seasoned with a house-made dry rub and placed in a smoker—conveniently located in the Citrio kitchen—for eight hours. 
  While the meat is smoking, chefs and business partners Eric Bogardus and Jeffrey Fournier make the barbecue sauce from ancho chile peppers and more than a dozen other ingredients.  Another element of the sandwich is Napa cabbage slaw seasoned with jalapeno peppers and white vinegar.  “No mayonnaise to interfere with the flavor of the meat,” says Fournier, grinning boyishly under a mop of brown curls.  The finished sandwich ($7. 50) is served with house-made sweet potato chips and pickles.  “This is a slow-food mentality,” says Fournier, whose sense of design (he is also a painter) informs the sage green chef’s jackets and egg-yolk yellow walls in the café.  “We’re all from scratch.  I’d be ashamed to buy a pre-made pork rub when it’s so easy to do it ourselves.”
  Fournier and Bogardus, who run Citrio with a third partner, Mark Stein, don’t mind being called fanatics about quality control. Their vision for the business rests on top-notch ingredients going into nearly every item on the menu.  Citrio is a spin-off from Fournier’s contemporary American restaurant across the street.  In today’s competitive market, it makes economic sense for a small restaurant to diversify into catering, wholesale, and take-out. 
  “One business complements the other,” says Fournier, who opened 51 Lincoln in 2006, his first solo venture after stints as the chef at Boston restaurants including the Metropolitan Club and Sophia’s. He and Bogardus, a friend and former colleague at Lydia Shire’s now closed Pignoli restaurant in Boston, had already teamed up to look at spaces for a catering kitchen when the storefront in Newton Highlands became available.  As soon as they gained possession, they installed an awning and a slate floor. The name Citrio comes from a combination of citrus (for fresh flavors) and trio (for the three business partners). 
  The space, formerly the Ice Cream Works, turned out to be large enough for café seating and counter service, as well as a pastry kitchen for 51 Lincoln.  “There are economies of scale—we were already doing pies and breads for the restaurant, and now we can just do more,” says Fournier. 
  Bogardus adds that Citrio makes favorites from the 51 Lincoln menu, such as meatballs or fruit pies, available for take-out.  Yet another aspect of the business is wholesale ice cream sales (flavors change often, but favorites so far have been mango and butter pecan) to gourmet grocery stores and other restaurants. 
  The gleaming, stainless steel kitchen at Citrio, visible from the café, also gives the chefs the space to plan menus based on what’s in season and what artisan products are available. 
  “We like to be flexible about what we’re going to put out each day,” says the ultra-focused Bogardus, who can recite the ingredients of many recipes off the top of his head.  Local products get priority, he adds, pointing out the Terroir coffee based in Acton, Taza chocolate from Somerville, and Fiore di Nonno mozzarella cheese, also from Somerville. With spring, they hope to buy from Newton Angino Community Farm and other local growers. 
  Three blackboards above the service counter list the soups, sandwiches, and deli specials. Mainstays have been a barbecue pizzette ($8), a mini pizza topped with chicken and the same barbecue sauce used for the pulled pork sandwich; house-smoked chicken with pomegranate-herb marinade ($7 for a half, $12 for a whole); and the colorful artichoke heart and grilled shrimp salad with citrus dressing ($22 per pound). One of the unusual side dishes is toasted couscous salad tossed with grilled plums and plenty of fresh ginger ($8. 50 per pound).
  On the sweet side, pastry chef Milissa Laurence turns out super-charged (translation: extra chocolaty) brownies ($3 each) and lemon squares ($2. 50).  Adults who like jelly fruit slices will appreciate the more sophisticated gelees, fruit-flavored gel candies sold by the square ($1. 50).  Ice cream goes by the scoop, pint, or quart.  For customers who want a head start on cooking at home, the freezer case contains chicken stock, pasta sauce, and cookie dough. 
  The chefs plan to expand the selections on their pantry shelf, which now holds an assortment of house-made jams ($6 per jar) in unusual flavors such as blueberry-jalapeno and apple-fennel-hibiscus.  “This ramps up the flavor of peanut butter and jelly,” says one label. 
  The trio also hopes to hold cooking classes in the seating area of the café.  “We’ll never be bored,” says Bogardus.