Delicious, delicious ice cream at Rancatore's

After dinner at Il Casale, the extended family and I skipped down the block to Rancatore's for some of their legendary ice cream. Ranc's is a legit ice cream shop with good ol' super-premium ice cream and some hard frozen yogurt options as well.

After tasting a couple of flavors, I went with a small cup of half Hydrox hard yogurt, half almonds & chips hard yogurt. This is some good stuff; it's creamy rather than icy, and it satisfies in the way some frozen yogurts don't. The almonds & chips was chock full of almonds, but the occasional chocolate chips were huge chunks, almost an inch long and pretty darn thick. The Hydrox tasted like your standard cookies & cream. Mmm.

Yep

If I had a Ranc's nearby, I'd be a regular patron. As it is, it's a nice treat when I'm in the Eastern Mass area.

Rancatore's
36 Leonard Street, Belmont, MA
617-489-5090

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Pre-Thanksgiving food and family at Il Casale

Last week, after taking the trusty Amtrak back home to Massachusetts, I joined my parents, the bro, and our cousins at Il Casale in Belmont for our annual pre-Thanksgiving dinner. Il Casale is the newest suburban outpost of chef Dante de Magistris, who owns well-respected restaurants in Cambridge and Boston. We entered the warm, classically rustic Italian dining room with high hopes.

Our experience was a bit mixed, although I tend to cut a restaurant some slack when presenting a large party (in this case, eight people). So first, the highlights: We started with some wine, a bottle of falanghina for the ladies and a bottle of chianti for the men (yes, it just coincidentally split that way. We all cringed a little too). To go with the wine was some peasant bread; rip off a chunk, slide it through some olive oil on your plate, and take a sip of wine. Ready to roll.

Bread? Check. Bottle? Check.

Before deciding on entrees, we ordered a variety of sfizi for the table. The plates were small and not inexpensive, but down to the plate they were incredibly high quality and flavorful. Special accolades are awarded to the burrata, a small, sunken hemisphere that looked something like panna cotta but tasted like pure cream, surprisingly enlivened by the candied pistachios on top.

Arancini, perfectly poppable

A duo of classic meatballs

The pate. We had one pate fan at the table... she got most of this.

Scampi-- shrimp and aioli and Boston lettuce

Cauliflower with some cheese and Caesar dressing

Beautiful, beautiful burrata

Then, the entrees. There were some successes here, too-- radiatore with tuna in a tomato sauce was praised, as was the daily special, radiatore with halibut (?). Dad and the bro enjoyed the veal saltimbocca, although the bro did admit he wished there were twice as much on the plate.

Radiatore with tuna and tomato

Special pasta with halibut

Saltimbocca

A side of garlicky spinach

But there were some misses, as well. My cousin HB's meal never arrived; his order apparently got lost in translation, either on the way to or in the kitchen. And my choice, a grilled pear salad with cheese instead of the prociutto, sported an unmistakably assertive porky flavor despite avowals that the dish was vegetarian. To our server's credit, she graciously swapped the salad for an arugula, fresh fig, pecorino, and balsamic concoction that was incredibly delicious. Once my second salad was on the table and HB's pasta had arrived, everyone was most certainly content.

The prosciutto version of the pear salad

My salad, 1.0

My salad, 2.0.

We had some serious dessert plans up our sleeves, so we passed on the dessert menu, paid the sizeable check, and moved on to the sweet portion of our night. Il Casale is definitely a high-quality restaurant, and it's an immensely enjoyable place to spend an evening. It's not cheap (nope, not cheap at all), and while our meal wasn't flawless, ultimately everything was quite tasty and clearly made with care. Had everything gone as planned, Il Casale would have been a four Offset Spatula shoo-in; as it is, it gets a solid three OSes with high potential to return.

Il Casale
50 Leonard Street, Belmont, MA
617-209-4942

Baked & Wired still the best

After my second evening at Proof, I headed back to my hotel room to indulge in something I'd been waiting for for a very, very long time. No, not that. No, not that either. I'm talking cupcakes, people; specifically, cupcakes from Baked & Wired. After work that day, I'd walked all the way to B&W's shop in Georgetown to pick up a Karen's Birthday cupcake-- chocolate cake with white frosting. I carried it with me all the way to Proof, kept it safe through dinner, and then went to town back in my room.

After the Georgetown Cupcakes/B&W head-to-head taste test last year (wherein B&W won handily), I'd been craving this cupcake on and off. And unwrapping it this time around, I was looking forward to the magic. While the experience was slightly different this time around, it was still seriously good. First, there was some interesting marbling going on, as if some dollops of vanilla cake accidentally made its way into the batter.

Little bits of vanilla in there?

Second, the cake wasn't quite as deep and fudgy this time around; more fluffy and springy, it still packed a powerful chocolate taste and a moist-enough texture. The frosting, as I had remembered, was my favorite kind-- vanilla, sugary, and perfect with the cake. And even the cupcake paper, which gives some extra nooks and crannies to the confection, added to the experience.

Like a beautiful rose

Baked & Wired is seriously good. The cupcakes aren't cheap (almost $4, as I recall), but they're completely worth it. Next time I'm in town, I'll absolutely be back. And who knows-- maybe I'll even make some excuse to go to DC simply for the cupcakes. Stranger things have happened...

Baked and Wired
1052 Thomas Jefferson Street NW
Washington, DC
202-333-2500

Proof: My DC home away from home

I was in DC for work a couple of weeks ago, and having fond memories of Proof from my last visit, I decided to head back. I'll say up front: Proof was even better this time around, so good that I ended up there for dinner two out of my three nights in the city.

First off, the atmosphere is almost insanely welcoming. It's artfully lit, with cozy booths and spacious tables; wine bottles line a floor-to-ceiling room divider; there's a bar area in one corner; and the far corner, near the kitchen, houses a quiet little cheese counter, with a cheesemonger (?) methodically portioning enormous wedges of cheese into cheese-plate-sized hunks.

Oh, and the service-- it's spot-on. My waiter the first night came over to welcome me back the second night I was there, even though my table was not in his jurisdiction. Service is solicitous without being overwhelming; it's knowledgeable and friendly but not intrusive.

Proof is a wine bar, so of course there's wine. A decent selection of wines by the glass includes some unusual varietals (great for my Wine Century Club!) and offers three different sizes: half-glass, full glass, and quartino, all at reasonable prices. During my two visits, I tried a Furmint from Hungary and a Zierflander from Austria, both of which were crisp, delicious, and food-friendly.

Furmint

Zierflander

Ah, the food. Unlike at a lot of wine bars, the food here isn't an afterthought; there's a full menu, with lots of space devoted to charcouterie and cheeses, yes, but also an ample selection of salads, appetizers, and entrees.

On both my visits, I started with the olives. These are meaty, salty, substantial orbs in a delicious brine flecked with citrus zest and a touch of crushed red pepper. Since the olives are so large, one order is actually a decently-filling appetizer.

Very carefully plated

There's also a bread course of sorts, which is admittedly not Proof's strong point. While the dip-- Greek yogurt with mint, chives, and olive oil-- is addictive and spoon-worthy, the bread is flat, hard, unsalted, and largely flavorless. I understand why this might make a logical bland cracker for a pungent cheese course, but as a stand-alone bread it just doesn't quite work.

Quantity, not quality

But back to the good stuff. I tried two salads during my visit. First: maple-roasted delicata squash with arugula, pecorino, pumpkin seeds, and cider vinaigrette. This was a tasty and pretty hearty salad, with tender squash and some good crunch from the pumpkin seeds. I wished the pecorino had been portioned a bit thicker; as it was, it was so paper-thin it almost melted into the squash and didn't quite get a chance to assert its salty flavor. But overall, this was a good expression of fall on a plate.

Not too sweet

The second night I chose the roasted beets with pea shoots, kaleidoscope carrots, aged goat cheese, toasted hazelnuts, and sherry mustard vinaigrette (which I'd gotten before). This salad was a really ample portion-- I was unable to finish both this and a full order of olives. The beets were sweet rubies, contrasting nicely with the peppery bite of the pea shoots. I had only two half-carrots in this salad, which was fine with me, since despite being "kaleidoscope" they tasted like normal carrots. The healthy scattering of hazelnuts lent welcome crunch to the mix, and the three small hemispheres of aged goat cheese provided a surprisingly pungent cheesy funk to the mixture. This is a good salad, but it's strong-- the flavors are all assertive, so if you're looking for a mild start to your meal, consider yourself warned.

Buried beets

One of the two evenings, I stayed for dessert. They have some interesting dessert options, including a sticky toffee pudding (which you don't see all that often), but I was looking for something light. One special request later (kindly obliged by both my waiter and the kitchen), and I had a trio of their specialty ice creams. A scoop of gianduja gelato was smooth and hazelnutty; a boule of creme fraiche ice cream was surprisingly tangy and bold; and the orb of coconut sorbet had the appealing shatter-y texture of good sorbet, along with a tantalizing tropical flavor. And the nut cookie providing the garnish added some welcome heft to the dish.

Smooth, creamy, and neutral

I love Proof. It's the kind of place that makes me want to own a wine bar someday, someplace that is cozy and welcoming (even to a solo diner), takes pride in its food, and offers a diverse selection of wines that allow people to try something different without laying out too much cash. Last year, Proof earned four Offset Spatulas from me, and this year it effortlessly retains that rating. You can bet that next time I'm in the area, I'll be back.

Proof
775 G Street NW
202-737-7663

Stout. Hmmm.

A couple weeks ago, NR, LM, the bro and I hit up MSG for the Bruins-Rangers game. Jonesin' for some food and drink beforehand, we convened at Stout, just across the street, for some pre-game fuel.

First of all, let me say that Stout is HUGE. It's got two floors, and even just the top floor is larger than you could even conceive of. We were seated in the far, far back, the farthest table from the entry (literally), amidst a crowd of people scarfing chicken fingers and pounding beers.

The fact that Stout is huge is actually really relevant to this review, because on the night we were there, they were not only huge but apparently painfully understaffed. Sure, there were servers running around, but getting served was a challenge at any point during the night. Fortunately, the bro and I, acting as Advance Team and arriving at the table first, decided to order ASAP to get things rolling. A beer and a Magner's, along with a house salad and a Reuben pizza, were delivered in a relatively timely manner.

The salad, a bowl of mixed greens with matchsticks of green apple, some walnut pieces, and a few dollops of goat cheese, was decent, if small. Once I had finished I was still ravenously hungry and debating ordering a second salad. (I didn't, fortunately... you'll see why.)

Decently fresh

When the pizza arrived, NR had joined our crew, and he and the bro split the pizza. It was a thin-crust pizza topped with Swiss cheese, some sauerkraut, and small chunks of pastrami. While ordering the Reuben pizza was a gamble, it paid off-- both NR and the bro enjoyed this concoction. They planned to finish their meal with a chicken pizza, to be ordered the next time we could flag down a server.

Reuben on a 'za

Our first server (ostensibly the one assigned to our table), passed by in a rush-- the bro flagged her down and said we'd like to order some more food whenever she got a chance. She said she'd be back and then promptly disappeared. We did not see her again. Around 15 minutes passed, and LM joined us; finally, after significant effort and frantic glances at the clock, we were able to order some more drinks, the second pizza, a spinach and artichoke dip, and an order of chicken fingers for LM's meal.

Cue another 15-minute lapse; a manager came over at one point to ask how things were going, and we mentioned we were still waiting for our food while trying to make the start of the Bruins game. He disappeared and returned a few minutes later to tell us the food was on its way. Sweet.

Soon a chicken pizza graced our table. In a moment of group foresight, we'd thought to ask for the check at that point so we could pay and dash whenever the food was done. The check arrived, we paid, and a couple of minutes later the spinach and artichoke dip came. Still waiting for the chicken fingers, we mentioned to the passing manager that they'd never arrived. He left and returned a few minutes later to say that the kitchen had run out of chicken fingers. Yes, really. About 30 minutes after we'd ordered them, they had "discovered" there were none left. Oh, and we'd already paid for them, of course, given that we'd paid the bill in advance.

Pizza #2

Not as good as last time, apparently

To his credit, when we informed the manager of this, he was incredibly apologetic, told us he'd take the dish off the bill, and offered us a round of drinks. Since we were under incredible time pressure at this point, we opted for a round of shots. A bit of Patron in our bellies, the bro and I dashed across to the Garden to work out an issue with our seats while LM and NR finished their meals (such as they were).

But that's not all--apparently after the bro and I left, the manager had returned because he had made some mistake on the bill and was trying to get our party to pay more than we had (we'd paid the right amount for the total bill, minus the chicken fingers, including tip). Really? At that point, given our experience, as a restaurant manager, don't you just let it go?

So I'm really mixed about Stout. The service, obviously, was atrocious, but the manager did make a good-faith effort to fix things... until he came back with the bill issue and further mired himself in bad-service purgatory. The food was decent, however, and not overpriced, and the ambiance is enjoyable if you're looking for an Irish pub/sports bar atmosphere. And if you're in the MSG area, your food and drink options are sorely limited. Would I go back to Stout? I'm not sure-- even with our bad experience, I wouldn't rule it out; the bro has been there several times before and has had good experiences previously. So I'll give Stout two Offset Spatulas rather than one, with hopes that if we do ever return, it will redeem itself.

Stout
133 W. 33rd Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues
212-629-6191

Some classy wine at Anfora

Last weekend, I met up for a casual Sunday-night drink with DA, whom I haven't seen in months. Our destination was Anfora, the organic(ish) wine bar recently established by the owners of Dell'Anima and Artusi; I expected a wait and at least something of a scene, but I was prepared.

I walked in, and the place was blissfully uncrowded. The main attraction visually is a large bar with some widely spaced square barstools; the rest of the space is taken up by three large scalloped booth/lounging areas. I plopped myself down on one of the semi-circular banquettes and found it delightfully comfortable. DA arrived, we ordered wine, we chatted.

What wine did we order? I chose a glass of Quattro Mani "Toh-Kai," an assertive white that is among the more unusual wines I've tasted. It was sharp and very acidic; it made my mouth water in a not altogether unpleasant fashion. Easy-drinking it was not, but I'm glad I tried it.

DA went for a glass of the "Cuve Rouge" Chateau Musar from Lebanon. This was a tasty glass of red-- spicy but not aggressive and hearty but not overpowering... we'll call it "balanced."

Fraternal twins

After sipping for a bit, we decided to order one of their cheese plates. Our order of Piave came with six small slices of some of the better ciabatta I've tasted recently-- chewy with a good crust and those appealing glossy insides. The cheese was reliably salty and umami-rich. A tiny trio of accompaniments-- wildflower honey, raisin compote, and whole-grain mustard-- provided a bit of interest, although it would have been nice to get some fresh or stewed fruit along with the deal.

Piave is just so, so good.

I recommend Anfora; it was surprisingly low-key and approachable for a West Village wine bar. While the food is relatively reasonably priced, the wines by the glass can get pretty pricey, so order carefully. Even though I don't usually give bars spatulas, I think Anfora deserves a hearty three OSes and a thumbs up for being a pleasant surprise.

Anfora
34 Eighth Avenue at Jane Street
212-518-2722