LWF&D goes to Napa (and SF) and encounters Incanto

On Saturday, Mom and I day-tripped into San Francisco to give ourselves a break from all the bucolic beauty of Napa. We had also planned a birthday celebration dinner for me with my aunt, uncle, and cousin, who live out near San Jose. It took me a whole heck of a lot of online research to find a place I wanted to try out, and frankly, my choice was a little bizarre.

Our crew ended up at Incanto, an innovative, Italian, meat-centric restaurant in Noe Valley. When I chose this place, I had based my choice on the menu that had been online that day; of course, the menu changes each day, and when we got there, the menu options for me were... slim. It took about a half hour, complete with a complete explanation of the menu's foreign terms by our very patient server, for us all to decide what we wanted. But ultimately, we were quite happy with the food and the experience overall.

To start, we were given a heap of bread with a ramekin of chunky olive tapenade. From the herb-topped focaccia to the salted herbed breadsticks to the chewy white slices, this was an admirable bread plate. And the tapenade was a salty, toothsome break from the usual plate of olive oil.

Lots of bread for all

Then came the appetizers. Mine was the wild greens and elderflowers; this was exactly as purported-- a mess of unusual greens, bitter and rough-textured, in a tangy vinaigrette.

Those greens are really green

Mom got the garden salad, which was a bit more interesting than the greens. Same concept, though: simple ingredients; vibrant, light dressing.

From the garden

My uncle got one of the day's specials, which I can't for the life of my remember. I think it was some sort of soup? Or some kind of aspic-y creation? Regardless, he and my cousin, who shared it, enjoyed the little dish.

Forever mysterious?

We also shared an order of olives for the table. This was a surprisingly large portion, though (with the exception of the big mama in the photo, which I snapped up immediately) the olives were tiny. Briny and flavorful, these hit the spot.

Olives! Always a fave

Then the entrees came. Both Mom and my aunt ordered the game hen with eggplant, chilli, and smoked capers. It was a huge portion of rustically prepared roast chicken, appealing and satisfying in the way only roast chicken can be.

Big ol' hunk o' chicken

My cousin ordered a pasta dish: Paccheri with duck sugo, sicilian olives, and savory. While it came out a little muted-looking (perhaps a garnish of snipped herbs might have brightened up the plate a little bit?), she enjoyed the flavor.

Needs color

My uncle chose the pork shoulder with peaches and cippolini onions. While the pork comes out pink due to the preparation, "It's cooked!" our waiter promised. It was another admirably hearty portion, and it was well enjoyed.

Pink pork

My choice was an order of "Chantenay carrots and flowers." These were addictive and craveable roast carrots, soft but not mushy, caramelized on the outside, with flower garnishes that took on an almost fried texture. Truly incredible in a way that's surprising to anyone who's ever crunched on a bland carrot stick.

I actually crave these carrots

Oh, and did I mention they offer FREE unlimited house-carbonated sparkling water? If there's a quicker way to my heart as a sparkling-water-loving-diner, I don't know what it is. I only wish they'd provide water glasses that were bigger than the size of shot glasses so we didn't have to keep reaching for the carafe on the table every five minutes.

We had a dessert adventure planned (to say the least... stay tuned), so we skipped Incanto's dessert options. But overall, despite initial hesitation and skepticism from certain members of our dining party, we liked Incanto. If you're a fan of hearty, simple but unusual Italian food served in a bright, convivial atmosphere with friendly, caring servers, Incanto is for you. It can even please a vegetarian, under the right circumstances...

Incanto
1550 Church Street, San Francisco
415-641-4500

Medi Wine Bar makes it happen

I've been waiting for Medi Wine Bar to open for many months, so I was excited when the lights went on at the end of February. It took longer than I would have wanted, but I finally made it there on a rainy, cool evening, to meet up for a drink and a bite with DA.

Turns out it was worth the wait. The interior is really appealing, a nice mix between "cool" decor (Edison bulbs, fancy wall coverings) and laid back (lots of space between the raw-wood tables-- HUGE extra points for that). At the bar and at the tables are lots of people laughing talking and eating and drinking. It's pretty much the definition of "convivial."

Medi has a long and eclectic list of wines by the glass, many of which are truly reasonably priced (even in the $6-7 dollar range!). I chose a glass of sparkling rose cava, which smelled like strawberries and tasted bubbly and refreshing. DA chose a Lebanese red, which was spicy and complex and dark in lots of ways.

Okay, so maybe it's a little girly...

Now that's more respectable

We sipped our drinks and soon placed an order for some food to go with, which arrived promptly. For DA, a homestyle crock of garganelli with lamb ragu, green peas, mint, and pecorino. It was (reportedly) delicious, and the basket of bread left on our table along with a plate of olive oil was perfect for sopping up the sauce.

Steamin' hot!

Bread and salt with things in it?

For me, an order of mixed olives. Honestly, these were some of the best olives I've ever had, large and tender and marinated with olive oil and rosemary and some other spices. Salty and succulent and delicious-- perfect.

So delish!

So all in all, Medi was fantastic. I'm bummed it took so long for them to open, but I thoroughly plan on going as many times as I can in the next few months before I move away...

Medi Wine Bar
811 Ninth Avenue, between 53rd and 54th Streets
212-586-1201

A lovely, lovely evening at Union Square Cafe

For my birthday (yes, that would be last July), my parents got me a sizeable gift certificate to Union Square Hospitality Group. Thrilled, I put it in my desk and left it there. For months. Well, two weeks ago I got exciting news (business school!) that means I'll actually be moving away from New York City in a few short months. Of course, one of the first things that popped into my head was a small but growing list of things I have to do before I left the city. First on that list: use that gift card!

So last Saturday, I got the privilege and honor of taking the lovely SL out to dinner at Union Square Cafe. A delicious, free, wine-soaked dinner at a Danny Meyer restaurant AND a few uninterrupted hours of one-on-one time with SL? Count me in.

I've been to USC a few times before, and I really like it. It's a lovely, quirky space, although the quirks may mean that your table is in a bit of a corner with the back of a chair holding a very, very large man abutting one side of the table. You know, hypothetically. It also may mean that midway through the meal a fork may fall from the balcony above onto the ground a few feet from your un-hard-hatted heads. More on that later.

But first, wine and bread. Even though I'm no longer Wine Centurying, I chose a glass of Blanco Seleccio Can Feixes, a Spanish wine I'd never heard of. It was light and crisp and delicious. SL toasted with a classic glass of prosecco.

My wine!

A bread basket landed promptly, full of delights: Crunchy, crisp mini baguettes; hearty half-slices of seeded multigrain bread; and a sheet of paper-thin flatbread. On the side was a large square of butter sprinkled with interestingly herbed salt in addition to a dish of orange-rind-studded olives. Quite a treat to begin the meal.

A lovely variety

And accompaniments

Out exceptionally professional waitress left us as much time as we liked to place our order, so the meal proceeded at a leisurely place. But our entrees appeared soon enough. For SL, the meal was homemade lasagna bolognese, topped with a sunny side up egg that, punctured, becomes part of the rich sauce. SL really liked it, although as the dinner (rather than appetizer) portion, it was on the small side.

Pretty, eh?

My choice, in contrast, was the bibb and red leaf lettuce salad, mixed with a dijon dressing and crowned with ample shavings of gruyere. This salad was unusually satisfying: the ingredients were all fresh and tasty (particularly the handful of crisp croutons that made their way in there), but more importantly there was just so much of it. I kept eating and eating and it seemed like I was eating forever. Which I like, mind you-- I'm definitely a volume eater. But I did feel bad when SL was finished and I was still plowing along. (That's what she said?)

So many leaves!

Oh, and then all of a sudden a fork fell from the balcony above, almost on our heads but thankfully not quite, clattering from the ground next to us. Yikes?

Potential forks-in-noggins aside, we pressed on to dessert. USC's desserts pretty much all seemed appealing, but we made our tough choices. SL went for the banana tart with macademia brittle and honey-vanilla ice cream. This was actually a really large portion, although SL noted there was too much banana and not enough crust. The exterior of the tart was actually a whole banana covered with crackly caramelized sugar; the only crust was really in the center. When she had tired of slogging through the banana, I ate a bit of it... and a few of the sugar-covered macadamias.

There's a lot of banana in there. (That's what she-- oh, nevermind)

And, of course, I ate my own dessert, too. That would be the Italian apple cake with cara cara oranges and country cream. The cake was absolutely delicious, moist and studded with tender, cooked apples and sitting in a pool of sweet syrup. The center of the cake was sublime; the crust was a different texture sensation and equally entrancing. The cream was a perfect complement, though I wished there had been about four times as much of it so I didn't have to ration. Oh, and a big scoop of vanilla ice cream would have been nice, too. But that's just gluttonous.

Traditional and simple but oh so satisfying

Our dinner was just so lovely. The food was incredible, the service flawless, the whole evening just special: a four spatula experience if ever there were one, and a gift-certificate-meal worth waiting for.

Union Square Cafe
21 E. 16th Street
212-243-4020

Nearing the Wine Century at Lupa

Last Tuesday was the designated Fancy Meal Night during my dad's vacation. To nobody's surprise, I was given free rein to pick the restaurant and precious few instructions beyond "Tuesday." After a quick perusal of OpenTable, I hit upon an odd but somehow spot-on choice: Lupa.

Yes, Lupa is highly acclaimed and known as one of Mario Batali's best, but for some reason I'd never been there. So on a slightly chilly and blustery Tuesday evening, I met Dad at the Spring Street subway stop and we headed to Lupa.

It's a cute little place, charmingly rustic and highly crowded, with throngs of after-workers crowding the front bar. If you mind being packed in next to your fellow diners, don't go here. But if you can get past that, you'll likely have a surprisingly enjoyable-- and surprisingly reasonable, given what it is-- meal.

Our server, it's worth noting, was incredibly friendly and accommodating, even getting into the spirit when I presented her with my Wine Century Club challenge. See, at that point I was 97 wines in, and given my limited knowledge of Italian wines, I basically posed the challenge for her to find some varietals I hadn't tried within their by-the-glass menu. Magic: a glass of Frascati Superiore (white) and a red with nebbiolo, and I was magically at the 99 wine threshold. (Stay tuned...)

98...

99...

What better to sop up all that wine than their focaccia, eh? Two conjoined pieces of pillowy, oil-soaked bread, spotted with rosemary on the crust. This fairly begged for a sprinkling of coarse salt to bring out the flavors, but even without it, it was some gooooood carbin'.

Mmmhmmm.

To start, Dad had the misticanza salad, which he prounced good for what it was, a mix of slightly bitter upscale lettuces and some fennel to round out the mix.

I'm clearly still getting used to this camera

I chose the broccoli rabe with ricotta verdure, an ample tangle of the veggie slicked with creamy ricotta. Surprisingly, the overwhelming flavor of this dish was lemon: there were bits of lemon rind hidden in the mixture, and it gave an otherwise potentially heavy dish a truly light flavor. I wish there had been some more punch in the ricotta (perhaps a bit of ricotta salata thrown in?), but overall, this was quite enjoyable.

Quite pretty, actually

And then the mains. Dad went for a daily special, pappardelle with pork ragu. In typical Italian fashion, it was a small portion, but Dad raved about the taste and quality.

Homely but tasty

My choice was the escarole, walnut, red onion, and pecorino salad, sans red onion. This turned out to be a light and almost refreshing salad, with the bed of shaved pecorino adding a salty bite to the crunchy greens.

Lots of shades of white

And all this, of course, was a mere prelude to dessert. Though there are choices on the dessert menu, look around the dining room and you'll see nearly every table chooses one thing only: the signature Lupa tartufo. It looks innocent enough, but it packs a true wallop. A thick, yielding chocolate shell-- not shatter-hard but almost the texture of milk chocolate-- gives way to pure, intense hazelnut gelato. A shower of hazelnuts crowns the orb, and the baseball-sized confection sits in a pool of hazelnut-studded chocolate sauce. Push through to the center of the tartufo and you'll find a brandied cherry amid a protective case of what seems like chocolate cake (or maybe a bit of brownie?). No matter-- it all disappears in the work of a couple bites.

Oh. Yum.

Lupa was a pleasant surprise. The prices are reasonable, the service friendly and laid-back, and the food (ahem, dessert, ahem) worth returning for. It's the perfect place for a classy meal when you don't feel like going through the classy-meal rigamarole. Go. You'll enjoy it. And isn't that what it's all about?

Lupa
170 Thompson Street, near W. Houston
212-982-5089

Guest Post: The bro encounters pasta, Jake Gyllenhaal at Osteria Morini

Last week, the bro set out to celebrate the 28^th birthday of his girlfriend, LM. From a list of five potentials, he selected Osteria Morini, one of the newest downtown hot spots. Chef Michael White’s small Italian restaurant on Lafayette Street has drawn the affection of New York diners and therefore required two weeks' advance notice to land a reservation. In a LWF&D first, I’ve risked my credibility on his guest post recounting the delicious, and at times amusing, experience-- take it away, Bro:

We showed up around 8:45 for a 9:00 Tuesday night reservation. We were told by the polite hostesses, “It will only be a few minutes.” The highlight of the night came in those few minutes, during which in strolled none other than Jake Gyllenhaal. While disappointingly unaccompanied by Taylor Swift, Jake was still ogled by all the women in the vicinity, including LM. And if a male might say this without his sexuality being questioned, deservedly so. [Editor's note: You can't. Consider your sexuality questioned.]

We were led to a small table towards the back corner of the restaurant. While the ambience was nice, with exposed brick, various and sundry wine bottles on shelves and a subtle musical backdrop of easy listening fluff, I did notice that the tables were a little close for comfort to one another. More on that later.

For the Batillardo di Affettati course (what this means I don’t know) I ordered the prosciutto, and some Taleggio (which I can’t pronounce) cheese. However little I understood of what I’d asked for--somehow the waitress’s description of “funky to the nose, but creamy to the taste” led me to actually ordering it--it somehow all came out right. The prosciutto was the best I’d ever tasted, and the cheese, while rank, did actually taste pretty good. The bread medley, sourdough and shortbread, offered the perfect mini-sandwich making opportunity. Italian sliders, if you will. We were off to a great start.

For the entrees, after a long selection process, I ordered the Tortelli Della Nonna and LM ordered the Tagliatelle. I thought we had an understood splitting arrangement. I was wrong. After one bite of my beef ravioli, LM made the “tequila shot” face, called off the trade, and I was left solo to my own entrée. Fortunately for me, I found it delectable and was all too happy not to share

Tagliatelle

I think there was tortelli in here at one point

The beginning of LM’s Tagliatelle also seemed to be going well. However, as the next table’s occupants were being seated, the woman in the party pulled off the rare “jacket zamboni” maneuver, sweeping 1/3 of our table’s contents onto LM’s lap. This was met with a very awkward five minutes of laughter and apologies from the woman, offers to buy rounds of drinks, and seemingly every worker in the place trying their hand at sweeping and mopping.

Amends made and tempers cooled, we pressed on with the rest of dinner. LM handled it well, the Tagliatelle was still good, and OM’s manager came over with what turned out to be complimentary drinks for us - a very classy move indeed.

The cuisine was capped by Torta for dessert. To OM’s credit, they took care of the birthday candle I’d asked for by phone earlier in the day [Editor's note: Awwww. Way to go, Bro!]. The Torta itself was a little rich for that point in the meal, but luckily we actually did split this course, so we were able to finish. For chocolate and peanut butter lovers, it certainly did the combo proud.

Mmmmm, Torta

If given the authority to anoint a number of spatulas upon OM, I award it 4 out of 5. The food is outstanding and relatively reasonably priced. One definitely feels “cool” dining there – thanks Jake! – and the staff is clearly still attentive to the everyman customer, as evidenced by their peace offering of free drinks and remembering the birthday candle. Underrated aspects of the dining experience – constant water refills, clean bathrooms, polite wait staff – are also executed well. The downside is their popularity has caused them to cram a few too many tables in there, leading to our unfortunate happenings, and the restaurant is a bit loud until you get used to it. But overall, I’d definitely recommend it to anyone that asked. I’d just tell them bring an extra change of clothes!

Oh, and by the way, Jake was not dining with anyone famous. Disappointing, I know.

Osteria Morini

218 Lafayette Street

212-965-8777

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