![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Partita di ritorno
As much as I enjoy the company, perhaps doubling tonight's party to a quartet was not the best idea. Eataly is chaotic enough without a couple of gabby old codgers vying for your attention. But, hey, we got homemade fruitcake, spiced nuts, and Hungarian spice liqueur out of it, so I'm calling it a win. (None of those from the store obviously; Mr Cleveland brought a gift bag.) I'm not sure ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
monshu would agree, however much he likes the new amaro we brought home.
We're still planning a return trip (not least of all so we can try some of the main dishes; Nuphy fixated on the pasta corner and none of us had the energy to oppose him), but in a while once they've the barely-trained staff have had a chance to find their feet. I can sympathise with their struggles to parse chunky foreign product names. It's harder to understand how they haven't found the time to familiarise themselves with their immediate environs. (At one point, I asked a server where I could recycle an empty bottle. The nearest bin he could recall was downstairs. Actually there was one ten feet from his service point. Not to mention the faux pas of not simply saying, "Oh, I can take that for you.") And it's absolutely unforgivable to have someone serving at a wine bar who doesn't know how to pour wine. (She gave the Old Man a sampling of a spumante he didn't ask for, and when he ordered the Barbera she poured it into the same glass.)
No complaints about our dinner server. We didn't see him much, but they were pretty slammed and he had a birthday party. Dinner was a different matter. My pizza (mozzarella-arugula-prosciutto) was good, but not terrifically better than a dozen other joints with a wood-burning oven. Nuphy's lasagne was good (i.e. not ruined with assloads of cheese) but so dry that he actually poured the rest of the dipping oil over it. The real loser wasmonshu, who ordered a variation of the caplaz ad zuca I had a week ago that was amateurishly bland. The "sage-butter sauce" had little sage, no lemon, and wasn't browned. So, really, it was just melted butter poured over his ravioli. Yick.
I had a Dogfish Head stout that I liked very much and a citron-flavoured soda that we all found too sweet and not very citrusy. On the way out, I tried their fior di latte gelato and thought it too sugary. The antipasti we had while waiting for a table were good though: seasoned mushrooms, marinated shrimp, and a roasted cauliflower dish I might actually have liked had it not been shot through with capers. Cleveland also had a conversation with someone from the bakery, who explained that they're struggling to keep up with demand while training a staff of mostly-new bakers, so it will be a while before they offer anything like the polenta bread he loves so much. So, like I said, worth a return trip once they break in their staff a bit.
monshu would agree, however much he likes the new amaro we brought home.We're still planning a return trip (not least of all so we can try some of the main dishes; Nuphy fixated on the pasta corner and none of us had the energy to oppose him), but in a while once they've the barely-trained staff have had a chance to find their feet. I can sympathise with their struggles to parse chunky foreign product names. It's harder to understand how they haven't found the time to familiarise themselves with their immediate environs. (At one point, I asked a server where I could recycle an empty bottle. The nearest bin he could recall was downstairs. Actually there was one ten feet from his service point. Not to mention the faux pas of not simply saying, "Oh, I can take that for you.") And it's absolutely unforgivable to have someone serving at a wine bar who doesn't know how to pour wine. (She gave the Old Man a sampling of a spumante he didn't ask for, and when he ordered the Barbera she poured it into the same glass.)
No complaints about our dinner server. We didn't see him much, but they were pretty slammed and he had a birthday party. Dinner was a different matter. My pizza (mozzarella-arugula-prosciutto) was good, but not terrifically better than a dozen other joints with a wood-burning oven. Nuphy's lasagne was good (i.e. not ruined with assloads of cheese) but so dry that he actually poured the rest of the dipping oil over it. The real loser was
monshu, who ordered a variation of the caplaz ad zuca I had a week ago that was amateurishly bland. The "sage-butter sauce" had little sage, no lemon, and wasn't browned. So, really, it was just melted butter poured over his ravioli. Yick.I had a Dogfish Head stout that I liked very much and a citron-flavoured soda that we all found too sweet and not very citrusy. On the way out, I tried their fior di latte gelato and thought it too sugary. The antipasti we had while waiting for a table were good though: seasoned mushrooms, marinated shrimp, and a roasted cauliflower dish I might actually have liked had it not been shot through with capers. Cleveland also had a conversation with someone from the bakery, who explained that they're struggling to keep up with demand while training a staff of mostly-new bakers, so it will be a while before they offer anything like the polenta bread he loves so much. So, like I said, worth a return trip once they break in their staff a bit.