easter 2013 - brunch at cafe spiaggia

easter brunch this year was spent with the boyfriend, my grandparents and my mom.  picking a spot was a bit hard -- i had to find some place that was special, but was somewhat reasonably priced, and had options that would please everyone. especially my grandpa aka the world's pickiest eater (he was a chef and basically criticizes any plate he gets so he'll only be happy with the simply prepared meats with no sauces/fruit/certain veggies)

 

after a few days of checking my reader/google/evernote list, i decided with cafe spiaggia.  cafe spiaggia is the sister restaurant of spiaggia. same kitchen, just a little less fancy with a smaller dining room and more casual food you can order a la carte.  it's one of tony mantuano's restaurants and the head chef is sara gruenberg who was a finalist on top chef texas last year, and how i became aware of the restaurant.

 

**side note - my friend sam and i may or may not have gone to the chipolte cultivate fest to see sara speak a few months ago. she made panzanella with her fiance. and was super adorable.

i know you're probably thinking swong - this doesn't sound like it'd be reasonalby price.. but it actually turned out to be perfect.  they had special plates for easter and were serving their lunch menu. before tax and tip, our bill was ~$38/person, which is less than brunch at shaw's or a hotel buffet.

since there were five of us and the plates are a bit small, we ended up having a lot of dishes. i'm gonna through them quickly...

sooo the breads. up front in the picture is pane pasquale, which is apparently traditional italian easter bread.  it was sweet, with a hint of orange/anise and some salt on top...kind of reminded me of mexican dead bread? that's a colored egg in the middle, and it was "recommended" it... too bad because i definitely would have tried haha. there were also rosemary focaccia and some cheesy crackers but the winner was definitely the pane pasquale.

for my drink i got the fan favorite - Maker’s Mark bourbon (seems to be the trend for the day..), ginger, lemon juice, Berlucchi franciacorta (italian sparking wine), and marschino cherry. although i wanted a bit more bourbon-ness, but this was really refreshing and i guess more appropriate for drinking at 1pm on easter sunday...

photo courtesy of @leidermeister

as an appetizer we shared the Boscaiola pizza, which had cremini mushrooms, prosciutto,
castlerosso (which i thinkkk is goat cheese?), mozzarella, on a whole wheat crust.  and some fresh sage on top. we were expecting more mushrooms but were totally okay with what we got. the salty/briney prosciutto & goat cheese worked reall well against the mushroom/sage/wheat crust.  the dough was baked in a wood burning oven so it crispy, yet chewy. it somewhat better than what's been made at my pizza parties ;)

another app we got were the sardines w/ salsa verde. so this dish basically became all mine, since everybody else at the table thought it was too fishy (it was meant to be for me and my grandpa but he wasn't into the sauce).  while it was fishy, the onion and lemon(?) in the salsa verde cut through that and so i really enjoyed it. and there were fried capers too..so total nom nomz :)

we also had perlagrigia, which was a cow's cheese with cinnamon and black truffles and ash (?) on the outside and came with honey. (i forgot to take a picture of it.) but my mom was really chatty about the honey and the the maitre'd ended up overhearing her and showed us a really cool tube that showed the range of different honeys they served with their cheeses.

we got two pastas. one was gnocci with a wild boar ragu. the gnocci were thinner than i've normally had and were more tender than i was expecting.  a lot of time they can be really gummy/stick to your teeth but these weren't like that. and i think they had some cheese in their dough because it had a really good umami-ness. and there were tons huge chunks of flakey meat. so while it $18 for a pretty small portion, i think it was worth it.

action shot!

the second pasta we got was gigli pasta with breadcrumbs & clams in a butter/garlic/parsley sauce. to me, the pasta was a bit too chewy/undercooked.  i also think it was a bad pasta choice...chewy pasta + chewy clams?? and the dish overall was a bit bland. i had something similar to this in seattle at anchovies and olives (post coming soon i promise!!), and i thought that one was better than cafe spiaggia's.  the clams were yummy though...

focus fail :(

we ordered the gramberi, without orange segments, for my grandpa.  this basically was wood-grilled seafood over some fancy toasted cous-cous/califlower/nuts.  i wish i took a better picture because this was definitely the prettiest dish out of our meal.  my grandpa was happy about the seafood (ish...he wasn't impressed with the shrimp haha)

it was easter, so we had to have their lamb special.  this order came with three grilled lamb chops with grilled ramps, over a bed of safron scented/cheesy orzo. the lamb was cooked awesomely..it was crispy on the outside and super tender/moist. but my favorite part of the dish -- the orzo. it was like an epic mac n cheese that was savory/creamy/amazing.

fiiinally for dessert, andrew and i split pineapple/basil sorbet, pistachio gelato and stracciatella gelato.

so i can see why tony mantuano and this restaurant have been around for so long. the food really is that good. having eaten at terzo piano, one of tony matuano's restaurants at the art institute, it was cool to see his take on modern vs rustic italian food.

 

and one dish was kind of a miss, but it wasn't thaat bad. would i come back sometime soon? no...but that's because the prices are a bit higher/its a trek to go out to north michigan ave for a meal like this. the next time i could see myself being back here would probably be next easter.  but i kind of like that? 

 

also - worth noting - my gradma kept raving about the value of this meal..and how we would spend only marginally less in chinatown but not have the same service or drinks with it.

 

so wooo easter brunch success! although even with coffee, we were in a total food coma, which didn't really help having to go over to the boyfriend's house for easter part deux..