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.
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...
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photo courtesy of @leidermeister |
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.
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action shot! |
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focus fail :( |
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..
1) I wanna meet your gradnparents
ReplyDelete2) sardine w salsa verde nom nom