Quality over quantity.

aaaaaaaaand i'm back! Wow, it's been a while huh?

Now that I'm done traveling the world (for the time being), I can finally come back to reality and start my posts again- finally

Well this past weekend I got to spend time with Schwartzy-bear! I haven't seen Jeff Schwartz since the night we won thousands of dollars at Foxwoods (I think he's my good luck charm) and so I was very excited when he asked me to go to a wedding with him!.. it got me thinking about our wedding. No, not me and Bruner's...... me and Schwartz's. :)

We had a great time at the wedding and were very quick to decide to extend our night with dinner (it was a day wedding) with Sundar and Shaman! (I haven't visited the cripple since he got his surgery, so Schwartz and I were pretty keen on seeing Sundar)

We ended up going to Esca for dinner- which is right by Sundar and Shaman's (cripples apparently can't walk far).

All I have to say is, I can barely write about the food at Esca. Why you ask? Well, it's not because the food wasn't good it was because it took so awfully long to get our dishes (I'm pretty sure I fell asleep after 2 hours at the restaurant) I can barely remember what it was like.

So we started off getting seated fairly quickly- which was great. We got the drinks menu.. and then... that's it. We sat there staring at the drinks menu for a good 15 minutes wondering where the regular menu was...

Finally after putting our drink orders in (20 minutes later) we got the actual menu where the server took about another 15 minutes describing every special thing about the menu to us. We know how to read buddy, thanks.

Finally deciding our order (4 entrees with 2 appetizers to share) the server highly suggested that we order more appetizers as they are not for sharing. He then pretentiously ended his statement with 'we aim for quality over quantity'. I hated him immediately- do you say that to girls too, buddy? He just seemed so unrefined after that point. How about you give me both.

After that point, it all went downhill. It literally took another 45 minutes to get our appetizers. What were they doing?! Fishing for the teeny tiny calamari that we got?! Planting and harvesting the extremely expensive tomatoes and corn?! Milking the goat for our goat cheese?!

When we finally got it though- it was pretty good. :)

Fiora Di Zucca- Zuchinni flower stuffed with goat's millk ricotta and herbs

Insalatina Di Pomodoro- Heirloom tomatoes with cheese and balsamic

Calamari with wheat oats (?)

Insalata di Granoturco- corn, chanterelle,walnut, goat cheese salad

I would have to say that the appetizers were definitely small and not enough for sharing. They were also all around $20 per plate which seemed extremely expensive for what we got. In the words of Jeff Schwartz: 'This is a $20 tomato.....'.

The corn appetizer was the best. Maybe because it was cooked with chanterelle mushrooms and therefore had that truffle-like aroma to it, but the sweetness of the corn was also amazing! The calamari, although very tiny, was also very flavorful and cooked perfectly. The goat cheese in the zuchinni dish was also great. Overall, I think we did a good job at picking the appetizers, minus the heirloom tomato salad.

Then.. we waited for our entrees... and then waited some more. A glimmer of hope surfaced when they came back 40 minutes later and put our silverware on the table. But then 30 minutes later, we still didn't have any food. Sadface.

Finally, 2 hours into our meal, we got our entrees. Sundar and Schwartz got the gnocchi while I got the Fritto Misto Amalfitano (mix of fried seafood). Shaman got the ravioli.

Fritto Misto Amalfitano

Gnocchi di Ricotta

The gnocchi that schwartz and sundar got were pretty good. The ricotta gnocchi was delicate and fluffy and the dish in its entirety seemed very light. Shaman's small ravioli dish seemed so excruciatingly tiny that I couldn't get a taste. But.. i'm sure it was good....

My fritto misto was.. eh. I'm not exactly sure what it was fried with/in (seminola flour maybe?) but the grainy texture of the dish was strange. Granted, the dish was not oily tasting and also seemed very light, it was not very flavorful and so I found my dish OK. Nothing too impressive- especially for 35 bucks.

At the end of the night, we weren't very satisfied with the meal (and the price). Averaging about $70 per person we were still a little bit hungry. So yes, the food was good and I did appreciate the delicate details of the emlusion of flavors in each dish, but really the service and strangely overly pretentious attitude threw me off. Sorry Mario Batali, your food was good, but the overall experience, meh. I don't think I will be returning

Maybe Italy tainted me, maybe I'm not used to restaurants needing to flaunt the 'quality' of their food (I stand by the fact that if the restaurant is good, they dont need to make stupid comments like 'we aim for quality over quantity'), or maybe I was just drunk from Schwartz' love potion. Either way, thank goodness my brothers were with me.... they make everything and anything bearable.

I can't wait for our large group date this weekend! Love you brothers!

Love,

Brotherette

Price: $$$$

Food: B

Service: C

Ambiance: B-