We ordered cocktails first. I'll have to say that this is the very first place to give me my vodka collins with a metal straw. I appreciate the gesture and I know my daughter (Anna) is passionate about not littering the planet with plastic straws, but I don't know how I feel about metal straws in a restaurant. I don't know how easy it is to wash out the inside of metal straws and I don't know who used this before me...what if he/she had a cold?
I know farm-to-table is difficult, especially in the cold months. So, the menu is small. We started with the charcuterie board. For $25 we found it lacking. It had one meat and only 2 cheeses on it. There was a cheddar and a soft goat cheese. The meat was a white ham. The cheddar had an exterior that had been rubbed in espresso and lavender. When you ate that part, you could taste coffee but not lavender and it didn't seem to transfer through the rest of the cheese. The goat cheese was soft and tart, but noting special. Other things that rounded out the cheese/charcuterie board were: olives (unpitted) pickled vegetables (made in house), apple jam, whole grain mustard, chicken pate, local honey (very sweet, but good)., a chicken rillette (almost like a smooth French chicken salad...the chicken has been turned into a smooth spread), and 6 large pieces of bread (a sourdough, a focacia, and rye. The breads were all large and very salty. I would have liked some smaller crackers to try the pate or rillette.
I do have to give J. Devoli credit on their wine list. 1. It was posted online and that list was the SAME as they had in the restaurant. 2. They had a nice array of old world and new world wines. We were able to find a real bargain. We got a bottle of Jorche Primitivo di Manduria from Puglia, Italy for $31. Vivino (my go to wine app) lists this as a 4.1/5 wine. Usually that means around $100. It was not very complex but it was good with multiple dishes, and we enjoyed it. The wine list had a nice variety of wines at several different price points. When we arrived (6 pm) it wasn't super busy and our waiter knew enough to ask if we'd like our wine decanted (to give it a chance to breath) while we had our cocktails. That was super nice. As we watched for the next 90 minutes, I don't know if anyone else was asked or they didn't care, as no one else we saw had their wine decanted.
After our charcuterie board we were presented with an amus bouche. This is a little taste of some food from the chef. Ours was literally two spoons. The spoons had goat cheese, a grain (that tasted a little like a cross between a quinoa and a barley), some vinaigrette, and a pickled red onion. The initial taste was very good, but they as you had to keep chewing, you had all grain and it seemed a little dry and bland.
It was time for the main entree. Mike ordered a spaghetti bolognese. I ordered a fettuccine with mushrooms. Both pastas were made in house. Mike said his pasta was good. You could tell the pasta was homemade, but the sauce was good but not great. It wasn't as good as Cunnetto's. My fettuccine was good. The mushrooms were flavorful and the pasta was definitely homemade, but it was a little undercooked. It was almost like they were trying to prove it was homemade so they made it super al dente. It needed to be cooked about 2 more minutes.
Now, you need to know that Mike is suffering from a bad cold, so he was not in the mood to linger or get dessert. I had even said we could walk across the piazza and get gelato (his favorite) and he turned me down. He did end his meal with his traditional cappuccino. One nice gesture...when they bring the bill they bring 2 choc. chip cookies made with very decadent dark chocolate. It was just the little sweetness I needed.
On a bummer note...the two pastas that we ordered were listed as $18 each on the menu but listed as $20 on our bill. We didn't quibble about the bill, but still it was disappointing.
J Devoli is a nice addition to The Hill. It is very small and won't make much of a notable difference in the overall feel of The Hill. I appreciate the farm-to-table attitude, but they still have a few bugs to work out. I'd say we should give them another try in 6-8 months.
No comments:
Post a Comment