‘ino

On Monday night, StB and I had some business to tend to, after which we decided to hit up ‘ino.  Actually, it was her idea.  When she said ‘ino, I actually thought she meant Enoteca, which I thought was the “bar & grill” (read: cheaper) side of the Batali restaurant Del Posto.  (It is, but it took some searching to find out I was right…)  Coincidentally, ‘ino is actually owned/operated by Jason Dent, who used to work at Babbo, the Batali flagship restaurant whose reservations continue to be ever elusive.  StB actually hadn’t known this; when I looked up the restaurant, it mentioned this (which is when I realized I was wrong, this wasn’t Del Posto’s “bar & grill”) fact; “Jason Dent, former Batali disciple who worked at Babbo” or some such thing.  But when I told her, she got really excited because… she loves Batali restaurants. 

Mini-digression which becomes important in a month and a half, and I am sure I will reference this post at that time: I despise Batali.  On principle, I refuse to support his restaurants.  He is a pompous, arrogant ass, forget his orange Crocs, which I didn’t even know about when I first laid eyes on him.  I hate him because he used to have (does he still?) a show on Food Network, where he would cook while talking to three people who sat in front of him, helping him do mundane kitchen tasks and listening to him “teach” how to cook what he was making.  In a beautiful rolling accent, he would inform them that he was chopping the “funghi” or making a “misto fritto” or whatever the hell… and though those two examples are easy enough to figure out, most of the time it was shit that a normal person had no idea what the hell he was talking about.  The guests would smile and nod but clearly they weren’t comfortable asking him what he was talking about… and the few times one of them did, he talked down to them so badly that if I’d been there, even if he’d already been my friend, I’d have reached out and bitch slapped him, then told him to fucking chop his own damn funghi.  I know.  I’m sorry for the language, but I really detest this man.  He just has this air about him that pisses me off.  Yeah. 

The point of that digression is that I continue to never have been to one of Batali’s restaurants, though I hear Babbo is absolutely amazing.  Despite hearing all these good things from everyone who goes there- I have never heard a bad word about the food, which is most important- I have still not been able to bring myself to concede and try.  I have, however, been to Lidia Bastianich’s restaurant, Becco (Lidia and Mario are friends? family? and work closely together on many projects), and had such a terrible experience I felt justified in slamming the place.  (I was not alone in this terrible experience; a friend of mine got sick both times she went, and my [Italian] BF later went to the restaurant at a client’s insistence that it was wonderful and did not like it.) 

So going to ‘ino, a disciple of the Babbo school, I was wary and uncertain what to expect.  StB was excited obviously since the place is really cheap and it was almost sure to please her.  I’m going to speak strictly of the food; for her take on the service (and the food), click here.  I didn’t have as strong of a reaction to the bartender as she did.

StB started off with the truffled egg toast ($8), which was actually the sole reason she’d really really wanted to go here.  I tried a piece and was pleasantly surprised at how mild the truffles tasted despite smelling something fierce; the gooey cheese over the still-crispy toast complemented the dish nicely.  I am curious how they kept the toast so crispy/crunchy (not overly so, mind you; just the outside while the inside was chewy) while covered in cheese.

Tomato season is ending soon, so I started off with a bruschette – heirloom tomatoes with basil ($2); there were a lot of different choices for bruschette on the menu, this was not the only one.  The juicy tomatoes with the fresh basil were delicious, just right; I especially liked how they got the bread just right.  It was crispy, not soggy, but when I bit into it, it didn’t crumble and fall apart in my hand, nor did it just mush into my mouth.  After the initial crunch, the bread was chewy and let me eat neatly.  I really appreciated that- a lot of places either go all crispy for the bruschette, or just neglect to care and the bread sogs up.

StB’s tramezzini (as explained by the waiter: a tea sandwich on white bread with the crusts cut off and served at room temperature) of pancetta, tomato, rucola and lemon mayo ($6).  Her opinion is here.

My tramezzini of prosciutto, tomato and basil pesto ($6) was wonderful.  I was really impressed; I mean, it’s “just a sandwich” but the melting of the flavors in my mouth, excellent.  There was enough basil pesto to moisten the sandwich and add that background depth of “hmm, garlic.. cheese… basil, yum!” but not enough to be in your face about it; the tomato’s juiciness went well of course with those flavors and the prosciutto was not skimped on nor was it too much to overwhelm you.  I bit through it like butter.  So good. 

In fact, we liked our sandwiches (and our cheap meal!) so much that after we walked away a few blocks, we were talking about trying more of their tramezzini, and decided to go back and order some to go for the next day’s lunch.  I chose the mortadella, red pepper and pecorino which was a poor choice on my part, if only because I hadn’t ever had mortadella before and wasn’t sure I’d like it.  In fact, having heard it described as “Italian bologna” I seriously doubted I’d like it, but the other two ingredients sounded good, and I thought maybe they’d make it so that bologna tasted good.  I was wrong, if only because bologna will never taste good to me. 

Otherwise, the bread, dense and chewy, the cheese and peppers delicious, the splash of balsamic vinegar, awesome… although the huge whole peppercorns weren’t to my liking either, had I liked bologna, this sandwich would have knocked my socks off.  (I opened up the sandwich to take a quick peek and noted with dismay that mortadella has large circles of white fat scattered throughout; it was more than a bit gross.) 

Yvo says: I almost don’t want to tell you how great this place is, because the sandwiches were filling and at $6 each, with the bruschette selection large and $2 a piece, this is super cheap for top notch food.  But because I’m a nice person, I’m telling you.  It’s already hard to get a table- on a Monday night, the place was packed- so I can only imagine how much worse it’s going to get as time goes on and the word gets out.  Delicious.
highly recommended