Supper

Right before the new year – the day before new year’s eve, actually – one of BF’s friends had a birthday dinner.  (Are you as shocked as I am?  When have I ever mentioned BF’s friends, much less them having birthday dinners?  Gasp!)  I usually feel a bit awkward around people I don’t know that well, taking pictures of what we’re eating, but I was fine this time.  Without wine 😉

The birthday boy, who we shall refer to as … JP (hahahaha…. oh my!) chose Supper, a rustic Italian place in the East Village, because he’d heard some very good things indeed.  I must say, the place was incredibly fascinating – since we had a rather large group, they gave us this table in the very back; we had to wind our way around everyone in the front, go to the back, then wind our way around all the shelves containing a huge assortment of bottles of wine into our very own room.  It was private and deliciously hidden from view. 

After we’d all ordered – which took forever, as it tends to in a big group like so – they brought us the above plate of bread.  Shamefully, I couldn’t tell what kinds of beans those are; I tried some and found it spiked with heat, not unbearably so, but definitely surprisingly.  I only had one bite before I stuck to eating the bread.  We had to ask for olive oil for the bread.

BF ordered this as a starter – a prosciutto & parmesan ‘salad’ with pears hiding underneath.  Unfortunately, before I could snag a bite, the plate was whisked off to the other end of the table, and it never returned… one of the downsides to eating with a large group of people with whom you are not very familiar.  He seemed to enjoy it thoroughly, telling me it was very good and apologizing for not grabbing a bite for me.

I went with the bruschetta; the waiter asked me if I wanted it with tomatoes or garlic, and BF cut in “Tomatoes, of course!” even though he’s not a fan of tomatoes, nor did he partake.  I would have said garlic – tomatoes are woefully out of season – but I let it go.  And these tomatoes were odd – some were super ripe and sweet and wonderful, while others were completely raw and hard.  I had trouble eating this, too – the tomatoes’ juice had sogged up the bread, so when I picked up a piece, part of it folded downwards and dropped all the tomatoes.  I tried holding it with more fingers and it still did not hold up; the tomatoes kept sliding off and into my hand or onto my lap.  It was uncomfortable to eat, but I did find the parts with the ripe tomatoes very tasty and well seasoned. 

BF and I wisely chose to split two dishes – one a meat dish, and one a pasta dish. 

For the meat, I chose the veal scallopini milanese, which was huge, pounded extremely thin but overall… a touch bland.  We squirted the provided lemon generously over it all, but the exterior lacked any real seasoning or salt to it.  Otherwise, it was properly cooked, not dry at all and extremely soft; just the lack of its own seasonings really disappointed.  Interestingly, the accompanying salad was seasoned liberally with cracked black pepper and salt, and was quite tasty with a little bit of lemon juice.

For our pasta dish, BF chose a dish that is titled – I have no idea why it’s called this – the “priest stranglers”.  It was described as pasta with fresh, soft ricotta and that really grabbed our attention.  I couldn’t tell you what kind of pasta that is, but I can tell you that it was cooked perfectly al dente, with a slight resistance to each bite, and that the creamy cheese with the tangy tomato sauce… was bliss.  We both enjoyed this dish very much… I was still fishing out pasta bits at the last minute possible, savoring the flavor and immensely pleased we’d opted for this instead of the other pasta dish that we’d considered briefly. 

Overall, I thought the place was pleasant, with great service – patient with our big-group ordering mentality – and the food was interesting enough that I’d return to try other dishes.  A lot of the menu is in Italian – food words that I couldn’t easily translate, natch – so I would bring a translator or your trusty internet-enabled handheld…

Yvo says: Delicious priest stranglers and solid other dishes.  I also tried part of someone’s roasted beet and goat cheese salad and desperately wished I’d been the one to order it, so I could have it all for myself.  Yum.  Though I can’t speak to prices – it came out to $58 per person [including treating the birthday boy], there was a lot of wine flowing, so I can’t be sure just what was going on with the bill (I wasn’t at the end of the table that calculated it, either) – it seemed pretty reasonable when I was looking at the menu, though there are a few items that simply do not have a price listed.  I would go back for a casual date for good hearty comforting Italian fare.
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