Jason and Aaron had a head start and decided to order a bottle of red, a Felsina 2000 Fontalloro. There's really no better way to start off the weekend than to have a good glass of red waiting for you at the bar.
We decided to get an appetizer and ordered the five cheese cheese plate. Three specials and two from the regular menu. I don't remember what all the cheeses were but we had a taleggio, one that was from grass-fed sheep, another from grass-fed cow, gorgonzola and one other that escapes me at the moment. The grass-fed ones were my least favorite, but the gorgonzola and taleggio were very good. I think this was my first time tasting taleggio. It's one of the stinkier cheeses I've had and although I thought it was good, I wasn't as crazy about it as Aaron was. My favorite out of the bunch was the gorgonzola and it happens to be Aaron's least fave. The three accompaniments they bring out with the cheeses is a big perk. It makes you fill up needlessly on bread because you can't stop yourself from sopping up every last bit. My favorite is the black truffled honey. If only they'd package it and let people buy jugs of that stuff.
The cheeses whet our appetite and we managed to score a table without waiting. We agreed to sit at a table that was ideally only for two. I volunteered to sit on the outside where all the traffic was because I didn't want to risk one of the men, especially my man, getting annoyed midway through the meal. And sure enough, there were a couple of bumps, a couple of kicks, and even an elbow to the back of my head. But none of it bothered me. I was having a good time, enjoying the company and drinking lots of wine.
We started with a selection of antipasti - olives, eggplant caponatina and roasted peppers and capers. Everything had a healthy helping of olive oil, but I didn't really mind it much since everything was just so damn good. The eggplant caponatina as always is amazing, but tasted a little sweeter than usual. You can't really go wrong with olives, but of the three, the sicilians were by far the tastiest and so gosh darn fall off the pit good. The roasted peppers and capers were average and I didn't think it was anything special or earth shattering.
For entrees, we shared the funghi and taleggio pizza, spaghetti carbonara, penne alla norma and penne puttanesca. The penne puttanesca was ordered while we were splitting the other three dishes. Jason thought we didn't have enough food. Obviously, he was suffering from a case of the "eyes bigger than stomach" syndrome.
The funghi and taleggio pizza, Aaron's choice, was good. The flavors are a bit strong for me and the mushrooms and cheese seemed to be fighting for attention. I think the mushrooms won. The crust was perfect. A little soft, a little crispy and a bit chewy. Overall a very good pizza.
The pastas were all cooked perfectly. The spaghetti carbonara was my pick. I haven't stopped thinking about it since I last ordered it at Otto. The other two pastas had red sauces and tasted pretty similar. All very good, but still, the carbonara was the winner.
We were all stuffed beyond belief, but we somehow made room for gelato. We all shared an order with three different flavors. We obviously had to get the olive oil gelato and I was never a big fan of it until now. It's rich and yes, it tastes like olive oil. Kind of disgusting if you think about scooping spoonfuls of olive oil into your mouth. But it's pretty unusual and it's something you have to try at least once.
Otto is one of my favorite places. The food is consistently good. The bartenders are exceptionally knowledgable and friendly. The servers are horrible, but it's something I'll put up with to eat at Otto. An easy solution to the service issue is to eat at the bar. Something I haven't done yet, but am sure I will in the near future.
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