Wednesday, January 28, 2009

"Wicked" Good Pasta


Last Friday was a perfect New York night: dinner, drinks, and theater. It was a clear, cool night, and the work week was over, so morale was very high.

Boy and I started the night off with about 30 pounds of pasta at Vice Versa on 51st st. We had been to its sister restaurant Etcetera Etcetera and really enjoyed it, so when we got tickets to the Gershwin Theatre, it seemed like the perfect choice. They, like many other restaurants in the area, are known for their pre-theatre dinner - they get you in and out with plenty of time. Boy started off the night with a glass of chianti and I had a blueberry cosmo, and then we dove into the menu.

We are both extremely indecisive, so we thought it would be best to share a bunch of appetizer portion pasta dishes: asparagus risotto, strozzapreti with duck ragout and black olives, gnocchi with smoked prosciutto and porcini mushrooms, and pumpkin ravioli with butter and sage. All very different, but all very delicious. Our favorite was the strozzapreti, or "strangled priest" (photo above), with the thick strips of moist duck. The creamy risotto was cooked perfectly, just like the artichoke risotto at Etcetera. Pumpkin and brown butter and sage make a terrific combination - sweet and savory. The gnocchi was a little heavy...thank god we got the app size portion or else we wouldn't have been able to move... To finish the meal, we shared a glass of limoncello and complimentary cookies. So far, so good.

Since we still had time to kill before the performance began, we decided to duck into The House of Brews down the street for a quick beer. Or beers as it turned out. Again, because we're indecisive, we went with a flight of four 4oz beers: Checker Cab, Chimay Triple, Duvel Green, and the Brooklyn Brewmasters Choice (which turned out to be a wintery ale). Chimay was hands down the top beer of the evening. By the time we finished the brews, it was time for Wicked, a show that I have wanted to see for a very long time and one that absolutely did not disappoint.

Such a wonderful (albeit full) night, by any city's standards.

Have a good one!

1 comment:

  1. not to creep or anything but we're doing this for a school project and i needed to find a few blogs to follow and yours was the first to come up so . . . yeah

    ReplyDelete