To celebrate a visit from our West Coast Sales Manager, Rob, some folks from the Linkstorm team headed over to Bar Stuzzichini Bar Stuzzichini last week, after work.
At first we were told there were no seats, but our salesy sales guys work their magic and we got a great table, one of the few, out front. We sat outside on Broadway overlooking the passerbys. Wax, Lois, Rob, Tim, Melinda and I sat down, leaving space for Shruti and David to join us when they meandered over. As we waited we enjoyed some pretty good olive oil and bread, with a bit of pepperoncini and coarse salt.
Wax invited Maria, our wonderful waitress to select which of the five items from the Dal Bar should be included in our Stuzzichini Misti, a choice of five meze plates to share for us (a reasonable deal at $11 per person). She chose very well!
Shortly after ordering our wine arrived and then the Prosciutto di Parma, a healthy portion of 18-month aged meat, which we all enjoyed atop the bread.
Along with the ham came a large plate of broken Pecorino Grand Cru. This was a wonderful pecorino, with a strong, buttery and nutty flavor. The pieces were quite large, which allowed us to enjoy the taste. But because of the salt level it took us a while to finish the plate.
We took no time in finishing the plate of Arancini, fried rice balls with lots of cheese in side. Even though I'm not a big fan of rice balls, I agreed with Wax and others that this was a winner! We really enjoyed them.
Two minutes later, two more dishes arrived, including the Polpette: fried meatballs. The flavor of these meatballs was perfect, but the oil level was not. As we cut into the meatballs oil literally pooled up on top and ran down the side.
The last dish of our meze course was the Polpo, grilled octopus. It was a generous piece that tasted as fresh as any I had while in the Mediterranean, and definitely better than what we had in Katakalon, Greece.
After about an hour of slowly eating and chatting, we placed our orders for mains; some of us chose pastas (primis) and others meats (secondis), which fit our levels of appetite after the big appetizer course. I warned everyone that I'd be shoving my fork into their plate, so feel free to order extra.
Some of the dishes were gorgeous, such as Carciofi, golden fried artichoke hearts, which are actually a meze, but Shruti ordered as a side dish. They were tasty but greasy.
Possibly the ugliest dish on the table was Wax's order of the Tagliolini con Pistacchio e Limone. It looked a bit like vomit. However, it was hands down the most wonderful tasting dish on the table. I couldn't stop stealing bites. The rich cream sauce was offset by the acid of the lemon. The pistacchio (which I actually don't care for) rounded the flavor by adding a certain flare which seemed to lock in with the nuttyness of the cheese. The pasta was also perfectly cooked.
My dish was less interesting. It was nothing special to look at and offered nothing special in way of taste. The sausage was way overcooked and the broccoli rabe had little flavor. And unfortunately the pasta was a bit overcooked as well. Oh well.
It could have been worse... Shruti's order of the Orecchiette e Cavolifiore (breadcrumbs and cauliflower over orecchiette) was incredibly oily! She couldn't eat it, and I only had a few bites because of it. I believe it was Melinda who had the Gnocchi all' Amatriciana. It looked pretty, but the gnocchi were horribly gummy and I'll be damned if I could find a bit of guanciale in the amatriciana sauce. Sad, I love that sauce. Melinda said she enjoyed it though.
We also had a side dish of 'Ncapriata, sauteed chicory and fava bean puree. It was terrible, neither Wax or I finished the bit we took.
After all the mains we opted to share two desserts from the Dolci menu for the eight of us, and it was more than enough. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures. The Torta Caprese, a chocolate hazelnut cake was rich and wonderful, especially with the bit of ice cream on the side. The zeppole we had were extraordinarily rich and perfectly cooked.
Overall we enjoyed ourselves at Bar Stuzzichini. They didn't rush us and our waitress was wonderful, perhaps because both her and Wax were from the midwest and loved Broadway shows? And the prices were very fair considering the expensive location. However, the food was generally way to oily, from the meatballs to the pasta to the fried dessert. And most of the pastas were not cooked correctly, an act of sacrilege for any Italian restaurant. The tagliorini was sensational and a distinctive treat. If I go back, that will be my choice.
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