When you’re eating and drinking your way through The Continent you always hope to stumble on that little out of the way place, the family restaurant, the one where the sons are in the kitchen and the family works the front of the house. Where the décor is eclectic and entertaining. Where the food is spectacular. Joe and I were lucky enough to find such a place for dinner last night in Genova, which was particularly welcome after our disappointment in Marseille.
The trattoria was right next to our hotel, Hotel Agnello d’Oro, another great find through my new favorite hotel booking engine, booking.com. We were starved after our trip from Marseille and were tired from the (milk run) train we took from Ventimiglia to Genoa aka Genova (A Word to the Wise: Never take an Italian inter-city train that runs only second class accommodations. Deadly). After checking in, we grabbed a bottle of wine and a few goodies from a local market then stopped at a hole in the wall for a small pizza to go. The pizza was mediocre but we were famished and polished it off in about 5 minutes. It would tide us over until the trattoria opened at 7:30 pm.
After a little blogging and a nap, we rolled out the door and 15 feet up the street to the trattoria.
There wasn’t more than a few minutes wait before we were escorted to a table right next to the dessert table, where I got an eyeful of the torte della nonna and a small bowl of black truffles. No, not the chocolate kind but the mushroom kind. What they were doing on the dessert cart I have no idea but I enjoyed having a place of honor next to what looked like $400 worth of truffles.
We started with a cold bottle of rosé
and ordered an appetizer of shaved Serrano ham with smoked raw fish, and an insalate. (Note: Sorry there are no complete pictures of any of the dishes. We started eating before either of us remembered to take a picture)
The owner/waiter/host slid by our table with an amuse bouche (divertire bocca?) that included fresh peas in herbed cream and little squares of fried polenta. Nom nom nom. We were craving pasta and the Lupo did not disappoint us with their selections. I had a plate of round paste (begins with an “L” – I should write this stuff down) with a rosemary pignoli cream sauce.
Joe had ravioli stuffed with spinach and ricotta with a Bolognese sauce made with chopped fish instead of meat.
We tried not to scarf it down in one bite but it was fantastic food and we were famished. Luckily, we managed to grab a few pictures before we cleaned our plates completely.
After a digestivo, we thanked the owner and his wife,
took a few more pictures, signed the guestbook,
and rolled out the door and back to our hotel. All of that for 83 Euros.
Molto bene.
3 comments:
Sounds like a lovely meal ya had! I was lucky enough one year to find one of those family owned places in Boston in the North End and have no clue the name of it. I just know they served family style putting all the food in the middle of the table so we four girls were able to eat like at home. Kudos it was right next door to ya.
I think those of us who are going to be in Hyannis on Friday eve found a Tapas and Martinis restaurant that looks very swank and upbeat to go to for my bd. :)
Ill be thinking of you my friend. Au Revoir
You had me at Rose. The rest looked fabulous, too. Yum.
I'm drooling again. Who am I kidding, that's my normal state.
80 euros all in instead of 59 euros per head for bouillabaise of dubious heritage in Marseilles.
Result!
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