The love is flowing for sweet La Dolce Vita
[2008-5-16]
Tag: Cocoa Powder
When it comes to Italian restaurants, La Dolce Vita is more like a Birkenstock than a Manolo Blahnik, more classically comfy than chi-chi.Maybe that's why the warm, inviting little dining room in Lower Queen Anne has been humming along under the radar. Since Schwartz Brothers alum Christopher Frost opened the place three years ago, the only raves it has received are from customers in online reviews. Let me add my marinara-stained thumbs up.
Frost is the genial host, often sitting down to visit with regulars, but his gracious approach extends to newcomers, too.
The dining room is warm, literally. On a blustery spring evening, the gas fireplace was cranking out BTUs that felt great at first but soon became sauna-esque. A server was happy to turn down the flames.
The room's faux columns and murals give the restaurant a slightly dated feel, like the red-sauce spaghetti houses of the 1970s. That's not a bad thing; there aren't any checkered tablecloths and candles stuck in Chianti bottles.
Outside, the paint is drying and a small deck is nearly ready to seat diners alfresco. This project was supposed to be a quickie job, but permit snafus have turned it into a yearlong ordeal. Its launch should be a cause for celebration.
La Dolce Vita's menu is worthy of special occasions, arranged traditionally into starters, pasta and entrees. Many of the pastas are generous portions, which makes them easy enough to split between two if you'd like to eat like an Italian and order noodles as a first course.
Salads are nicely dressed and full of the featured ingredients: shaved Parmesan and homemade croutons on the Caesar and caramelized pears, goat cheese and pine nuts atop micro greens.
Pears also are the key to one of the restaurant's most successful pasta dishes, a Grgonzola-stuffed ravioli topped with thin slices of the tart fruit. What a happy marriage of sweet and savory, especially after the addition of fried sage leaves.
The kitchen's version of Bolognese is old school, the sauce thick with beef and veal, making it almost more of a gravy. Wide pappardelle noodles work as a fine platform for the meaty mixture, though the pasta was a couple beats beyond al dente.
A linguine featuring plump, sweet prawns was also a bit limp, though the assertive seasonings -- bright, citrus flavors and fine herbs -- made the overcooked pasta easier to swallow.
After enjoying a couple of dinners at La Dolce Vita, I put the restaurant to the acid test, inviting a friend who had lived in Sicily for several years. She was charmed by the ample antipasto, a colorful collection of paper-thin salami and prosciutto, roasted red peppers, olives and chunks of Gorgonzola. And she loved the rack of lamb, which arrived perfectly medium rare, carved into chops and arranged around a pile of creamy mashed potatoes, a mix of steamed broccoli and carrots on the side. Not the kind of dish that's going to make the cover of Saveur, but still immensely likable.
As was the Gorgonzola-stuffed chicken breast and the boar braised in Barolo. Those preparations have been tweaked on the latest menu; the ante upped to four cheeses tucked into the chicken and the rich pork stew now finished with pear compote.
Frost recently hired a new chef, Twain Hinderman, who had been working as a sous-chef in Brooklyn. The two have collaborated on fine-tuning the menu, distilling the number of standing items while expanding on specials in order to play up seasonal ingredients.
At lunch last week, the updates were mixed. A halibut was woefully underseasoned; the fish was battered, fried and served perched on spinach and arugula salad. When the server described the dish -- not a cheap lunch at $15 -- he mentioned asparagus, but the vegetable turned out to be a single stalk split down the middle. More a garnish than a side dish.
Veal cannelloni was a better choice, the tender pasta wrapped around a hefty helping of the ground meat mixture. The pair of pudgy pasta tubes wore a brilliant red marinara, which struck just the right balance of tomato-y tartness without being overly acidic.
When studying the dessert menu, my lunch date got excited when she spotted la bomba. These ice cream treats are imported from Italy and after we ordered a chocolate bomba, the solicitous server returned a few moments later to give us the bad news. They were out of chocolate, but could offer the tropical version instead.
What a refreshing development! Passion fruit sorbet and coconut gelato, plus just enough raspberry to give the center a note of pink were covered in a white chocolate. The plate was drizzled in dark chocolate syrup. The bomba was da bomb.
And because we just had to have a chocolate fix, we tried the tartufo, too. Another import, this bittersweet gelato was finished in a dusting of cocoa powder and chopped hazelnuts.
A cup of freshly brewed drip made from fine Caffe Vita beans helped alleviate the need for a post-lunch siesta. When indulging in dessert in the evening, be sure to take note of the short but well-chosen list of after-dinner wines. A glass of 1991 ruby port was a real gem.
One of the highlights of meals at La Dolce Vita was watching the back-and-forth between the neighboring kitchens. The restaurant is next door to Buckley's and the staff from the pub often pops in, sometimes to borrow ingredients. There's something appealing about the sense of community.
A word to La Dolce Vita's kitchen crew: Sounds do carry, so you probably need to keep it down when you're gossiping. You never know who's sitting within eavesdropping range.
Or not. The boisterous chatter from the kitchen didn't seem to disturb other diners. It might even add to the laid-back vibe in the room.
Still, when there's white linen on the tables and entrees in the mid- to upper-$20-range, it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect a quietly elegant atmosphere.
Ultimately, though, Frost runs just the kind of mom-and-pop operation that should warm the heart -- and belly -- of diners searching for a snug spot working hard at doing good food at a reasonable price. A place that's as easy to slip into as a pair of broken-in Birkenstocks.
When it comes to Italian restaurants, La Dolce Vita is more like a Birkenstock than a Manolo Blahnik, more classically comfy than chi-chi.Maybe that's why the warm, inviting little dining room in Lower Queen Anne has been humming along under the radar. Since Schwartz Brothers alum Christopher Frost opened the place three years ago, the only raves it has received are from customers in online reviews. Let me add my marinara-stained thumbs up.
Frost is the genial host, often sitting down to visit with regulars, but his gracious approach extends to newcomers, too.
The dining room is warm, literally. On a blustery spring evening, the gas fireplace was cranking out BTUs that felt great at first but soon became sauna-esque. A server was happy to turn down the flames.
The room's faux columns and murals give the restaurant a slightly dated feel, like the red-sauce spaghetti houses of the 1970s. That's not a bad thing; there aren't any checkered tablecloths and candles stuck in Chianti bottles.
Outside, the paint is drying and a small deck is nearly ready to seat diners alfresco. This project was supposed to be a quickie job, but permit snafus have turned it into a yearlong ordeal. Its launch should be a cause for celebration.
La Dolce Vita's menu is worthy of special occasions, arranged traditionally into starters, pasta and entrees. Many of the pastas are generous portions, which makes them easy enough to split between two if you'd like to eat like an Italian and order noodles as a first course.
Salads are nicely dressed and full of the featured ingredients: shaved Parmesan and homemade croutons on the Caesar and caramelized pears, goat cheese and pine nuts atop micro greens.
Pears also are the key to one of the restaurant's most successful pasta dishes, a Grgonzola-stuffed ravioli topped with thin slices of the tart fruit. What a happy marriage of sweet and savory, especially after the addition of fried sage leaves.
The kitchen's version of Bolognese is old school, the sauce thick with beef and veal, making it almost more of a gravy. Wide pappardelle noodles work as a fine platform for the meaty mixture, though the pasta was a couple beats beyond al dente.
A linguine featuring plump, sweet prawns was also a bit limp, though the assertive seasonings -- bright, citrus flavors and fine herbs -- made the overcooked pasta easier to swallow.
After enjoying a couple of dinners at La Dolce Vita, I put the restaurant to the acid test, inviting a friend who had lived in Sicily for several years. She was charmed by the ample antipasto, a colorful collection of paper-thin salami and prosciutto, roasted red peppers, olives and chunks of Gorgonzola. And she loved the rack of lamb, which arrived perfectly medium rare, carved into chops and arranged around a pile of creamy mashed potatoes, a mix of steamed broccoli and carrots on the side. Not the kind of dish that's going to make the cover of Saveur, but still immensely likable.
As was the Gorgonzola-stuffed chicken breast and the boar braised in Barolo. Those preparations have been tweaked on the latest menu; the ante upped to four cheeses tucked into the chicken and the rich pork stew now finished with pear compote.
Frost recently hired a new chef, Twain Hinderman, who had been working as a sous-chef in Brooklyn. The two have collaborated on fine-tuning the menu, distilling the number of standing items while expanding on specials in order to play up seasonal ingredients.
At lunch last week, the updates were mixed. A halibut was woefully underseasoned; the fish was battered, fried and served perched on spinach and arugula salad. When the server described the dish -- not a cheap lunch at $15 -- he mentioned asparagus, but the vegetable turned out to be a single stalk split down the middle. More a garnish than a side dish.
Veal cannelloni was a better choice, the tender pasta wrapped around a hefty helping of the ground meat mixture. The pair of pudgy pasta tubes wore a brilliant red marinara, which struck just the right balance of tomato-y tartness without being overly acidic.
When studying the dessert menu, my lunch date got excited when she spotted la bomba. These ice cream treats are imported from Italy and after we ordered a chocolate bomba, the solicitous server returned a few moments later to give us the bad news. They were out of chocolate, but could offer the tropical version instead.
What a refreshing development! Passion fruit sorbet and coconut gelato, plus just enough raspberry to give the center a note of pink were covered in a white chocolate. The plate was drizzled in dark chocolate syrup. The bomba was da bomb.
And because we just had to have a chocolate fix, we tried the tartufo, too. Another import, this bittersweet gelato was finished in a dusting of cocoa powder and chopped hazelnuts.
A cup of freshly brewed drip made from fine Caffe Vita beans helped alleviate the need for a post-lunch siesta. When indulging in dessert in the evening, be sure to take note of the short but well-chosen list of after-dinner wines. A glass of 1991 ruby port was a real gem.
One of the highlights of meals at La Dolce Vita was watching the back-and-forth between the neighboring kitchens. The restaurant is next door to Buckley's and the staff from the pub often pops in, sometimes to borrow ingredients. There's something appealing about the sense of community.
A word to La Dolce Vita's kitchen crew: Sounds do carry, so you probably need to keep it down when you're gossiping. You never know who's sitting within eavesdropping range.
Or not. The boisterous chatter from the kitchen didn't seem to disturb other diners. It might even add to the laid-back vibe in the room.
Still, when there's white linen on the tables and entrees in the mid- to upper-$20-range, it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect a quietly elegant atmosphere.
Ultimately, though, Frost runs just the kind of mom-and-pop operation that should warm the heart -- and belly -- of diners searching for a snug spot working hard at doing good food at a reasonable price. A place that's as easy to slip into as a pair of broken-in Birkenstocks.
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