Sportello - A Little Bit About a Lot of Things A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

September 20, 2013 Sportello

Sporetllo might be one of my all time favorite restaurants. The food there is always tasty and I dig the upscale diner set up.

I had a few co-workers come in from out of town and I brought them here – we were one more than expected, and they couldn’t accommodate us, so we had to wait about 30 minutes until we could all sit. We waited for about 15 minutes to get into Drink downstairs, and by the time we ordered drinks and they arrived we were called up to our seats.

My co-workers are fellow foodies, so we did it up big. We started with the roasted fingerlings ($5). We also grabbed the duck rillettes ($8 – not pictured) and the crispy chicken livers: ($15 – not pictured, ricotta gnudi, sweet corn, chicken jus.

We were famished and this was a late dinner, so we also had salads. We had the Equinox Farm Mesclun: ($12 – not pictured) hazelnut, pecorino, verjus. Pictured above is my salad, the heirloom tomato salad: ($14) melon, calaminth (which is an herb for those not in the know), feta. Simple presentation, colorful, flavorful and bold.

I can’t get enough of the pasta here, and I can never make up my mind, so I go with two appetizer sized dishes to satisfy my craving. Above is the potato gnocchi: ($13) mushroom ragu, peas, cream. The dumplings melted away in your mouth. The sauce was creamy but not too heavy – perfection!

And my go to dish here, the tagliatelle: ($15) sauce bolognese, fried basil. The cheese on top was like a fluffy mountain of snow. Al dente pasta, meaty ragu with an amazing flavor. I almost fell of my stool when the stranger told me that he thought the dish was too salty! Sacrilege!!

For dessert we did the toasted coconut s’more: ($8 – not pictured) whipped chocolate fudge which was our #2 dessert of the night – really lovely dessert, how can you go wrong with chocolate and coconut? Above is the angel food cake: ($8) summer fruits, crimsonberry tea. Lovely to look at, but angel food cake just doesn’t excite me.

And I ordered (and shared) the cookie sandwich: ($6) reserve chocolate chip cookie, coffee gelato. Best dessert of the night. Cookies were rich and had a really nice hint of salt on top to make this dessert anything but ordinary.