Del Posto is the most formal of restaurants in Mario Batali’s (swoon) empire. I had eaten there years ago when they first opened and was looking forward to giving it another try with my parents last Friday. It did not disappoint.

As usual I’d called ahead and let the restaurant know about my food allergies. The moment I walked in the host assured me that they knew about my allergies and would take good care of me. After we were seated our waiter came over to ask which one of us had food allergies and then again assured me that they were prepped and ready. I was definitely feeling confident.

Though you can order a la carte the menu is set up to encourage you to order the five course price fixed dinner so that’s just what we did!

After ordering we were presented with the amuse bouche; a “shot” of cauliflower, potato and fennel soup rimmed with parmesan, whipped ricotta in polenta cups and mini chicken and celery sandwiches. Each an everyone was heavenly, but I think the soup was my favorite. Of course I forgot to take a picture before we’d eaten two of the three items!

The bread basket was equally fantastic and was served with whipped salted butter and whipped lardo (that’s pork fat!). Yum!

For my appetizer I had my eye on the Chilled Lobster with Cipolline Onions, Meyer Lemon and Parsley. Unfortunately it also came with beans, but the waiter assured me that it would be no problem to leave them out. Score! The dish was lovely; the lobster was perfectly cooked and the slight acidity of the meyer lemon was perfect with the rich sweet lobster.

The five course tasting menu comes with two pasta courses shared by the whole table, music to this carboholic’s ears! For the first we chose one of Del Postos signature pasta’s
Spaghetti with Dungeness Crab, Sliced Jalapeno and Minced Scallion. O. M. F. G. This was the best dish of the night. The pasta was perfectly al dente, the crab meat succulent, the jalapeños had some serious kick and the scallions gave the dish a crisp bite.

The second pasta was another Del Posto signature, Yesterday’s 100 Layer Lasagna alla Piastra, which is made with 50 thin sheets of pasta layer with meat sauce and bechamel and then charred on top because, as our waiter said, “you know how everyone always fights for the burnt corners.” Unlike our idea of gooey cheesy Italian-American style lasagna this one had no cheese, but was just as heavenly. The layers just melted in your mouth.

For my main course I went for the Sardinian Lamb Chop, Roman Artichokes, Bruised Mint and Saffron Potatoes. Lamb is my favorite meat so I order it often. Like my beef I prefer it medium rare. The meat was perfectly cooked and there was an added treat of braised lamb neck meat hidden under the chops. The meat was tender and buttery. This was a perfect cold day comfort dish.

As often happens in restaurants, a different waiter came to take our dessert orders, but I need not worry because he too had been prepped on my food allergies. When he brought the dessert menus he let me know which desserts were safe for me or could be modified to be safe for me. I decided on the Butterscotch Semifreddo Crumbled Sbrisolona (cookies). The Semifreddo normally comes with melon agrumata (ices, I think?), but since I can’t do melon they happily left it off for me.

I love butterscotch and I hate the bad rap it’s been given by that cloyingly sweet stuff you get from plastic containers. This butterscotch semifreddo could single handedly redeem all butterscotch. It was not overly sweet at all. The texture of the Semifreddo was perfect, so creamy and smooth and it sat on top of a pool of rich deep dark caramel.

Yes that’s a candle in my dessert… 😉

But wait we’re not done… Because then they brought the petit fours. Six different petit fours to be exact and all six were safe for me! Unfortunately I was stuffed and tipsy by that time so the picture I snapped is terrible and I don’t remember what each different petit four was, but my favorite was the donut filled with lemon cream and topped with cinnamon sugar. I’m not a big donut fan because I usually find them heavy and greasy, but this one was light as air. As much as I loved my Semifreddo, I actually think that donut was even better.

All in all a wonderful meal.

The verdict:
Food rating: A
Service/food allergy accommodations: A+
Overall rating: OMG

I hope you all had a good weekend last weekend. Mine was pretty crazy awesome! Two of my very favorite people in the world, my friends Heather and Justin of Halloween party fame came to visit!

Heather is one of my besties who had the good sense to marry someone as awesome as she is. OK, truth is we’ve all admitted that Justin is kind of the male version of me; a loud mouth liberal who loves beer and sports so it’s no wonder we get along so well.

I had been saving that special bottle of beer that I won, Hill Farmstead Vera Mae, for Heather and Justin’s visit and also planned dinner at a restaurant in my neighborhood that I’ve been dying to try, Jacob’s Pickles. Neither of those disappointed.

After a nice day of walking around, seeing decorations and visiting the Columbus Circle Christmas market we headed home to relax before dinner and open that prized bottle of beer.

I didn’t take pictures of the beer because I’m embarrassed by my selection of glasses, Yes, that’s Justin pouring beer in to a mason jar.

O.M.F.G. Seriously one of the best beers I’ve ever tasted. Vera Mae is a saison style ale which happens to be my favorite type of beer. We new we had something special on our hands the moment we opened the bottle and were hit with an intoxicating citrus and yeast aroma. It poured a beautiful pale hazy yellow with a thick white head (uh huh huh, she said “thick head”, yes thank you Beavis). Then of course came those first sips. Vera Mae has this mild sweetness from the honey it’s brewed with, sitting just behind a bright tartness and an earthiness that rounds the whole thing out. This beer is truly refreshing and you need to remind yourself to sit back and savor the flavor because it would be easy to slurp this drink back. Heather, Justin and I all declared ourselves Vera Mae fans down to the last drop!

After we finished our beers we headed out to dinner. Jacob’s Pickles, a southern style restaurants that’s gotten great reviews, has been open in my neighborhood for about a year so I can’t believe that I hadn’t eaten there yet. They have a great great craft beer selection too, so I’ve been there for a drink at the bar and snacked on their amazing fried pickles, but this was my first real meal there.

The three of us met up with two other friends and we were immediately overwhelmed, not because the menu is huge (it’s average sized), but because everything looked amazing! Naturally we asked out waiter, who was totally adorbs btw, what his favorite menu item was. His response was, “If I could eat the Mushroom Gravy Smothered Chicken Biscuit Sandwich everyday of my life and not weigh 1000 pounds I would.” Well with that endorsement…!

This pictures are not mine. I blatantly and knowingly stole them from foodspotting.com.
Don’t sue me.

To start we ordered fried pickles and deviled eggs, neither of which I remembered to take pictures of! As for main courses, four out the five of us followed the waiters advice and ordered the Mushroom Gravy Smothered Chicken Biscuit Sandwich. Justin decided to go rogue and instead ordered the Sausage Gravy Smothered Chicken Biscuit Sandwich. He’s a real wild man. The sandwiches came with a side of cheese grits, which three of us went for while two in our party substituted with mashed potatoes.

The fried pickles were as good as I remembered. The pickles themselves are made in house so they’re wonderfully flavorful and crisp. They’re cut in to spears and fully enrobed in a batter that remains light and crispy and not too greasy and they’re served with a side of spicy aioli. YUM!

As for the eggs… I am so ashamed to admit this… I didn’t even try them. I love deviled eggs so much, but there was just sooo much food. Everyone else though, declared them just about the best deviled eggs they’d every had.

Terrible photo; amazing dish!

Our waiter, in addition to being adorable, was also not a liar. Mushroom Gravy Smothered Chicken Biscuit Sandwich was outrageous. The biscuit light and crumbly, the chicken perfectly cooked with a crisp thin coating, the gravy rich and flavorful loaded with earthy mushrooms, made the whole thing a transcendent experience. Oh and those grits! There are two kinds of grits in this world, terrible or great; there is no in between with grits. Unfortunately many people have only experienced the terrible variety which is a shame. Luckily for us the grits at Jacob’s Pickles   were of the amazing variety. Silky smooth and filled with goeey cheesy flavor.

I will definitely be returning to Jacob’s Pickles, especially since next time I have my eye on the Honey Chicken and Pickles biscuit sandwich!

Have you had any particularly great food, beer of friend experiences lately?