21st
Cafe Spiaggia
Rumor has it that Cafe Spiaggia serves exactly the kind of hand-crafted Italian food that its older and sophisticated sister, Spiaggia has—just $20 dollars cheaper. I spotted a deal on Opentable.com where I could easily nab 1,000 points for an early spot on Thursday night (their “boar gnocci” looked especially enticing).
Overlooking a posh mile of Michigan avenue, facing Chanel and Louis Vuitton, Cafe Spiaggia has the faux-frescos that I found to be slightly cheesey, not unlike their crisp-chip parmesan bread paired with a roundly bitter and fruity olive oil.
J had the crisply veal with a velvet soft insides, the outside tore off in chewy strings. The cipollini onions on the side were sweet and fleshy and made me think of onions in a completely different way. J informed me that grilled green onion bulbs also tasted similar.
Ohhh maaaah god, I have a pavlovian reaction to this photo every time. The gnocci was pillow light, the boar ragu tasted like hours of slow simmer pork and tomato—it made me wish for a team of Italians, forever stewing things in my kitchen.
The amaretto pound cake was drenched in liqueur but still managed to be dry. I would have kept chocking on the crumbs if not for the little scoop of vanilla gelato.
