Urban Legend

You may be aware that Scott, M and I do Friday night dinner with our great friends Steen and Nicole. Recently, we discovered that we've been hanging at 6 of TO's top 12 restaurants, 2008. Somehow, given our group propensity to throw icky amounts of disposable income on yummy food, we were not surprised.

While on a hunt to try them all (at least all the ones with in a 30 minute walk from either of our residences) we had a chance to drink, apres dinner (and sans kid), a couple of Fridays ago at The Black Hoof. Who knew a charcuterie could make such fine cocktails?

However, this post is not so much about that debaucherous moment. It's more about dinner at what I imagine will be on 2009's Best Restaurant list: Giancarlo Wine and Pasta Bar. The pics from the link don't quite do it justice. Nor, regrettably does the one below, taken with the cell phone in the rather moody cavern:


Let me just say, this place (much like its venerable Trattoria GianCarlo sibling) is just beautiful. All the building materials have been reclaimed from other environments. The workmanship is fantastic, the staff friendly, the food delicious and the mood sexy.

In fact, a propos of my recent compulsion to eat my body weight in carbs (what is going on, people???), I had not one, but two mains (plus starter, natch), during my delightful dinner excursion. I'd like to tell you I ordered two different mains, but alas, that would be a lie.

Rest assured that the pasta with pesto and smoked chicken defies its boring nomenclature. And, if they like you, you get to order from the fancy Trattoria menu. Which, of course, I forced my co-eaters to do. The Trat's warm chocolate cake with salty caramel is so description-defying, I often dream about it.

PS: Getting out of there for $100.00 (the "reviewer price range") is a pipe dream when you're dining with my crowd. We enjoyed everything, plus lots of booze, and our bill was far in excess of that. Well worth it for the experience though. If you're in town, you should definitely try it out.