Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Montalcino Dinner at Dino

In celebration of Dino's 4th year in business, owners Dean and Kay Gold, are offering a fantastic 4-course dinner for $39/person from July 16th-31st. It's appropriately entitled "A Night in Montalcino" and it comes with an optional wine pairing including Constanti Brunello di Montalcino for an additional $24. The menu is subject to change over the two weeks, but tentatively it will include the following specialties of Tuscany's Montalcino:

Antipasto: a quartet of antipasti with small bites of tripe with white beans and saffron, wild boar prosciutto, tongue with salsa verde, and young pecorino with honey or a vegetarian crostini selection.

Pasta: Pappardelle all'Aglione {with roasted garlic & tomatoes}, or Polenta with Ragu di Coniglio {stewed rabbit}.

Entrees: a very traditional Cinghiale Dolce forte {wild boar with bitter chocolate in the garlicky spicy sauce, dating back to the Medici period} or Petto d'Anatra {Dr Joe's Duck Breast with a rustic dried cherry & prosciutto sauce}.

Dessert will be a ricotta mousse or a selection of two pecorino (sheep) cheeses.

The wine match will be 4 pours: Chianti Colli Sinese Trecciano, Rosso di Montalcino Tassi, Brunello 2003 Costanti, and Vin Santo or Grappa di Brunello.

If you order the tasting menu or you mention that you read their Email about the special menu, you'll receive a taste of one of the numerous older wines Dean and Kay keep in Dino's cellar.

So I know some of the items on the menu might look like things you don't eat, but I went to a dinner based on the same theme last summer after Dean and Kay came back from a trip to Montalcino. I promise you the food is ottimo and well worth the money.

Alyssa and I are definitely planning to check it out some time in the next few weeks.

Ciao tutti!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

More Gelato!

Ciao tutti!

This is our first post on the new blog, so we're pretty excited. Thanks in advance for reading and sticking with us through our changes in format.

In our recent Summer e-Bliss, we featured the new gelato spot, Pitango. We've found a few others since and wanted to share them with you.

Newly opened Potenza (which we really like) has a bakery attached with several flavors of gelato available. Potenza is located at the corner of 15th and H Sts. NW. Walk in the door on H St. and take an immediate left. The bakery also serves up freshly baked breads and pastries.

The hours are:
Monday-Friday: 8AM-8PM
Saturday: 10AM-8PM
Sunday: 10AM-6PM

Also newly opened in the downtown corridor is a third location of Pizza Autentica on L St. between 13th and 14th Sts. NW. We haven't tried the pizza yet, so you dine at your own risk on that one, but they do have a decent selection of gelato.

The hours are:
Monday-Friday: 8AM-11PM

As always, don't forget that our friend Gianluigi Dellaccio sells his incredible Dolci Gelati at 3 locations in the DC area - the National Zoo, Dean & Deluca (Georgetown), and by the pint at the Italian Store in Arlington.

We'll keep researching and let you all know if we stumble across any others!

A presto,