Berkeley, November 18, 2010—
IT'S THE TITLE of a play by Gertrude Stein: Idem, the Same, and I've always liked it. It stands here because1) Last night's dinner was exactly the same as the previous night's: grilled flank steak, broccoli, green salad;
Mourvedre, Preston of Dry Creek, 2007
2) Tonight we are in Berkeley, and decided to stop in at a restaurant we very much liked three months ago. I decided to have tomorrow night's Martini tonight; afterward, the three of us split two delicious and interesting salads of red romaine with garlic-caper vinaigrette, shaved Grana Padana, and big very thin croutons.
The three of us all had the same entree, too: strozzapretti with roasted eggplant, merguez, chiles, tomato, herbs, and ricotta salata, a very well executed version of a classic Sicilian dish.
Looking back here, I see that I described the restaurant at some length last August, so I won't write more here tonight except to say that the meal was delicious, the wine well chosen, and the restaurant, unfortunately, is closing this Sunday, after only four months in operation. Memo: don't open a restaurant unless you've capitalized it for at least a year in advance.
Tenuta Curezza, PriNe, 2008 (Puglia)
Locanda da Eva, 2826 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley; tel. (510) 665-9601
1 comment:
Merry and I ate there last night, kissing it reluctantly good-bye. We'd eaten there, I think, twice before.
I had the broccolini, and the chicken and cheese meatballs in broth. Both were world-class. A very nice Italian-style white wine. Double-espresso to finish.
Sorry to see it go. Not sure why this location seems to be so problematic. The parking is relatively easy, the interior space is above-average (though the sloped outer seating section--where they inevitably try to "stick" everyone--doesn't work for me). Why do such ambitious people fail here? Maybe it's some kind of obscure curse.
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