Alla darsene di Loppia

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Via Eugenio Vitali, November 17, 2017

DINNER AT MIDDAY today in what seemed — after a little online research — likely to be the best restaurant in the area. Darsena, accent on the first syllable, is Italian for "dock," and Loppia is a tiny village a mile or so downcoast from Bellagio, a village with its own tiny sheltered harbor set between a pair of small warehouses.

Whatever. Darsene di Loppia is an elegant place: a long shoebox of a dining room, say fourteen by fifty feet, highceilinged, besutifully lit and painted, with ten or twelve well-spaced tables, quiet, professional staff, an an engaging and thoughtful menu and wine list.

Crudo di tonno

deconstructed

I began with Crudo di tonno: clean, deep red, meaty tuna under a cap of deliciously anchovied puntarelle and set about with equally delicious slices of lardo.

Afterward, Filetto di Vitello farcito con Olive Taggiasche, pomodoro secco, su purea di Topinambur: a slice of veal steak spread with Taggiasco olive paste and rolled, bound with Jerusalem artichoke purée, and garnsihed with a bit of barely cooked broccoli, a generous spoonful of savofry red cabbage, half an artichoke, and a single asparagus spear (from Chile: I asked). The vegetables all complemented one another remarkably well.

Dessert: a white-chocolate sphere, hollow, filled with licorice mousse and covered with lukewarm raspberry sauce. Ingenious and once again deeply flavored.

     🍷Spumante of the region; Lugana CàMaiol Molin, 2016; Barbera d'Alba Elio Altare, 2015; all perfectly correct and enjoyable
•Ristorante Darsene di Loppia, Via Melzi d'Eril 1, Bellagio; 📞+39 339 42.29.884

☛RESTAURANTS VISITED, with information and rating: 2016      2015     2017