Dinner at Del Posto

I can’t even put into words what this restaurant experience was like. 

As their mission statement says, Del Posto creates the highest quality dining experience in what is one of the greatest indoor spaces in New York City. Without projecting stilted formality, they offer an ambiance filled with warmth buoyancy and lightheartedness of the Italian spirit.

And that translated to one of the most fabulous dining experiences I have ever had.  Mario Batali’s name carries great weight in the restaurant world, and this meal lived up to everything I expected and more.  I had heard that they could accommodate any dietary preferences, so I asked the waitress for a vegan menu.  Wow.  I was expecting a few things, but a whole vegan tasting menu?  Awesome.

With a seven course menu just for me, just imagine what the menu for the rest of my family looked like!  So you can understand why I was the first to know exactly what I was ordering…well, that and my poor family members couldn’t really read the Italian menu.  Ummm, does anyone have an iPhone with a translator app?  Fortunately, the waitress was fluent in Italian (as well as the menu). 

However, before we got to the ordering process we had to first get through the extensive wine list.  Being the wino that he is, my dad tends to get very excited by such lists.  And the family vineyard inevitably comes up…he’s so predictable 🙂

Sure enough, my dad and the sommelier became insta-besties, which really put a hold on choosing our food.  Normally, I wouldn’t care.  I love love love dining and making meals an experience, however, I had to work the next day, so I wanted to keep things moving a bit more than they were.  They chatted it up for what felt like HOURS. 

Finally, my dad decided on wine bottle number one, an Abruzzo, NICODEMI Neromoro 2004.  It was delightful.  I only had a small glass since I don’t drink the night before I work (as a general self-imposed policy). 

The chef was nice enough to bring us some treats while we sipped on our wine…followed by five different kinds of fresh baked bread.

 

The first bites weren’t vegan, but I had my way with this bread basket.  Not lady-like in the least.

The first course I got was the Roasted Autumn Vegetables with Truffled Hazelnuts.

I am going to have a hard time describing these dishes beyond OMFG!  Holy flavor!  The rest of my family members got the non-vegan version of this dish to share, as well as another anti-pasta.  How they can make vegetables taste so crazy good is a wonder.  But this was delicious, especially the squash!  It was the perfect start to the meal.

Next up was the Insalata Nasturzio with chestnuts, watercress, truffles, and trumpets.  Again, I was completely impressed by how such simple ingredients could make such a symphony in my mouth.  I had never had truffles before, but hot dang, I want them on every meal now!  There was one thing – and I’m not sure if it was the chestnuts or the trumpets – that was melt-in-my-mouth good.  I cleaned the plate, obviously, and I was so focused on my own plate that I don’t even remember the courses Kyle and my parents got.

It was about this point that we started bottle number two, a Sardegna reserve, AGRICOLA PUNICA Barrua 2005.  I only tried a sip of this one, but I preferred the first wine.  My parents liked this second one better, so I guess that just shows you it’s all about the personal palette. 

For my main course I ordered the Porcini “al forno" with salsify, cavolo nero, porcini, and barolo.  Porcini heaven.  Heaven!!  I wanted these mushrooms to never end they were so tasty.  There were little cherries on the side of the plate too with cherry sauce that I dipped the greens into and they just couldn’t have been better.  The whole plate couldn’t have been more perfectly balanced in terms of flavor profiles and texture and, well, everything! 

It was wonderful that Del Posto had a vegan menu, but the fact that the vegan menu that wasn’t a pathetic afterthought of a salad is all the more impressive.  The waitress told me they could provide meals for any dietary preference, and that was the typical custom of the Italians.  They recognized that the dining experience was all about the guest and making him/her feel special and satisfied.  Well, that’s EXACTLY how I felt.  And the wait staff was like a symphony of their own, too.  So many people just waiting our table, not just re-folding but replacing our napkins between courses, and providing anything and everything we wanted and then some. 

Here is the list of wines we had that night, as requested by my dad.  The sommelier was fresh from Italy, and after our numerous invitations to tour the vineyard, we may have uprooted his very young East Coast roots!  He brought out that last wine, a Piemonte, FORTETO DELLA LUJA Brachetto Pian di Sogni 2004 as a gift.  Yummy!!

Check out Kyle’s lobster!!

Dessert was a sampling of Italian Ice for the table to share. 

Fabulous!

And another present on the way out the door!

We ended up leaving the restaurant close to midnight, with my stomach satisfied and my eyes opened to a whole new world of dining. 

Thank you Del Posto!!