Davanti retrux

Happy Monday!

Leslie and I went out with a bunch of foodie friends to Davanti Enoteca in Del Mar yesterday. We had a blast. I really enjoy their food and as you know I am a fairly critical person. Just a perfect strike down my wheelhouse.

I am a little surprised that the place isn't more packed, considering the quality of the fare, hopefully it will continue to thrive. We had a great server yesterday, Paolo from Milan, and the manager was sitting behind us with her family and really couldn't have been nicer.

Brunch at Davanti is a tapas style affair and we all willingly shared plates. I ordered a brussels sprout and parmigiano salad that was simple and pretty incredible. As was pretty much everything else we ordered. It is tough to get the order right for a boisterous table of eleven and there were a couple miscues, but we all happily dealt with it.

My beef cheek pappardelle somehow morphed into a pork shoulder ragu on a steaming, heaped trough of mascarpone polenta. Never gave it a second thought it was so good.

The meal started once again with two orders of the honeycomb topped foccacia, which is just an absolute must. I ordered a bloody mary. Wow!

You order a bloody mary at Davanti and you get a glass half full of vodka with a perfect piece of bacon swimming in the glass.

Then you are escorted to a bloody mary bar about eight feet long with every conceivable addition and condiment including mortadella, pickles, five kinds of salt, stuffed olives, capers, celery, citrus of all kinds, prosciutto wrapped asparagus, cauliflower, the list just goes on forever.

You basically can fit a decent sized meal in your glass when it is all said and done.

We ordered the La Tur, Grana Padano and Point Reyes blue for a cheese course, which unfortunately came without bread. Last time we had too much bread, this time not enough.

I also wish that we were sitting at a round table, eleven at a long table means you don't get to talk to the people on the other end, even with a loud and obnoxious voice like mine.

I am not going to give a full meal breakdown, everything was good if not great, the sausage on the rigatoni plate sweet and wonderful. The only negative thing I recall hearing was that the orechiette (little ears) dish with sausage was over salted and it definitely was.

We finished with three desserts, a light lemon tart, a goat cheese cheesecake with caramel and sea salt and a phenomenal apple whiskey caramel concoction in a puff pastry finished with vanilla gelato. All superb.

Bill with gratuity, drinks included, was about $41 bucks a piece. Not bad.

Loved the meal, loved the bloody mary, love my friends, love eating outside on the patio, love this style of cooking! What else can I say? Thanks to one and all who attended.