Best. Birthday. Ever.

The week-long Celebration of Rachel has sadly drawn to a close. Apologies for the delay on the Osteria Mozza review, but all that Celebrating is exhausting. Without any further ado:

THE FOOD: The menu was separated into 4 different courses: Starters, Mozzarella Bar, Primi Piatti (pasta) and Secondi (meat & fish). I started with the Crispy Pig Trotter (in for a penny, in for a pound), served with a mustard sauce and frisee and beet salad. Iain ordered the Burrata (mozzarella stuffed with cream) with bacon and braised escarole. We drank Prosecco. I'd had stuffed pig's trotter in Italy a couple times, and recalled it as being like a milder, coarser sausage. This was obviously something different and slimier and not terribly pleasant, but Iain's burrata was revelatory. The bitter escarole balanced the out-of-this-world richness of the burrata amazingly well. The coowner, Nancy Silverton, was behind the Mozzarella Bar and was I assume personally making the cheese appetizers. For the next course, I had the agnolotti with butter and sage and The Boy had gnocchi with light tomato sauce. Both were simple and fantastically made. The waiter had suggested a Barbera with the pasta course which we enjoyed.

I'm mildly embarassed to admit that at this point I was full, but not too stuffed to greatly anticipate my main course: Lamb Scottadino, or "burnt fingers" referring, I guess, to the preparation technique. Basically its roasted lamb chops served in this case with pearl pasta, and a tangy yogurt, cucumber and paprika sauce. Awesome. Iain had the grilled whole Orata (dorade -like a sea bass). Again, very simple, very nice. We had a wine varietal I didnt recognize or remember from Campagnia, but it was as well excellent. I topped the meal with melted chocolate and caramel gelato, and Iain had frutti di bosco sorbet.

THE LOOK: Very elegant room black and white bistro-type room - lighting about one notch too low, but I suppose that makes it easier for most of the clientele to hide the facelift scars. The room is loud, but tolerable.

THE JUDGEMENT: Osteria Mozza is a great special occasion place - fancy but not formal, interesting but not fussy. The service was friendly and not insanely aggressive like at Pizzeria Mozza. To cap it off, "Exile on Main Street" (the entire album) played through most of the and when "Gimme Shelter" came on about the same time as the Lamb arrived I almost burst into tears. Soundtrack for dessert was Elvis Costello. LOVE LOVE LOVE.

I'd like to say I'm eating air and drinking water now to compensate, but....