Osteria Mozza/2005 Principi di Butera Deliella Nero d'Avola

Sarah and I went to Osteria Mozza last night. I'm not going to go all crazy with pictures because there are a shitload on Yelp. The restaurant is more casual than I had thought it would be. I actually put on slacks and a shirt, because for some reason I figured that it would be less casual than the Pizzeria, which we've eaten at about 10 times. Surprisingly, it was really low key. The main difference between the two restaurants are the dishes, which are more refined than the Pizzeria, and the space, which is less "trattoria-like." The service is relaxed and low-key, and completely unpretentious, which is rare for LA.

Everything we had was great. The bread is...from La Brea Bakery. You can buy it at Trader Joes. Seriously. No joke. To start with, we had figs wrapped in pancetta, burrata with grilled asparagus, Sicilian almonds, and brown butter, and the crispy pigs trotter with cicoria and mustard. The trotter was awesome; I loved how all the meat was picked off, breaded and deep-fried. Great flavor. The frisee on the side was studded with red plums, which was a great foil to the richness of the trotter along with the slightly spicy mustard.

Next we had an order of Bucatini all'Amatriciana, which really was as good as Italy. This is a Roman dish, and Sarah lived in Rome for 4 months. Even she thought it was as good as any Amatriciana that she had there. From what I hear, they make their own guanciale, which is cool. Anyways, great dish...and the restaurant was nice enough to split it into two portions for us.

We split an entree, which was good, because we were starting to get full, and the entree we got was bigger than expected. We got the duck al mattone, which is duck cooked under a brick. It was a whole half duck. It's probably my favorite dish I've had in a restaurant ever. It was that good IMHO. It was served with a pear-truffle mostarda, which was great, and some sweet corn. If you go here, you must get this dish, it was unbelievably good. Crispy skin, moist duck, the flavors in the condiments...wow.

We also had the cannoli, which were good, and two quartinos of wine--a nice Friulano from Joseph Bastianich's winery, and 2003 Barolo "Margheria," Gabutti di Boasso Franco. The barolo was good; lots of candied cherries, and a distinctive spice note at the end. You could tell it was from a hot vintage though, because it had some raisiny character. Whatever, it was way better than what you can get by the glass in most places, even if it was about 18$ a glass. Also--I'd just like to pass a note to the two middle aged women next to us--your cheap perfume made you smell like trashy Avon Ladies. Didn't anyone teach you that you don't wear perfume in restaurants? Especially not perfume that makes you smell like bug-spray? Also--I have never seen anyone send a bottle of water back because it wasn't to their liking. Thanks. That was a first for me. The waiter looked as dumbfounded as me, but he has such good manners he got you another 10$ bottle of water. I bet you 10 bottles of water that you can't tell the difference between that and the tap. Oh and by the way--the tap water is probably safer. Yeah, that's right. No wonder neither of you were married. No one can put up with you. But at least you have each other. Why don't you stay in Beverly Hills or something next time?


After we came home, we wanted more wine, so we opened the Nero d'Avola. It was from K&L's wine club a couple of months ago. It's about 30$. 3 glasses Gambero Rosso. I am not really a big fan of this wine. Very new world, lots of oak. Nose of berries, oak, a little earth, and vanilla. Once all the oak starts to settle in a bit, the wine has nice berry flavors, but a lot of vanilla. Fairly soft, not really too tannic. It's not bad, but I think over the top with the oak and vanilla. C+