Primo Lunch
Lingering over a chef driven lunch at Bottega Café
By Jan Walsh
Grabbing a bite of lunch is not our style. Lunch is our favorite meal. And enjoying lunch at a locally owned, chef driven restaurant makes our day. Unfortunately, in recent years many of our favorite restaurants discontinued lunch. Fortunately, Frank and Pardis Stitt’s Bottega Café and Chez Fonfon are open for lunch with the same menus as dinner. Both restaurants offer a wide variety of offerings with the freshest fare. Show up early at the Café for Italian and reserve Fonfon for French.
Our son, Ross, joins Kev and me for lunch today. We arrive just before Bottega Café opens at 11:00. The valet in waiting takes our car, and the massive iron gates open. Inside we are seated in the corner, window banquette. The extensive menu divided into snacks, salads and sandwiches, pizzas, mains, sweets, and specials.
From the snacks list, we share Focaccia, Marinated Olives, Roasted Local Okra, and Gulf Crabmeat Crostini. Bottega’s house made focaccia is my favorite bread in this world… Still warm from the oven, it is golden on the outside, airy on the inside. It boasts nutty notes and squishes between my fingers as I dredge it in house EVOO. Bottega’s olives are also a must. Frank’s marvelous marinade takes the mix of olives to full flavor potential. Roasted whole pods of local okra arrive crowned with fresh herbs and sizzling in a cast iron dish atop tzatziki and za’atar. Oh, my! I have tried roasting okra but the results were bland. The creamy, tangy, and garlicky tzatziki along with the nutty zesty za’atar complement the okra’s grassiness. We are all wowed, including my Yankee husband, who has previously never appreciated my favorite vegetable. Highly recommended for okra lovers and haters!
I long since gave up buying crab for my homemade crab salads and cakes at home, due to skyrocketing pricing. But today’s crostini are well worth the $18, as we cut and share it three ways. Half for me and one forth each for my guys. Seems fair. Atop avocado toast, a generous slathering of Gulf pristine and succulent crabmeat is delicately spread. Tiny Calabrian chilies are the cherry on top, adding an unexpected yet desirable bite back. Catch it if you can!
From the salads section, alone, my Tomato Salad arrives with a hint of Déjà vu… Sipping my wine, Pouilly-Fumé Dezat “Cellier des Marnes,” my mind travels back to the first meal Kev and I had at Bottega Café… Three decades ago, it was a magical time, just before we married. Seated in the big front window, we shared wine and a similar tomato and mozzarella salad. The large, deep red, heirloom tomato slices were layered with freshly made mozzarella. And my first bite was an “ah ha” moment. Not since previous trips to Italy had I tasted such a simple yet phenomenal flavors of the Italian countryside, nor had I ever tasted better tomatoes. Chef Frank Stitt’s tomato salads are what memories are made of. They cannot be topped regardless of how high a chef builds them or how many other products he piles on. Today’s vibrant version is a colorful harmony of large and small heirlooms interlaced with fresh mozzarella, charred onion, and accented by fresh basil. And the gorgeous Garnacha vinegar elevates the salad with its lush, fruitiness and tangy, deep, rich notes. Simply sensational!
For mains Ross opts for the Duroc Pork Chop. Kev is intrigued by the Italian “BLT.” And Veni for Wednesday’s weekly special of Southern Vegetable Plate. Ross’ roasted Duroc Pork Chop arrives sliced off the bone, so tender that it might as well have fallen off the bone. The juicy, sweet well marbled meat is a man pleaser. Grounding the bottom of the plate are fresh field peas, zucchini, and a pretty polenta. And on top is a spicy green peach relish, which heats up the whole plate yet does not overpower the pork.
Between toasty focaccia, Kev’s BLT is a tower of bibb lettuce, heirloom tomato, pancetta, and fried farm egg. The pancetta and egg each add their own proteins, textures, and flavors to the crisp lettuce and juicy heirlooms. The sandwich is served with crisp, house made fresh potato chips. After finishing it, Kev says he expects it will take out well too. Hmm, I predict a take out order next week.
Frank’s vegetable plate is as full of as many farm fresh flavors as my grandmother’s kitchen table. Zucchini, squash, greens, okra, field peas, cucumber salad, and fried green tomatoes encircle the veggie plate’s centerpiece of creamed corn. Add a slice of jalapeno cornbread and it all blends into a scrumptious Southern synthesis. I can’t recall the last time I have had this many veggies and fruits on a plate, much less creamed corn. And I have never had fresh creamed corn in a restaurant other than Bottega because who else would go to all the trouble to make it?
As a child I sat on the porch with my grandmother shucking, silking, while watching her cut Silver Queen corn, because this was an outside job that drew the birds near. She would nip the tips off the kernels to release the milkiness inside. Next, she would cut the kernels from the cob, and scrape the corn with the back of the knife to release the corn’s milk and pulp. Inside she slow cooked it in an iron skillet with butter, salt, and pepper. Bottega’s creamed corn has the same old-fashioned style. Bits of cut corn creamed in its own milkiness are bursting with sweet corn flavor and texture. Bless my heart… I am back on the farm!
We share two desserts, Peach Semifreddo and Chocolate Budino.
The elegant semifreddo is the ultimate peaches and cream atop a graham cracker, sprinkled with pistachios. It is peachy keen with fruity creaminess, and crunchy nuttiness. Thicker than pudding this decadent, rich, chocolate Italian custard is served chilled, topped with caramel, cream, crisp chocolate pearls, and a dark chocolate cookie. Calling chocolate lovers names… this dreamy dessert rivals Fonfon’s famous classic, Chocolate Pot de Crème.
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