L'Arte del Gelato Review: Terzo Piano
“I think the blogosphere is the future.” That’s from Anthony Bourdain. For a minute there I was having a crisis about what all this is about. You know, being a blogger and stuff. Steph and I were in Chicago for a couple of days and it was really great. If there’s anything I’ve learned since the super duper France trip, and this recent Chicago trip… it’s that one person could never eat it all. Seriously, there’s great food everywhere you turn… sure you might have to do a little digging (in the blogosphere) to find out where the best stuff is. There were great pastries in Paris and there seemed to be an unlimited amount of good food in Chicago. I’m telling you that we ate SUPER well and didn’t even sniff a Chicago-style hot dog or pizza. It was my secret plan to have an excuse to go back to Chicago in the near future. That’s neither here nor there… One of the days we had brunch/lunch at Terzo Piano. One of the reasons we picked it was because it was close to the hotel… and because Jonathan put it on the map for us. It was very good.
Jonathan noted to me that Terzo Piano had a great space in the modern art wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, and that Tony Mantuano was involved in the restaurant. Tony’s getting some hype lately for being on Top Chef Masters and for being one of Obama’s favorite chefs. If the dude did his craft here in NY, he would totally be blowing up. Anyway, he’s ‘involved’ as a partner but the Chef de Cuisine is actually Meg Colleran Sahs.
The restaurant is this cool looking space that’s got glass walls on two sides, and a third side opens out to a patio. As far as light goes, it’s a food blogger’s wet dream. Natural light flooding in from every angle… The bread ‘basket’ was a nice start to the meal. I like it when they do the baked cheese thing. Don’t ask me what kind of cheese it was though… too much of a neophyte to discern the differences.
The calamari ($11) was mixed in with jalapeno, almond, salsa verde and kumquat. That’s what the online menu says, but basically it was awesome. It’s like a warm calamari salad and it felt rustic. It came with a piece of grilled bread that was useful to mop up some of the sauce at the bottom of the plate.
Steph had the “Tony’s Top Chef Masters ravioletto with Mozzarella crescenza cheese, wild mushrooms and rosemary.” I thought this was more refined. Definitely creamier and more delicate than the calamari. I liked the calamari more because it had some acidic notes in it that made it more interesting. Still, I liked the ravioletto as well.
For the entree I got the “Roasted Becker Lane pork sandwich with house made pickles, mustard, Marieke Gouda cheese and sweet potato chips.” For some reason I thought it was be like potato chips, except sweet.. like the way an onion can be sweet or something. But that just goes to show you how incredibly unsavvy I am. It’s chips made with sweet potatoes and they made for a nice paring with the pork sandwich. Pork sandwiches usually have me at hello, and this one was no different. Though not dripping with pork juice, it was good enough to keep me satisfied.
There was also the trio of burgers for Steph. They were really dainty and cute. You know meat products can be adorable. Shut up, yes you do, that’s why you read this blog. The trio were: lamb, beef, and shrimp. So like a turf, turf, and surf burger. Both Steph and I liked the lamb and shrimp burger more than the beef one. The fries were pretty delicious too, but we couldn’t finish it off because we had dinner four hours after this meal… yea, we’re kinda hardcore like that. Word.
Terzo Piano was really enjoyable. Granted, it’s not really a place that I could afford to eat at every weekend, but it’s nice when you’re on vacation to eat something nice in a nice setting. It was really cold in the dining room that day but aside from that, it was really nice. It’s got the sleek feel as the Bar Room at the Modern, except with 100x more natural light. And see, I never knew that I would go to a museum to eat a nice meal while on vacation, and then actually have no interest in the museum. Dinner really did come four hours after this meal, and it proved to me that amazing food is everywhere. I can never expect to eat it all, or know where all of it is. Just gotta be happy you’re healthy enough to eat it… and with that I’m going to go eat ice cream now…
L’Arte del Gelato75 7th Ave.New York, NY 10014212-924-0803
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