Dinner at Bocca

Tonight it was extremely cold outside when we left work, and so my friend and I were interested in the closest place we could find to get a decent meal. Our first stop was Les Halles on Park Avenue, but at 9:00 on a Friday night it was packed and so we moved south in a taxi. We tried Bocqueria and Pipas hoping for some tapas, but were faced with long waits at both. We speculated that the cold weather must be forcing pedestrians off the street into any available restaurant, causing the overcrowding, and were about to head into a movie theater to make do with nachos and hot dogs when we happened on Bucco, which neither of us had visited before.

Luckily there was only a brief wait at Bucco, and so we readily agreed to wait at the bar until our table was ready. I ordered one of their specialty cocktails, the Red Hook, which is a variation on the traditional Manhattan that incorporates a splash of Angostura Bitters.

Within a couple minutes of receiving our drinks, we were surprised to find that our table was ready, and so we headed back to be seated. One comaint I had was that they asked us to settle up at the bar before being seated, pretty much left us to our own devices with regard to getting transferred to the table. Of course finer restaurants would seamless have a server whisk the drinks away on a platter to be re-served at the table while transferring the check. I didn't expect that kind of treatment, but I did find it pretty inconvenient to wait for the bartender's availability yo pay the check and then negotiate my way through the crowded bar area with a ful-to-the-brim cocktail sloshing about.

We made it to the table after a few minutes, though, and quickly made our selections. We chose to start with an appetizer platter consisting of 3 meats and 3 cheeses. The quality of the salami, mortadella, and prosciutto was excellent, and the cheeses (particularly the soft Robiola) were the perfect complement.

For dinner I selected a gnocchi dish with wild boar ragout, while my friend chose greek-style spaghetti. I thoroughly enjoyed the gnocchi, which had just the right pillowy consistency and authentically varied shapes. The ragout was very good as well, slightly spicy with meltingly tender shredso of boar meat spread throughout.