Hello Again: Dining at Amici
If you aren’t ready to buy stock, durable goods or a new home right now, but still want to experience the highs of consumer spending, then go out to dinner.
Eating at a restaurant combines cheap entertainment (it’s theater) with necessity (one has to eat, you know) and makes spending completely justifiable, even noble (you’re keeping the lights on for someone else) – especially when local restaurants have made it so easy to eat so well on the cheap.
Lately, it appears that everyone has a dinner deal going.
One of the best independent offerings around is the 18th anniversary, 3-course dinner at Amici in Carytown with the option to buy a bottle of wine, less 25 percent, of its menu price.
Amici? But, I can’t hear my date if there are more than two tables at Amici. The patio gets cold at Amici. I can’t navigate the steps at Amici. If you remember the old Amici, as I do, as a cramped version of a MC Escher painting with a drafty, perma-tented patio that looked like it had seen one too many weddings then I have some good news for you; those little drawbacks are gone. There’s even a chairlift.
The renovations were well worth the restaurant closing for several months to complete – though the owner might disagree with this statement. If the place hadn’t been open for nearly 18 years, Amici might not have survived being closed as long as they were during a time when other spots were shuttering their doors permanently.
But they did.
The transformation was done so seamlessly that I had to struggle to remember what the old dining room looked and felt like when recently seated on the currently enclosed patio, now with wooden- framed sliding windows that can open to let in a breeze on a pretty night.
There’s plenty of space between the tables downstairs too. I could cartwheel (or do the worm) between them after having a couple of grappa. Notably, the restaurant feels comfortable, even a little timeworn, because of the retention of much of the pre-renovation furnishings. Nicely done.
For dinner, we selected one anniversary dinner special, which allowed us a choice of appetizer, salad or soup for the first course; a pasta for the second course and a dessert, $25 inclusive. Our table also shared an appetizer and an entrée, as well as an additional salad, pasta and a couple of heavily discounted bottles of wine. Wine lovers take note: Carlo, the owner, worked front-of-house as a sommelier and waiter, both in Italy and in DC at Galileo, and has a honed palate. The wine list is its reflection.
The calamari e zucchini fritte, $10.95, was a spot-on plate of fried squid with shoestring zucchini, salted to perfection and accompanied by a cheesecloth wrapped lemon to prevent seeds and pulp from spraying with the juice, and a rich, sundried tomato aioli for squid dipping.
Rich, this dish was rich and huge – definitely meant for a table to share – though, once, years ago, I waited on Elizabeth Taylor and discovered her penchant for seafood and mayo. She could have polished the whole appetizer, no question.
Our salads arrived just after our charming waitress offered to clear our appetizer plates. A quick word about the service – it is warm, welcoming and professional. There is just enough personal attention and quick jokes to let you know that your server is human, not a robot reading from the specials board, but not so much that you feel like you should offer her a chair.
We chose the spinichi, $9.95, a bed of fresh spinach, mushroom and grilled pancetta, and the ruchetta, $8.95, tiny arugula, bosch pear and asiago salads. Both arrived, perfectly accessorized with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, neither salad dripped dressing. But, the pears in the salad were as cold as a piece of steel left outside in the wintertime.
Ouch – they made the fillings in my teeth hurt!
The bread also was served cold, as well as dry and borderline stale, with a frigid dish of pureed beans, garlic and olive oil. Once the puree warmed up, it was delightful spread on the Italian loaf, but just out of the icebox it wasn’t.
I have eaten at Amici many, many times over the years and the semi-stale, cold bread was another thread of continuity, which is too bad, because the bread and focaccia they serve is good quality. Oh well.
One of the best dishes I’ve had in eons was the rigatoni with gorgonzola and crushed walnuts, $18.95, that came next. Thankfully, they crumble the walnuts and are deft with the cheese and cream, making this dish harmonious instead of heavy.
We sampled ravioli with spinach and ricotta in a light cream sauce as part of our prix fixe, and it was delicious, but about as light as Liz Taylor with that side of mayo.
For dessert, a quenelle of creamy, chocolate mousse topped a chocolate mousse parfait and a Bindi tartufo (hazelnut and chocolate gelato rolled in cocoa and hazelnuts) on a spider’s web of dark and white chocolate sauce, hit the spot, cold weather notwithstanding.
Amici – Thank You My Friend. So Happy To See You Again.
**Note: The three-course anniversary special is offered Wednesday through Sunday nights. Don’t even think about requesting it on the weekends – or doing cartwheels or the worm between the tables.
Amici ***1/2
3343 W. Cary St.
(804) 353-4700
What’s in the Stars:
0—don’t go
*-average
** above average
*** very good
**** excellent dining experience
Imagine learning to process caviar in Russia after a childhood of Cup-a-Soup. Needless to say, Varmit Pickeral was inspired. Thus began 20 years of restaurant gypsy-hood, beginning with Varmit’s first job as a dishwasher in an institutional kitchen and then trying out most any job Varmit could get in the hospitality industry, including; NC BBQ pit line-cook, cheese steward at Artisanal in Manhattan, grape picker, and specialty buyer for Balducci’s Food Lover’s Market in Northern Virginia.
Please sign in to respond | | Register