Agostino's . . . Wednesday, April 25th

I've been meaning to do this for, um, years, and now seems to be the essential time.

Yes, this is related to the Agostino's GNR that's discussed over here. I think that the opinion of more of us would be a good thing to have.

Altho, honestly, if there are some Italian restaurants on the list that are perennial favorites that I find to be not so much [no, not gonna name names ], I'd have to kick up a fuss that Agostino's DOES belong as a GNR.

Added/modified:

Apparently those Thursdays worked for precisely nobody besides me. Wednesday, April 25 seems to work for at least stevez and dicksond, so we're gonna start the party from here....

I'm thinking 12 or so. It'd be nice if we got a group that big so we can taste a larger cross-section of food.


Giovanna the procrastinator

Ristorante Agostino
2817 N. Harlem Ave.
773-745-6464

While I'd love to go sometime, you do realize that the cut off date for GNR discussion was yesterday, don't you?

stevez wrote:While I'd love to go sometime, you do realize that the cut off date for GNR discussion was yesterday, don't you?

Well, yeah, I guess this is ambivalence in action....

I applaud your talent at procrastination - something that I've always prided myself on, too.

Maybe I'll post this next week.

Giovanna wrote:

stevez wrote:While I'd love to go sometime, you do realize that the cut off date for GNR discussion was yesterday, don't you?

Well, yeah, I guess this is ambivalence in action....

I forgot to mention that I really do want to go soon if you want to arrange a dinner. April 5th works for me, but the 12th does not.

I am interested, if only to honor the power of procrastination, but neither Thursday works for me - in fact I believe I have a Thursday soccer game every week until the middle of May, so enjoy without me. popular day for HS soccer.

I will continue to try to stop by one of these days, though.

This post is just a cheap little trick to bounce the thread up and draw attention to the fact that the dinner will be Wednesday, April 25th.

Giovanna

HEY! This party needs to get bigger! Who wants to join me [and, I believe, SteveZ {and quite possibly the Chow Poodle}, dicksond & his mrs., and perhaps even CrazyC] for dinner Wednesday night. The linguini fruta di mare will be outstanding - or has been every time I've ever had it there. The more of us there are, the more exploring we can do.

Whatever the GNR status of the place is....

Giovanna

Okay, I'll bite ...

Is there a time?

nr706 wrote:Okay, I'll bite ...

Is there a time?

All the best people dine at seven.

And occasionally, I do, too.

At the moment, I have a reservation for 12 at 7 PM, and my best guess is that 6 have agreed to dine, so far.

Giovanna

Thanks for bumping this up, Giovanna. (I missed it before.) I'd like to join you Wednesday.

Giovanna wrote:All the best people dine at seven.

So does that mean I'll have to join the best people later?

I'm confirming that The Chow Poodle and I will be there.

I should be able to sched this. Hope to see you all there.

-ramon

All righty then. We have a fine little party shaping up for tomorrow night. The list stands as follows:

SteveZ & Chow Poodle
dicksond & Bride
nr706
Josephine
ramon
Giovanna

which my fingers tell me is 8 so far.

Anyone else?

Giovanna

You have ongoing discussions with your fingers?

nr706 wrote:You have ongoing discussions with your fingers?

Man, that's just one of the dysfuntions I can talk about in public....

G

Giovanna wrote:
which my fingers tell me is 8 so far.

Anyone else?

G Wiv for 1, MsWiv is otherwise occupied.

Sorry I'm missing this. I totally spaced .

-ramon

Thank you to Giovanna for arranging a great dinner at Ristorante Agostino. This restaurant is really a neighborhood gem that unfortuantely gets overlooked. Of course, the regulars who filled up at least 50% of the dining room don't seem to be overlooking it at all.

stevez wrote:Thank you to Giovanna for arranging a great dinner at Ristorante Agostino.

Giovanna,

I'd like to echo Steve's thanks, very enjoyable dinner on all counts.

Enjoy,
Gary

I too want to thank Nancy/Giovanna for setting up this wonderful evening. I’d never been to Ristorante Agostino; it had very much an old-school feel to it, but not in the same way as Sabatino’s; I don’t know why. It’s definitely a neighborhood place; it seemed like many at the other tables were regulars and knew each other.

I think it's important to note there were eight of us, and we ordered only a few appetizers, and only three entrees. That's just another way of saying "huge portions."

I got there late, so I missed some of the appetizers, but I enjoyed the scungilli and the broccoli rabe with garlic. Then we shared:

Water Buffalo Mozzarella w. Prosciutto (cheese slicing courtesy of Steve Z)


Fettucini Bolognese – we had an interesting discussion of the difference between a gravy and a ragu – clearly this wasn’t a gravy – you can see how much meat it contained.


Eggplant Rolls, stuffed with ground veal, and (obviously) topped with a fresh tomato sauce


Mixed seafood pasta

Including pulpo and calamari. Nancy mentioned that one thing she especially likes about Risotrante Agostino is its careful attention to seafood – after trying these (plus the scungilli), I’d agree wholeheartedly.


For dessert, tartuffo was very good; the only disappointing part was that the photo didn’t turn out well; I won’t be including it here. But Nancy said we were 3 for 3 with the desserts; I’ll agree.

Tiramisu – sure, it’s an Italian dessert cliché, but this was certainly a creditable version.

Cannoli – guessing it was fresh-filled, since the pastry was so crunchy.


Again, great night, great company … but isn’t that just one benefit of being an LTHer?

edit: I hope even dicksond can attest that these are pictures taken in the moment, not significantly touched up or otherwise made to appear unnaturally appetizing.

Besides the prosciutto that all looks awesome!

Okay, maybe I got the color balance off a little on the prosciutto ... in retrospect it's too blue ...

LTH,

I'd like to point out, before the comments start rolling in, that Agostino's Fettucini Bolognese, appearances aside, was not completely overpowered by sauce. Yes, I know, the picture looks like an Italian American cliche, but as has been mentioned by Dickson, myself and others pictures do not always tell the complete story. Plus, it tasted good.

Enjoy,
Gary

G Wiv wrote:I'd like to point out, before the comments start rolling in, that Agostino's Fettucini Bolognese, appearances aside, was not completely overpowered by sauce.

I'd assumed that the sauce had been ladled atop the noodles and had not yet been tossed. The meatiness apparent in the photo certainly sets it apart from an Italian-American red sauce bath.

Thanks, Giovanna, for arranging this dinner. As nr706's pictures attest, it was a thoroughly enjoyable meal. I have not had scungilli salad (an appetizer) that fresh since my friends dived for it in the Bahamas. I tend to agree with Giovanna that they do seafood well. The crab claws in the pasta frutti di mare were quite fresh tasting rather then fishy, a rarity these days. My favorite dish of the evening was the veal-stuffed eggplant rolls. The stuffing was very light, rather than dense, prompting nr706 to speculate that the stuffing involved eggwhites. That kind of light. Dickson appreciated that the stuffing was studded with peas, I think. My tartuffo, a cocoa-dusted ball of chocolate ice cream and pistachios, was also quite fresh and generously proportioned for what is usually the tiniest of desserts. I tend to skip desserts a lot because they often taste like the fridge, so I was glad that I had taken the plunge.

The unfortunate thing is that I can't really recreate the spirited repartee that accompanied the saucy dishes. But I will never again be able to keep a straight face when Giovanna pulls out a wad of cash. Especially if she has a fistful of $5's.