Cascina Spinasse

Carrie and I went out last night - both to celebrate her birthday (and the other piece of good news that we had just recieved a few hours before), and to get out of the rather oppressive heat that still lingers about in our house. We elected to go to Cascina Spinasse, a new Italian resturant that is taking the place of a rather sad vegan place that I had the misfortune of going to once.

This place is not cheap; however, the portion sizes for the primo and secondi piatti are sufficient enough for two people to share and not feel too full if they are having a more traditional multi-course dinner. The excellent quality of the food more than compensates for the reduced quantity. My wife and I were *very* satisfied with both the meal and the price we paid for it.

For starters, we had sliced cold poached veal with mayonnaise of house cured local tuna, capers, and lemon; and a tomato trio with olive oil dipping sauce. We really liked the richness of the tuna mayonnaise when paired with the thinly sliced veal; the tomatoes were only so-so; although the sauce was excellent, the heirloom tomato wasn't at its best, and the others – one halved yellow tomato and one halved cherry, tasted fine.

For the first plate, we shared hand cut egg pasta with ragu – an excellent choice. The pasta was thin and expertly cooked and oiled ( a step many places tend to forget), while the ragu itself was perfectly seasoned, and cut and portioned so as to serve as a perfect balance to the pasta. For our second plate, we had the roast rabbit with braised radishes – another perfect dish. The rabbit was tender and juicy, and the sauce complimented it nicely, while the radishes were braised just enough to bring out their natural flavours without being overpowering.

Our waitress was cheery, friendly, just a (perfect) tad sassy, very attentive, and extremely helpful, making some very sage suggestions throughout our meal, which we were glad we took. All in all, we had a very relaxing and delisiously prepared meal, after which we went to Molly Moon Ice Cream, where I had the Vanilla Bean and Carrie had the Birthday Cake. We both agreed that, the heat notwithstanding, it was pretty much the perfect evening out.