Hungrygrrl

Sunday night and we found ourselves wandering around Capitol Hill. I’ve wanted to go to this tiny little lebanese place on 15th called Karam’s for months now, but they are sadly closed on Sundays.

Instead we decided to check out Osteria La Spiga in their new digs on 12th street.

A converted auto shop, this place is stunning. The ceilings just kept getting higher, so much beautiful wood and glass. You could fit like 200 people in here and it wouldn’t feel crowded. My pictures don’t do it justice.

On a sleepy sunday night, there was a jazz band stationed in the front with a crooning jazz singer. Not my taste truthfully, I am more of a Miles Davis fan. Still, a nice touch. This would be a perfect place to take my parents. Even my grandparents.

La Spiga is set in Emilia-Romagna, perhaps the greatest food region of Italy and the home of the beloved parmigiano reggiano and prosciutto di parma. All the wines and beers they serve are italian. I started with a glass of nebbiolo which was pitch perfect, smoky and fruity. Cobe went for the chianti.

We decided to split a roasted beet salad as an appetizer, which came blanketed in arugula micro greens. The beets were just tender, with a subtle sauce of orange and olives, but it was the micro greens that stole the show. So dainty, and easier to eat than large clumsy leaves of arugula, they popped in your mouth. Even Cobe was won over.

Neither of us was too hungry, so Cobe ordered only a primo (the lasagna) while I had only a secondo (braised oxtail). The lasagna was amazing, homemade bechamel layered with a subtle tomato sauce and all melting into the pasta. It had a sophistication that you rarely find in lasagna, that depth that only reggiano can provide.

And did you note the lighting? Each table had a carefully placed halogen mini pendant that lit up the middle of the table. The food had the spotlight, while the rest of the place had a comforting dimness.

The braised oxtail was good, flavored with red wine and falling off the bone. But I am sadly biased by Txori. Their oxtail had more flavor and was more meltingly tender. Perhaps the spaniards have some key to oxtail nirvana.

And I found myself as I often do with Italian cooking, wishing for some more vegetables. They have a tendency to coat their vegetables with olive oil and cook them til they fall apart. The promised spinach was wrapped into bread croutons.

We never order dessert, but the promise of butternut flan with pistachio cream seemed too much. It was sadly– too much. The squash flavor overwhelmed, and didn’t blend well with the flan. It needed perhaps another egg, a bit more cream, some vanilla. Maybe we are just not the squash lovers it was made for.

All in all a nice night, in a beautiful setting. The food would not surprise anyone with a love of Italian food, but it was comforting and carefully prepared.

Perhaps next time I can convince Cobe to go to Spinasse.

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Osteria La Spiga
1429 12th Avenue (Between Pike and Union on Capitol Hill)
Seattle, Washington 98122
206-323-8881
http://www.laspiga.com/

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