barolo on a dark and stormy night

Tonight I went to Barolo with my friend JE.  They have a FANTASTIC happy hour.  And unfortunately....everyone in town knows about it.  We decided to take a risk and see if we could get in- it's Monday, it's stormy, it's the week before Thanksgiving.....  and we snagged the last table in the bar- phew!

The atmosphere in Barolo is trendy, somewhat minimalist, very dark with a hip crowd (the crowd was a bit more hip in years past, but this is not a place to wear your crocs and fleece, although in my book, there is no appropriate place to wear your crocs and fleece, but I digress....).  Happy Hour goes until 6:30 and offers $14 bottles of wine (red, white or rose) and half off food.

We started with a bottle of house red (a montepulciano- quite nice) and dug into the warm bread and black olive tapenade that was delivered to the table.  After sharing the candle to read the menu (did I mention it's dark?), we decided to start with the tuna tartare.  The tuna had a light ginger flavor and was served with some nondescript grilled crostini.  It's a fairly generous portion and I've ordered this over multiple visits.

I had the rigatoni with beef ragu for my dinner.  I love this pasta.  The sauce is meaty and rich.  The rigatoni in on the larger size and the meat and cheese fill the tubes and explode with flavor.  Rigatoni is such a satisfying pasta to eat.  Instead of stabbing at the noodles, the tubes fit nicely over the fork prong.  It 's sort of the pasta equivalent of eating black olives off your fingers, just more grown up....and civilized....and sanitary (all kids <and me> put black olives on their fingers, right!?)

JE had the lamb burger which came with a choice of fries or a salad.  She chose the salad, healthy gal that she is.  The burger comes on grilled ciabatta with a hearty topper of feta cheese, lettuce and tomato.  She did have to ask for the salt (and the fellow next to us who also had the lamb burger asked to borrow it too).  JE was starving and couldn't finish the burger (and the girl can eat), so I would say the portion was on the hearty side.

For only $42 this is a great deal.  Just be prepared to put on some lip gloss, leave the fleece in the closet and wear shoes that don't look like they belong to a clown.  Don't worry- the lighting will make you look fab (did I mention it was dark?)!

ciao chow