D.Rough’s birthday needed to be celebrated in style, since she’s a classy lady (on Mondays). We had been dying to go to I Nonni for months now and this was the perfect excuse. We booked it and made it happen. The restaurant is part of the Buon Giorno group that has a sandwich place in St. Paul. The group also operates a small deli shop at the entrance of the fancy restaurant (great for lunches we’ve heard). We perused the deli shop and the wine tasting room before we went into the restaurant proper. A nice gentleman took my coat and seated us in the near empty room. (It was a Monday night, so it makes sense.)
The waiter started by saying the food isn’t Italian-American, but is authentic Italian with many dishes based in Rome. Jay, a very nice, soft-spoken waiter who was very helpful and made sure we had everything we ended and answered a bunch of questions for us. We thought we knew what we wanted until he came over and told us the special additions to the menu – dang it! Ruined my master plan. We figured we’d be eating some red meat, so we got a nice bottle of red – Cerasuolo di Vittoria (from Gulfi Vineyards in Sicily). It was delicious.
The menu has an appetizer section, a first course section (which you can get as entrees), and a second course (which are larger entrees). You can order from anywhere, or you can order the tasting menu which is one from each category. We chose this option since it seemed the best way to try a bunch of things and wouldn’t break us like ordering a la carte would have.
Since I didn’t take photos of anything (I like to keep it classy for D.Rough’s special events and make them about her, NOT the blog, sorry), I’ll keep the descriptions short. We started with Piramidi – mortadella-lardo pyramids with brown butter, lemon, and thyme – and Animelle – grilled sweetbread, tomato puree, and salsa verde. The pyramids were highly recommended by the waiter – which is apropos because they are amazing. Seriously, these ravioli-type meat pyramids were exquisite! The sweetbreads were also really good. And the salsa verde isn’t like Mexican salsa verde, so don’t let that fool you. D.Rough said she didn’t know what sweetbreads were exactly, but remembers hearing that you don’t want to know what they are while you’re eating them, so thankfully she forgot (we looked them up when we got home). These were also really good and not like anything I’ve ever had before. I’d get them again!
For our second course, I got the special of the night Bucatini all’Amatriciana* - guanciale (basically delicious bacon – but from the cheeks of the pig), spicy tomato, and pecorino romano with homemade thick spaghetti noodles. D.Rough opted for the Pyramidi that I got for the appetizer. She wasn’t disappointed – they really are amazing. The Bucatini was really good as well. The dish had some zip to it, which I loved, and as our waiter said, “Bacon makes everything better”. Really good dish.
For our main entrees, I got the Bufala – a bison sirloin with potato, scallions, pancetta, and nameko mushrooms with a glaze over the top or everything. D.Rough got the Spuntature – beef short ribs with parmigiano-potato puree and spinach. The bison steak was very good, not stellar, but just very good. It was a little chewy, but had lots of flavor and the glaze really made this dish sing. However, D.Rough’s short rib was out of this world. It fell off the bone and disintegrated when she brushed it with a fork – they didn’t even bring her a steak knife, we noticed. The sauce that it was in was perfect and the potato puree was spectacular. Once again, she wins the best dish of the night.
We needed dessert, of course, so I went with the Panna Cotta – a limoncello custard with citrus zest and blackberries. I also got a glass of Castello Di Brolio – Vinsanto 2003 (a nice dessert wine), just to make sure I was properly sated after dinner. D.Rough ordered the Budino - a light chocolate cake with caramel and pistachio gelato. My dessert wine was the perfect amount of sweet, but just a hint of sour that made it just south of awesome. I liked it, but could have liked it more. However, the panna cotta made up for absolutely everything. It was light and fluffy and lemony and the blackberries and juice made it even better. I might go and just get this – I like it more than cheesecake (sorry, sister, it’s true). D.Rough liked her light chocolate cake, but could have even had a lighter version of it – it wasn’t THAT light. She loved the pistachio gelato on top though and the caramel didn’t hurt things.
Overall, a brilliant dining experience at Osterria I Nonni. We will likely be back. It’s pretty spendy, but you get taken care of. Jay even helped me put my coat on (which D.Rough gave me some crap about, until I told her it wasn’t rare for me). It’s full of uppity people, but show them you’re human and they’ll show you a great evening with delicious food.
Top 5 things about Osterria I Nonni
1. Spuntature – beef short ribs
2. Panna Cotta (limoncello style)
3. Pyramidi
4. Gulfi Cerasuolo di Vittoria
5. Jay is an amazing and very knowledgeable waiter
Bottom 5 things
1. Pretty pricey. You won’t get out of there for under a hundred.
2. No descriptions on the wine list
3. The inside is designed like a church – a LOT like a church – and it’s weird to eat in church
4. Dessert wine was a little sour
5. Find it hard to believe the delicious tiny sammich shop in St. Paul is affiliated with this primo restaurant – but it is!
www.inonnirestaurant.com
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3 comments:
I hated that place!
you sound like a good boyfriend. i think we ate subway using a coupon on my birthday. that's what i get for being married 28 years!
i was worried because you hadn't blogged in so long. i was afraid that those delicious doughnuts had given you fatal diabetes.
It will take more than a few doughnuts to put me out of commission, Lee!
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