FOOD
On one plate then the other ... BW sends two critics to one restaurant.
ASIAGO’S RESTAURANT AND WINE BAR
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LAURIE PEARMAN
fine restaurant with a theme can be a turnoff. The Stinkhen our side house salads arrived, the school teacher confessed ing Rose in San Francisco—where it’s all garlic, all the that she still occasionally thought about the salad we’d had time—comes to mind. Or a place like The Cheesecake during a recent trip to another local eatery. We talked about Factory, which pretends at fine dining. how sometimes the memory of a particular dish darts from your subconBut if you are going to make real cheese your theme and put scious—the tastes and smells urging a repeat visit—and how geography it on almost everything you serve without hitting me over the sometimes makes that improbable. head with it, I’m not going to complain. We were surprised when we arrived at Asiago’s and the server who Asiago’s serves asiago cheese with nearly every course. Sit greeted us asked if she could cross off our reservation. I hadn’t made one down for lunch at one of ... who needs a reservathe tables covered with tion on a Sunday evening? butcher paper and cloth Watching four servers napkins and your mouth busily bustling through will automatically begin to the restaurant, I realized water for the rosemary-inthat if I made plans to fused loaf of hot bread the dine there again, I would server quickly delivers. indeed call ahead. The square of bread, The school teacher which, if you sit next to one had joyfully accepted of the large, patio-facing my invitation, but was windows just past the lunch even more delighted hour, will glow with a blue/ after I told her I’d heard purple hue, is crunchy on Asiago’s has cornered the the outside but extremely market in eggplant prepasoft and yeasty on the ration, plus their pasta is inside. With the proper mix all homemade. of olive oil and balsamic Hoping for something vinegar on your bread interesting to open with, plate, the large shards of we ordered the Suppli asiago will affix to the starter ($7.95 for two): bread’s face, delivering a fried cakes of walnut ASIAGO’S RESTAURANT veritable cheese sandwich with each bite. pesto, risotto and fontina cheese with a balsamAND WINEBAR We started with side salads and “zuppo”—the ic reduction. Crispy outside and pebbly inside, 1002 W. Main St., 208-336-5552, daily special was gazpacho ($4.95) and it was the soft cheese and earthy walnut pesto flavors asiagos.com Open Mon.-Fri. 11 a.m.-4 p.m.; extremely fresh and in season. Slightly creamy and swirled around, strangely complementing each Mon.-Sun. 4 p.m.-close. maybe a bit oily, but without the harsh tomato other. Half of a homemade loaf of bread arrived taste of many gazpachos, this cold bowl cleansed gratis at our table and we used slices to soak up the palate and warmed the belly. the reduction while we waited for the teacher’s order of the Rosarno Staying with the mild theme, both the house and Caesar ($15.95), eggplant—substituted for chicken—and tomato pesto over dressings on our salads were full-bodied, but somehow lighter fettucine with garlic cream sauce, and my Il Fungo Selvaggio ($13.95, than expected. Asiago is an Italian cheese that is used like paradd chicken, shrimp or spicy Italian sausage $3), sauteed wild mushmesan but is also very mild, yielding a true milky flavor. rooms in rich garlic cream sauce over maltagliati pasta finished with Our main courses arrived in what was at first a disappointing crumbled gorgonzola. lunch portion: a small helping on a small plate. But in this case, The wrong shape of pasta can leave a dish wanting if meats, vegetables the kitchen was right; I did not need a heaping bowl. or sauces can’t find purchase, sliding through penne or slithering off fusilI went for the Glorioso ($8.95, plus $2 for chicken, shrimp li. A diner may be left with two dishes in one bowl: one of pasta and one or scallops) because of the name, because I felt like something of ingredients. The wavy, not-too-thick trapezoids in the Il Fungo were the with a kick and because it promised “mushrooms sauteed with exact right type for the dish. Lovely bits of chewy mushroom, long strips lots of fresh garlic” and chicken. of marinated chicken and cheese so tart my sinuses contracted, caught in The pasta shells were cooked perfectly al dente, slightly the waves of the pasta instead of falling into a soupy mess at the bottom firmer than I normally cook pasta, but since Asiago’s claims to of the bowl. Although it had retained enough warmth in the middle to make its own pasta daily, I’d eat them raw. The shells served as melt a little of the gorgonzola, some time had passed between order and mini-scoopers and almost every bite contained a bit of garlic, a arrival, and the Il Fungo suffered from a tepid temperature. few red pepper flakes, a softened mushroom, a string of chicken The teacher’s eggplant gave us some serious pause when it arrived. and a shave of asiago. Again, like the soup, the oil was a bit Three cutlets the size of chicken fried steaks cascaded down the pasta. overwhelming, but the spicing was just what I needed. I had only hoped for a taste of the dish, but she spooned an entire giMy wife ordered the traditional lasagna ($7.95) off of the ant slice and some long strands of lemony fettuccine onto a plate for very affordable business lunch menu. The lasagna is made with me. Dollops of tomato pesto accented the eggplant without threat of a blend of Italian cheeses, but you can be sure the asiago is in drowning it, and crunchy bits of gremolata breading added exciting there somewhere, perhaps on the top layer, which provided texture to the meaty vegetable. For the rest of the evening, the teacher a crunchy cap to the soft layers of ground beef, cheese and would occasionally remark that no matter how she tried, she could noodles beneath. never prepare eggplant that well. I got the feeling after the Asiago’s verWe traded bites, considered ordering a bottle of wine and sion, she may not try again. staying a while. The jazz music was just right. The light and As we finished the night with a small cup of hot, heavy coffee, the buzz fresh air coming in off of the patio mixed with the garlic and of conversation from several tables swirled around in the cooling air that olive oil emanating from the back. We savored the kid-free, wafted in from the restaurant-fronting doors, which open up to patio seatdowntown meal, feeling, if only briefly, like landed Italian ing. We reminisced about unforgettable dishes, all of which we’d found gentry. Then we remembered to ask for the bill, along with a somewhere in the Northwest. The teacher mentioned a blackberry salmon cappuccino and an espresso—worthy substitutes to the nightcap dish, her gaze far away as she remembered the seaside restaurant where we both deserved. she’d found it. I have two very fond memories of seafood bisque: one a The bill—$30.85 for two—was quite reasonable for such a bowl of bisque at a hotel restaurant on the Oregon coast, the other a spicy fine meal in such a proper restaurant. May Asiago’s always have surprise at a Cuban eatery in Portland, Ore. And we both still think about a stable cheese source and may international cheese markets that local salad. I don’t know for sure yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if continue to thrive in the face of global recession. Amen. the Il Fungo pushes its way to the front of my food memories. —Nathaniel Hoffman prays to gods of cheese and espresso, depending on the hour. WWW.BOISEWEEKLY.COM
—Amy Atkins likes to take Mr. Wild Mushroom to parties; he’s always such a fungi.
BOISEweekly
| SEPTEMBER 16–22, 2009 | 31