Thursday, September 24, 2015

Chi Spacca

Gary invited 4 of us to Chi Spacca last night. This is the "meat haven" that the trio, Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich and Nancy Silverton have brought to Melrose between Osteria Mozza and Mozza to Go. Gary was our guide as he has dined here before. We entrusted him to do the ordering for us. The place is small compared to Osteria Mozza and the star of the show is the kitchen  where you can see first hand the big hunks of meat on the grill.


Our first course was the Focaccia di Recco. Recco is a commune in the province of Genoa, a region of Liguria. We've never had focaccia like this before. This was very thin and quite salty which we all loved. We also had the Affettati Misti (cold cuts) which included an array of pork wonders, from pate to certain salami. Our favorite was the pork pate.


We tried the Baby Romaine Salad. This baby was fully grown in flavor especially with the anchovies; super delicious. Then came the Bistecca Fiorentina, a 50 oz. dry-aged black porterhouse. This was one of the best steaks I have had. Unfortunately for some, it came medium rare....or more on the rare side. We were not asked how we preferred the meat. I imagine they prepare it the way it should be eaten. No one complained. One even commented that though it was rare, it did not taste rare if that even makes sense. It fed all 5 of us. For side dishes, we had the Grilled Broccoli di Cicco with a garlic lemon vinaigrette dressing which was surprisingly very good. The Roasted Cauliflower looked a lot better than it tasted; we all thought it was tasteless.


Since all 5 were foodies, we all had to have dessert. We ended up sharing 2 kinds. The Butterscotch Budino which had sea salt & rosemary pine nut cookies and the Seasonal Gelati & Sorbetti. If I recall right, the flavors were olive oil, chocolate chip mint and melon. We liked the Budino but not the cookies. The olive oil and melon were much better than the chocolate chip mint.


Chi Spacca's address is 6610 Melrose Ave. in Los Angeles. One has to dine there and experience it at least once. After that: Si vuolo tornare presto!

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