A16



Tonnarelli in squid ink

 Tuesday we had a late night dinner date at A16.  As excited as I was to feast my eyes upon the deep Italian wine list, I wasn't sure the trek across town would be worth it.  I left, however, wondering why I don't do it more often.

First up, we selected a wine, choosing an Aglianico del Vulture lauded by our server for its complexity and "wow" factor. He almost teared up describing it to us, which was good enough for me to take a chance ... especially since I have never met a Basilicata I didn't like.

Wine in hand, we negotiated how to best sample from the menu and selected two small pasta plates as well as a pizza.  The pizza arrived first: a bianca with green olives, chiles, and basil.  Those ingredients created a medley of texture and heat, the mozzarella brilliantly married with the grana, and the pizza overall delivered a savory, rich flavor that was more than the sum of its parts.  As much as I would like to be tired of talking about pizza, I definitely have to keep this one top of mind.  The crust was light, crispy, chewy, and nicely blistered and held up well as we worked our way through slice after slice.

We also sampled two small plates of pasta, one a tonnarelli in squid ink with sea urchin, chile and tomato, and the other the highly regarded housemade maccaronara in ragu napoletana with ricotta salata.  While the chewiness of the maccaronara matched up well against the bright tang of the tomato ragu, the tonnarelli was my surprise favorite of the two.  Notably briny and refreshing, it was almost as fun as swimming in the ocean.

A16 thrilled and delighted on this visit and I will definitely be making plans to return again soon.  Hopefully we can make it a standing date!



Maccaronara with ricotta salata