Last night we had our slightly belated anniversary dinner at Convivio in Tudor City in NYC. Excellent food, wine service (though I only ordered by the glass), and table service. The $59 4 course prix fixe is an extraordinary deal for a place of this caliber.
We had some fantastic olive bread, then Betsy had a couple of "sfizi" (eggplant rolled with ricotta, mushrooms with vin cotto) while I had the
quail with lentil puree and pickled mushrooms. The primi choices all looked good: I got rabbit ravioli with mushrooms, Betsy got a gnocchetti (like gnocchi not potato) with crab and sea urchin. Her secondi was lamb chops with beans and escarole, mine was a HUGE Berkshire pork chop with oyster mushrooms and "spigarelli" greens (lightly bitter, kind of broccoli rabe meets dandelion). She had a trio of sorbets, since I don't eat dessert they allowed me to substitute a pair of sfizi- crostini with chicken livers & marsala sauteed onions, and saffron risotto croquettes (they said I could have at start or end, I chose to have them while Betsy had dessert). Food ranged from very good to extraordinary, mostly the latter.
With this range of food, hard to choose a bottle, so I went with the thoughtful by the glass list, with some help from the sommelier. All were interesting:
2006 Mastroberardino "Radici " Fiano
Light, a little lean, floral, citrus, smoke. Fun and good. B
2006 Dettori Bianco
One of the "orange wines." Hazy, citrus, herbs, orange peel, tannins. A little nutty note but not overly oxidative, more like a Lopez de Heredia rose than a Radikon to my taste. Fun wine, I quite enjoyed. B+
2008 Tenuta delle Terre Nere Etna Rosso
Light, fresh, a little leafy/herby. Good acidity, nice if not as complex as the Biondi Etna (or maybe the upper end Terre Nere). In any case far better than any btg selection at 90% of NYC upper end restaurants. As a bonus, they gave me a little extra pour as I was running low trying to finish the huge pork chop. B
2005 Vestini Campagnano Pallagrello Nero
I believe Pallagrello Nero is the grape. Dark color, evident but supple tannins, dark berry fruit with a little herby/anise note. Very good match with rare lamb chops. Never hard of this, but will look for. A-/B+
Solid and interesting list, nice Schott Zweisel stems, all served at perfect temp.
One of the best nights I've had for a (non-vino-centric but vino-interesting) dinner for a long time. Pretip bill was $189, I'd call that extreme value for the level
PS Minor judgemental rant : Some friends recently attended a BYO lunch there, said wine service was superb. I can definitely see paying corkage for the kind of wines they served, but in general the wine list is so interesting here (and reasonably priced) I would generally just buy off list. While I try not to be too judgemental, I admit to wondering "what's the point" at a nearby table where they were drinking Aalto with the Winebid sticker still on it. Didn't seem to me to especially match food, just an odd choice (who knows, maybe sentimental reasons?).
Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.
