Vincent's

[RouxTheDay]

I went to Vincent's on Saturday w/ 2 of my sisters and their husbands.
We stopped for vodka's at the Columns as it was such a lovely afternoon.

I have not been to Vincent's in over 2 years and had the impression that it was for a bunch of Uptown blue hairs to go after vigil mass on Saturday....shame on me!

It was wonderful. We had a great table in that back room on the left-almost private.
We had calimari, eggplant and a fried artichoke to start. I've never had a fried whole artichoke before but it was great. I'm guessing they boiled it first because it was very tender.
2 of us had Osso Bucco-a little rich but maybe the 3 fried appetizers did me in. One had lobster which came w/ 3 or 4 huge bbq shrimp on top. I tasted the shrimp and could have easily made a meal on that. One had good ole spaghetti and meatballs...looked great. One had fried oysters on pasta-maybe bordelaise-?
The first wine we ordered was listed as a "Super Tuscan" and was priced as such...when it got to the table there was no pink rooster seal thing on it. The waiter said that it didn't have to have that to be "super tuscan" so we trusted him and drank it and it was very ho-hum.
I just found the cork...it was a 2005 Tignanello.
We went with an Antinori Reserve on the 2nd bottle and enjoyed that much better.
No room for dessert but this was a great meal.

I didn't want to start a 2nd thread because I'm sure y'all are tired of hearing me go on about it...but I went to LaBoca on Friday!

[Shep]

Super Tuscan: Many of the important and famous wines in Tuscany are actually the IGTs. The more expensive wines have since the 70's been called Super Tuscans. This name was invented by Robert Parker who found notable interest in these wines and helped them become famous world wide.

Reading the label: IGT wines have to the indication of the designation on the label, the fantasy propriety name of the wine, for example "Sunset", followed the designation Rosso di Toscana Igt, Bianco di Toscana Igt, or Colli della Toscana Centrale Igt. Furthermore, vintage, bottler must be indicated.

Maybe this info is a little after the fact but Tony is the wine guy there and is usually pretty up front.

[edible complex]

had a great dinner at the Met. Vincent's.
started w/
Corn & Crabmeat Bisque served in a toasted bread bowl
Oysters Vincent w/crab and italian stuffing swimming in olive oil, all the better for dredging the remains of the bread bowl if you haven't used it all to mop up the bisque.

for entrees:
Fettucine Alfredo w/panneed veal
Bracialoni/Top round stuffed with bacon, artichoke hearts, garlic and parmesan cheese; baked and topped with red sauce and side of angel hair

both entrees came w/house salads, which I highly recommend w/the blue cheese vinaigrette dressing.
chatting w/Vincent about the dressing led me down memory lane of Campo de Fiori market in Rome where I bought some dried spices, which turns out to be part of the secret formula for the blue cheese vinaigrette. this in turn led to great discussion about the amazing marinated artichokes in Rome, which Vincent then brought out one to our table. if you want to order them for an app, they're simply called roma artichokes. (RouxTheDay, these are the same you had but not deep fried)

everything was perfectly cooked and seasoned. service was spot on.
will be back soon, as I see an osso buco in my future.