Gottino Brunch

As Julia child once noted, rose goes with anything, which is incredibly freeing for both an avid eater and a wine enthusiast. A few Saturdays ago, I found myself at Gottino in the West Village at the suggestion of my friend, Becky. We sauntered out to the back garden sometime in the mid-afternoon and immediately ordered a bottle of rose from the Montepulciano region of Italy (Montepulciano d’Abruzzo wine is named for the grape found in that area).

Having been freed from the chains of constricting wine choices, we dove into the menu and ordered a few small plates. I had their scrambled egg special which consisted of scrambled eggs (duh) with fava beans on a few pieces of toast. The eggs were perfectly cooked; just runny enough but also light and rich with flavor. There was a generous helping of olive oil in the dish, which only brought out the flavor and texture even more. Becky ordered (at my behest) the nutella and ricotta crostini, which turned out to be absolutely incredible with a wonderful balance of sweet and savory. We followed up with our own creation: a crepe with ricotta and nutella (the ricotta was seriously that good) and a prosciutto and fontina Panini, which was only “OK”, especially after having followed the crostini, crepes and scrambled eggs. The wine was absolutely delicious and fairly priced, as was the food, and we had a really enjoyable late brunch.

It should be noted that the back garden is an awesome place to spend a hot afternoon. It’s fully shaded by trees and part of the landscaping includes wine corks (doubly intriguing to us alcoholics). In New York City, its a rare treat to be able to enjoy food, wine, good company and the weaving of a spider web by a grotesquely large spider only inches away from you somewhere other than your overpriced, small, summer bug infested apartment.