deco ristorante

Completely outside of our normal character, Evan and I went on a very grown up date to Deco Ristorante (2901 Park Ave).

We go to restaurants all the time, but usually the main objective is drinks. We end up eating at the places we go for drinks because as much as we spend on groceries, it seems that there is never any food in our house. We also like to use our restaurant excursions as a thing to occupy our time, a hobby if you will. That way we are too busy to do things like watch bad television, go to the gym or clean the house. After I started writing this blog, every restaurant visit is research for writing material, so I could probably write all of this off on my taxes. That’s how that works, right?

Here is why I would classify this particular evening, a date, rather than a casual visit to a restaurant.

1) We got there after 7:30. We usually are tabbed out and headed home by that time. We are happy hour people. Our friends make fun of us for how early we go to bed, but that is just how we do it. We hit happy hour fast and hard and then are passed out asleep before prime time television. The fact that we took some time to change out of work clothes to go to dinner means that this was absolutely a grown up date.

2) We sat at a table, not at the bar. Ok, so we actually sat at a table in the bar, but this is a big step for us. We typically sit at the bar when we go out. I think it is because we are more comfortable eating side by side like we do at our coffee table. The only time we ever eat at a regular height table is when our parents come to visit.

3) We ordered a bottle of wine. If that is not a grown up date move, I don’t know what is. To compound the fact that this is an adult activity, this bottle of wine wasn’t even on special. It was regular menu price. (A very reasonable menu price, but menu price none the less.) You might as well call me a sommelier.

4) No body got drunk. I know this sounds boring, but it wasn’t too terrible. We usually take turns driving so that one of us can get tipsy and the other can catch up after we get home. It is a very democratic system that we use, very similar to shouting shotgun. Actually, it is exactly like that. Who ever calls it, gets to booze it. On this particular date, nobody called it. We split our bottle of wine right down the middle and enjoyed it with our meal.

5) We shared our plates. We always do this. Just because we are on a proper date doesn’t mean we can eat regular courses. That would be too much.

Deco’s menu has a section labeled “Sicilian Street Food” and that is the kind of thing we like to order. Our favorites were the Arancino con Carne, rice ball, stuffed with meat and fried, and the Polpetinne, meatballs with currents and pine nuts. The crunch of the pine nuts inside the meatball was by far my favorite thing about the meal. I wish I had ordered three orders of those and told Evan to get his own.

We also ordered Prosciutto di Parma and Caprese, but I wish we had skipped those and went for a pasta dish or two. If I had a do-over I would have ordered the Pasta Pesto Siciliano, a Sicilian almond pesto or the Pasta Carbonara with egg, cream, pancetta and parmigiana, because if you are going to do pasta, you might as well go off the deep end.

If you are noticing the amazing pictures accompanying this post (and let’s face it you know you are) get excited, because more will be coming just like these! My friend and cupcake stylist, Patrick Hannan, will be contributing some of his amazing food photography and even guest posting once in a while. So, keep a look out. And, not to worry, no meatballs were harmed in the creation of this post. Ok, they were totally harmed, but not until after the picture.