Back in Rome, tonight to Osteria della Frezza

We arrived in Rome 20 minutes early -- early!-- on the high-speed train from Naples.  Very pleasant.

The Excelsior gave us a very nice 2-bedroom suite (all paid with our friend Warren's points) on the top floor.  We have a nice view looking toward St. Peters and up the Via Veneto well past the Borghese...mountains blue in the background.  It's good to be in Rome.

I was telling Ken that I feel as comfortable here as I do in New York.  It isn't that I know Rome so well.  I don't; this is only my fourth or fifth time in the city.  But it feels like a good fit for me.

Ah dinner...

We are going to the Osteria della Frezza, which sounds terrific and is classed as "moderate" in price.  We'll see. 

NB: I had previously stated that this was part of the Gambero Rosso empire.  Not so.  I think I confused two restaurant descriptions in a guide I was reading.  Sorry for the confusion.

With very mixed feelings, I am returning to New York on Thursday morning.  Friends, we are hemorrhaging money.  And I have to prepare for a very busy fall what with my teaching gigs and my last graduate course.  And it will be good to be at home and be comfortable as it is impossible to be anywhere else on earth. 

But I don't really want to leave Italy.

So what was Osteria della Frezza like?  Read on.

First of all, Warren was in love with the aristocratic looking young lady who was one of our servers.  She said she was of mixed Roman and Sicilian background, with a lot of Norman in her Sicilian father's bakground. 

Second, the food was good but not sensational.  Very good, still not sensational.  Maybe Italy is making us jaded, blase'.  The mixed antipasto was very good and curious; we had to ask what one of the items was (oodles o' tiny fish; we were afraid they might have actually been squid sperm or something). 

The pasta dishes were enormous and good.  The steak was good but nothing like in Siena.  The cheese course was very good to me, but to Warren it seemed a bit all over the place -- too representative but not focused enough.  (I liked it.) 

Our main wine was a Feudi di San Gregorio Serpico.  It opened up a great deal over the course of the meal and was perfect with the cheeses. 

And the prices weren't quite moderate.  No, I take that back -- the cost seemed high because I ordered the Serpico at 66 euros instead of some 15 euro wine, of which there are plenty on the voluminous wine list. 

All in all, it was a very pleasant meal in very hip, youthful surroundings.  I must have been about 20 years older than the next-oldest person, save Ken and Warren; they were kind enough to remind me of my advancing years, too, however.

People don't eat quite as late here as in Naples, but they do OK.  The place was still in fine form when we left at 11:45.

Comments

[alex]

Terry,
do I have to feel guilty having suggested Serpico? (66 euros seems to me a huge mark-up...)
Maybe Taurasi, the other "aglianico" produced by Feudi I've mentioned, was less expensive.

ciao from Verona
alex

[Terry Hughes]

Alex, do not feel guilty. Only if it makes you feel better.

Don't get me wrong -- I loved the Serpico. The two others weren't so into wine, and so to them it was like so many other wines with too much in the way of acidity and tannins. (I will resist making any editorial comments!)

Ciao, old pip.

[nerina]

Ciao Terry! Come stai?
..purtroppo c'è un pò di confusione nel tuo post...
l'osteria della frezza non è del gambero rosso...
la nostra osteria invece si chiama L'Osteria del Gambero Rosso - ispirata al racconto di Pinocchio - e si trova all'interno della Città del gusto a via enrico fermi 161 - zona marconi - e riaprirà a fine agosto.
info le trovi su www.gamberorosso.it
un abbraccio e a presto
nerina

[Terry Hughes]

Ah...ccidenti...Ero stanco quando leggevo del ristorante sulla guida e ho assunto, incorrettamente, che se era nell'edificio, fosse del GR. Sorry!

Cmq, mio amico Warren ho sognato (letteralmente) della ragazza dell'Osteria della Frezza...

[bonilli]

La prossima volta organizzati per venire alla Città del gusto, in America non c'è :-)

[Terry Hughes]

Ecco, ci mancava l'organizzazione, in pieno modo di dolce far niente.