frasca

[mongo_jones]

has anyone been very recently? any new dishes you would recommend we try tonight? maybe a cache issue but i'm still seeing the june 29 menu on their site.

[TheMatt]

has anyone been very recently? any new dishes you would recommend we try tonight? maybe a cache issue but i'm still seeing the june 29 menu on their site.

Aw...they're still honoring my birthday? That's sweet of them...

[rlm]

has anyone been very recently?

 

I'm there occasionally (ha ha), although I only popped in for much-needed drinks this week (and we're off to Sushi Sasa tonight and the Steamboat Wine Festival tomorrow so it doesn't look like there will be any further Frasca-ing in our immediate future).

 

The menu last week was similar to the one still posted, although it was the first night for a tweak to the veal which we enjoyed immensely: Shaved Four Story Hills Farm Rack of Veal with Sweet Carrots, Roasted Forest Mushrooms, and Housemade Ricotta. We told Nate we were having the veal and asked him to just bring us something (which ended up being a 2001 Castello Di Ama Chianti Classico).

 

We started with a crudi selection that was apparently inspired by that Monday’s guest chef Scott Conant. It was yellowtail with “Olio di Zenzero” and marinated onions. There was some grapeseed oil with chiles drizzled on it that gave it a spicy kick. I remember Barman Steve saying something about “pea shoots” too.

 

Oh, and Matt passed his Advanced Sommelier exam in London. So Frasca is now an Official Sommelier Factory.

[TheMatt]

Oh, and Matt passed his Advanced Sommelier exam in London. So Frasca is now an Official Sommelier Factory.

Bah, if Bobby really cared about wine (and us), he'd get his Master of Wine as well. It's like he's just coasting now...

[omnivorette]

has anyone been very recently? any new dishes you would recommend we try tonight? maybe a cache issue but i'm still seeing the june 29 menu on their site.

 

 

I'm sorry I still haven't written up my meal from a couple of weeks ago. I ate there just after they reopened after their trip, and the menu had lots of influences from it.

 

Especially loved:

 

Canederli - bread and pork dumplings with savoy cabbage and steeped raisins

Zlikrofi - veal and fontina ravioli with celery and fresh bing cherries

Risotto wiht cantaloupe, armenian cucumbers and ricotta salata - we loved this dish

Leg of pork with potatoes, cherries, and pancetta vinaigrette

Best dish of the night: hand-cut tagliatelle with mortadella, pistachios and montasio "profumato"

 

Look at the Friulian wine thread - I posted about the very good and interesting thing we drank.

 

edit: there was no veal on the menu that night.

[mongo_jones]

3 of those are actually dishes that were on the menu pre-trip. mrs. jones will be thrilled if the canederli are still on the menu. we are going with colleagues--unless one of them insists on choosing the wines we will leave it to bobby or nate to make selections for us. they seem to have a good sense of our low-mid price range.

[omnivorette]

Forgot one dish we loved:

 

Frico Caldo - some kind of Friulian cheese mixed with very small dice potatoes and I think onions, and fried in a thick sort of pancake. Out of this world.

[mongo_jones]

Forgot one dish we loved:

 

Frico Caldo - some kind of Friulian cheese mixed with very small dice potatoes and I think onions, and fried in a thick sort of pancake. Out of this world.

 

oh yes. i don't know if this ever made their regular rotation but they brought it back from their trip last year and when we were in then bobby brought us one while lachlan was still working it out.

[TheMatt]

Forgot one dish we loved:

 

Frico Caldo - some kind of Friulian cheese mixed with very small dice potatoes and I think onions, and fried in a thick sort of pancake. Out of this world.

It uses the same Montasio cheese from the pasta dish you had (and I had for me birthday). It's essentially a big cheesy hash brown with onions, fried in grapeseed oil. This is a must get for me if I go back. If others at the table want one, they can get their own.

 

If you get one Mongo, order two. You don't want those grabby tablemates eating your Frico Caldo.

[rlm]

Frasca now has an August 4th menu posted on their website...

[mongo_jones]

i see the yellowtail crudi and the rack of veal in my immediate future. and zucchini flowers may also have to be eaten.

[rlm]

The yellowtail's different now. I've never seen Zucchini Blossoms on offer before though, so you will have to try them, Mongo, and report back.

[mongo_jones]

herewith the report on our most recent meal:

 

we arrived a little before our friends and spent some time chatting with bobby about their trip etc.. and also about robin. well, we didn't actually chat about robin--he said only that you'd seemed very stressed the last time you were in. i guess that's what a jetset life of non-stop gourmet dining does to a person.

 

as we were seated bobby told us not to order the prosciutto etc. as benjamin wanted to do some sort of special starter/wine pairing for us. as we settled down we decided to order a couple of orders of zucchini blossoms while we perused and discussed the rest of the menu, but alas, they were sold out. we opted for the frico caldo instead. this did not arrive but this was fine by us since instead benjamin showed up with the salumi platter and some half-pours of the very nice medici-ermete lambrusco. benjamin, by the way, seems to be filling a more expansive front of house role, and he's clearly relishing it. we relished what he gave us. our friends at this point began to wonder if we would need to order anything because we'd already been given two appetizers (the salumi plate was preceded by delectable prosciutto wrapped porcinis) and two separate pourings of wine (bobby had, as usual, poured us some tocai friulano as we were sitting down). but order we did:

 

apps: the other three got the yellowtail crudi, and so i decided to get the zlikrofi. i ended up quite jealous of them. the zlikrofi was good but not as good as the crudi or the apps i'd eaten on my last few trips. this was accompanied by a bottle of riesling.

 

mains: two risottos were ordered and one "21 orders" and i got the rack of veal. the risotto was pronounced divine, as was the pasta (tagliatelle with pork sauce of some kind). i have to say that my mains did not fully come together for me. the veal itself was heavenly, and the home-made ricotta was also excellent. but i was not convinced that the carrots and mushrooms quite worked with the rest. i think i would have preferred those delectable greens lachlan used to send out with the pork loin they used to do. we presented benjamin with a challenge: to pick one wine to go with all three dishes. he thought about it and the sangiovese he recommended worked quite well.

 

dessert: two orders of the dark chocolate fudge brownie, one apricot tart, and one cheese plate. the brownies and the accompanying malt shake were excellent. and the apricot tart, which i split along with the cheese, with one of our friends was just divine (one of the best desserts i've had at frasca--which may sound like damning with faint praise, given that dessert has often been the weak link in the past, but is not meant to be). however, the cheese was mediocre at best (i pictured cheesemonger smiling darkly as i nibbled perfunctorily at it). what was not mediocre was the excellent digestif they also laid on for us. thanks to all this extra eating and drinking we were the last group in the restaurant. we closed them down a little after midnight (yes, in boulder midnight on a friday is late).

 

all in all, perhaps not the best food night for me individually (everybody else loved what they ate) but a great night on the whole. our friends had not been before but something tells me they'll be back again. and we can't wait till we go back next month. maybe i'll finally get to ordering fish as a main course at frasca.

[rlm]

we arrived a little before our friends and spent some time chatting with bobby about their trip etc.. and also about robin. well, we didn't actually chat about robin--he said only that you'd seemed very stressed the last time you were in. i guess that's what a jetset life of non-stop gourmet dining does to a person.

 

I only wish, dear. I'd much rather be on a plane en route to Paris every day instead of nuking left-overs to eat at my "glamorous" desk in Corporate Fun Town.

 

The Frascans are used to seeing me when I'm happy (which is what I am most of the time) and I was quite glum (not stressed), and I announced to Bobby that my "meal" would be entirely in liquid format so that may have been cause for concern. (I had actually eaten before arrival.) So I was in a funk (and not a good James Brown kind of funk either) and stuck in Boulder without a car, so I figured why not have Mr. Peters make me a proper cocktail there (since I usually have wine) and then use their fancy-schmancy ride service they call to get home. They were all incredibly nice (as usual) and made me feel better, and there were some entertaining characters to chat with at the bar. So a bad day turned out better.

[fredbram]

I don't know if the regulars are aware of this, but we were in last night and Benjamin told us that Nate has given his 2 week notice, and is not spending much time there in the evenings during his final days.