The Week of Eating Dangerously: Pigging Out With Wine and Cheese
Having ducked out of an after-dinner party there earlier this week, I decided to go back and try it for myself.
The wine guy behind the bar, Todd, remembered me. We shook hands and went over the menus together. Though the wine and cheese lists have fancy offerings, the place is decidedly relaxed. Everyone's in jeans, even the staff.
Since Casellula opened in early May, patrons and reviewers alike have been raving about the Pig's Ass Sandwich — basically a dressed up cubano featuring pork butt, ham, Fol Epi cheese, pickles and chipotle aioli.
Monday night, the pastry chef had told me the owners chose the name because it reflected the unpretentious attitude they were hoping to convey to the public. It seems to have worked: the Pig's Ass Sandwich is the No. 1 seller by far, and it's really good.
Before the sandwich came a cheese flight and a wine flight, plus extra wine samples from Todd, proving once again that it's good to be friendly with the bartender.
The most unusual cheese was the prize-winning Barely Buzzed espresso and lavender-rubbed cheddar from Utah. The chef served it with dark chocolate shavings. The earthy, crumbly, hard cheese was set off nicely by the chocolate's bittersweetness. A weird combination, but it worked.
The most unusual wine was the Nyakas Olivier from Hungary's Monarchia Cellars. It's a white that has a lemon and mineral taste. Interesting, but not for everybody.
Since moving to New York, I've had to learn a lot of new things: how to get around, how to live in this chaotic and competitive city, how to engage strangers, and how to turn the interesting ones into friends.
I never thought I'd have to learn what to drink too. Living in L.A. for so long, I gained a lot of wine knowledge by osmosis (and by hanging out at The Wine House and Wally's). Wines from California and some regions of Italy, Australia, Argentina and Chile are all pretty familiar.
But that knowledge is pretty useless here, where a tremendous variety of Italian, French, German and Eastern European wines predominate. It's humbling, but it's also an opportunity for discovery. And in my book, that's usually a good thing.
The people sitting next to me were all regulars who come every week or two. One couple raved about the mac & cheese and the smoked goose breast, but warned against the chocolate cake between telling me about the trials of planning a two-week vacation to South Africa.
"You have to come back here," the woman said. And I think I will. Casellula could make a pretty good classroom.
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