Buon Compleanno @Impero_Caffe

It was yet another delicious and fun monthly dinner with my oldest friends. This one fell the day before our first May birthday girl, Kate’s, day. Normally we combine the May birthdays and the July birthdays. Our fifth, a December baby, gets the dinner all to her own. However, at this dinner Kate suggested we separate our monthly dinners from our birthday dinners moving forward. This way, if there is nothing else on each of our birthdays, we can look forward to coming together to celebrate each other. She’s ‘wicked smaht’!

So in the spirit of our new modus operandi, the group got together the day before my birthday to celebrate! Our dining locale would be the new New York City home for celebrity Chef Scott Conant,

Impero Caffé, in the new Innside Hotel in Chelsea. The space is open, clean and modern. Loved the lamp art! If you didn’t know you were in NYC, you might take it for Miami even.

While the ladies were embracing the wine selection, I got right down to a birthday cocktail. It would be the Mulo of Poseidon vodka, cucumber, grapefruit, ginger and lime. All of my faves together in one refreshing libation says birthday to me! Cin cin!

For our appetizers we started with hamachi crudo with citrus, pistachio, ginger and chili and olive oil poached octopus with tomatoes, capers and fingerling potatoes. Straight forward and who doesn’t love properly prepared octopus?

However, my appetizer highlights were smoked maitake mushrooms in truffle sugo (sauce) gently spooned over the most unctuous buttery polenta…

…and my favorite Scott Conant dish, next to his simple but delicious pasta al pomodoro, fritto misto. That is delicately battered and fried calamari, rock shrimp and seasonal vegetables. At the now closed Scarpetta (RIP), his fritto misto and a glass of crisp white wine was all I needed.

The chef then sent out a special intermezzo (a between course snack…just in case you need a post-appetizer/pre-entree appy) of diver scallops with snap peas and morel mushrooms…MOREL! That was super delicious! Thank you chef!

For our entrées, we all decided to go with one of the handmade pasta dishes. There was squid ink campanelle with baby squid, clams and mussels, paccheri with pork ragu and caiocavallo cheese, tagliatelle with swiss chard, maitake mushrooms and smoke goat cheese and I had the cavatelli with braised duck and black truffle sugo. Each had its own unique flavor profile captivating the palate with each bite.

We also must mention the sides at the table. Broccoli rabe played nice, nice with some guanciale (pork jowl) and spicy perperoncino. Loved their take on seasonal salt baked sunchokes with nutty pecorino cheese and honey. That salty-sweet combination works well with the earthy tuber!

And then there is “dessoit”! (why there is a Three Stooges reference in my head? I’ve no idea). The staff brought out three of their four desserts starting with the home of my singular candle (grazie), the basil chocolate mousse cake (which we all thought was lavender) with praline cream and peanut butter sorbet (amazing because the mouth feel was like a gelato). The assists went to pineapple upside-down cake with vanilla gelato and walnut streusel and our fave budino with salted caramel and gianduja crumble. Nom, baby! Straight nom!

Now if they only knew how I feel about panna cotta they would have brought out their crème fraîche version with orange gelee and rhubarb strawberry sorbet. We are still within the 30-day marker for my birthday, you know…

Kate, me, Nnenna…Jessica in a cab home…

Thanks to my food crew – Kate, Jessica and Nnenna – for your friendship another delicious night out in NYC, and my first annual birthday celebration!

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