Allegretti

 
Chef Alain Allegretti deserves a humanitarian award of some sort. His alchemic culinary mastery drove us into spasms of delight complete with wringing our hands and rolling our eyes, leaving us with a desire to shower him with kisses in thanks for serving his illicit divinations summoned from regions of Italy and the southern part of France. What a pleasure to simply be in the room that sommelier James Morrison graciously attends, so elegant and comfortably lit.
 
A Flatiron Negroni ($14) seemed appropriate to get us started, here with Bluedog gin and Campari but also inspirational additions of sparkling wine and muddled grapefruit. We skipped the Tuna Tartare ($16) served in a crispy lavender taco as it sounded vaguely vaginal; however, we nearly wept over the outrageous Burrata Cheese ($9) with olive oil and balsamic vinegar that were all wonderfully worthy of gross indecency charges. No less culpable was the Octopus ($16), extraordinary twists of the creature gilded by a farro salad with fava beans and a few well-appointed daubs of tonnato (Italian for tuna) sauce.
 
Provençal Fish Soup ($13) tasted like the fresh, salty air in the Old Port of Marseille (but much better than the soup I had there), with garlic croutons, brisk shavings of Gruyère and a gorgeous saffron rouille. We reveled in the fond orbs of Olive Ricotta Gnocchi ($16) with roasted tomatoes and crisp bacon. Deliver me!
 
The lord of the manor treads the boards with equal dexterity when it comes to dishing out meat or fish, which is a rare and enviable talent. We loved the Branzino ($29) with a fennel trio that stunned with stuffed fennel confit, fennel salad and a fennel saffron jus on top of that. Perfectly pink Citrus Crusted Duck Breast ($28) was pretty devastating, too, with a savory, sumptuous spring vegetable gratin served alongside scrumptious nuggets of rosemary polenta.
 
Dessert was beside the point but we had it anyway. Clafoutis ($10) had all of our favorite things like strawberries, rhubarb, chocolate and crème fraîche. Further props go out to chef Allegretti that we weren’t sent out in wheelchairs.  

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