Zenato Wine Dinner @ Sea Salt
Sea Salt is a local restaurant in Naples, FL down in the rich part of town, Third Street South. They host wine dinners from time to time & we've never actually gone to one but this one worked out in our schedule.
I am also slightly biased as a friend's husband is actually the chef at this restaurant so having had Thanksgiving at their house, I know he knows how to cook. (Duck Fat Fried Turkey =
) I went in with very high expectations for the $65 per person price tag.
We arrived about 20 minutes early as driving to this area of Naples is a crapshoot with traffic and parking so I rather be early then late. Luckily it isn't season so there wasn't a single issue. My husband was fine arriving early as he was able to continue watching the World Cup game at the bar.
As we were at the bar & this is my 'fancy' birthday dinner, I started the evening with what I know best: drinking:
A glass of J.P. Chanet sparkling wine.
It is a birthday dinner after all!
My friend arrived right as the clock turned 6:30 so we sat down with the rest of the tables. As it was with many paired dinners in Naples, the 3 of us were the youngest by at least 20 years but we had each other to keep company and talk and enjoy the food.
One of the things Sea Salt is known for is that with the bread, you are given three types of sea salt to enjoy as you wish with your meal.
I only enjoyed the extra salt with the olive oil with the bread but to be honest, I was only using it to soak up the wine so I had any chance of driving home.
The first wine was a Zenato Lugana 2013 which can mostly be compared closely to a chardonnay. It paired nicely with the initial dish.
Seared Scallop, Root Vegetable Puree, Speck, Green Apple Salad
As I've stated in previous reports, I'm not a huge fan of scallops. These ones were perfection though. They were never frozen and had no additional salt added so it maintained its natural sweetness. The green apple salad provided a crispness to the dish to balance it out with the seafood and the wine.
Our second course was paired with two wines. A Valpolicella Superiore & a Cormi. Drinking the wine by itself pre-course arrival, I enjoyed the Cormi more; however, once we started eating the veal, the Valpolicella developed a creaminess that perfectly matched the dish.
Veal Raviolini w/ Porcini Mushroom Sauce
This dish was great! The raviolini had just enough buffalo ricotta mixed with the braised veal to balance its richness. The sauce was a reduction with the veal stock that was just enough of an earthy tone to the dish.
Our 3rd Course was paired with a Ripassa & an Amarone
Braised Lamb Shank, Bacon Whipped Potatoes, Black Mission Fig
Sauce
The braised lamb was fork tender. I normally don't liked whipped potatoes thanks to the texture but the caramelized bacon throughout worked so well with the cream and butter in the potatoes, I could have eaten an entire pot of it and still not had my fill. The Fig Sauce was a reduction with the liquid from the lamb braising and the Amarone wine that paired so well with this dish.
All The Wines Together
Chestnut Fritters, Amerena Cherry Gelato, Creme Anglaise
There was no additional wine served with the 4th course. This was a good thing as 5 glasses of wine (plus my glass of champagne) meant I needed to sober up some. The amerena cherries were flown in from Italy and the gelato was so rich that it may be my favorite gelato beating out L' Artisan des Glaces by miles and miles! The chestnut fritters were the only real miss to me but as it wasn't really the star of the dessert dish, I didn't really care.
At the end of the meal, we were given the traditional ending to a meal at Sea Salt - Cotton Candy.
It is so whimsical! I also enjoyed a latte to help with the sobering up of the evening.
My friend we were with and I still wanted some more food. There is a local restaurant owned by the same parent company as Sea Salt called Barbatella that has some amazing desserts.
We shared the signature pizza there which is a sweet dough pizza with a sugar crust that has a nice smear of nutella spread on and topped with caramelized bananas and then whipped cream.
My friend and I could only each have a single slice as we had totally eaten too much but I'm bringing the rest in to work tomorrow for snack/lunch/whatever.
While my friend and I split that, my husband got to enjoy their homemade vanilla brownie gelato that disappeared so quickly!
This wine dinner was one of the best I've done in Naples. My husband and I both really enjoyed our meal and it was really a good deal for the cost.
