One of the things I love about this place is the atmosphere. The bar at the front of the restaurant is huge and is always hopping, even on a Wednesday night when we attended. The hardwood floors and the dark accents and the loud environment makes it feel very New York. We were immediately taken to our seats and along came our waiter, Chris Brown. Not the Hide your Wife Chris Brown obvi, but it did make for some lame jokes that I'm sure he's never heard before. Anyway, I digress.
We first ordered the fried goat cheese, which are infamous at Ecco, and we were persuaded by CB to also order the Piquillo Peppers that were stuffed with braised beef. I was so glad we listened to him!
If you have never had fried goat cheese, you are really missing out! Especially these little balls of heaven! They are fried, but the coating around the cheese isn't heavy at all. It's more like a light wind breaker. Then these wind breaker wrapped cheese balls are dipped in honey and topped off with some peppercorns. It is freaking amazing! The trick, though, is to dip them in the honey at the bottom of the bowl, and it is just such a succulent little cheese treat! The peppers were delicious as well. The beef had such deep flavors and was so tender while the peppers were sweet and juicy. Very yummy!
For those of you that don't know, I love love love Italian culture and most of all Italian food. I literally could eat pasta everyday of my life if my body would let me. Last year for my birthday we visited Sotto Sotto in Inman Park, which if you have never been and love Italian food, you need to go NOW! So while I branched out this year, I just could not hold myself back from getting the pasta and I was not disappointed!
For my main course I chose the Chili-braised Pork with Garlic and Pappardelle. The pasta was delicious! You could definitely tell the pappardelle was homemade, and it was perfectly al dente just the way I like it. The pork was tender and juicy and I loved the fresh basil. It was def right up there with Sotto Sotto.
My mother took a different route for her main course and ordered 2 more small plates. She chose the squid which was grilled with capers, chives, and lemon and the winter squash fritters with chive aioli. I had never had grilled squid before and was a little nervous to try it, but I have to say it was pretty delicious! You could really taste the lemon, and the capers just gave it a little boost in flavor so it didn't taste as fishy as I thought it would. You could tell the squid was fresh and with all our heavy food so far, this was a nice, light dish.
Speaking of nice and light...I think the wine had gone to our heads a little at this point because I didn't realize the squash FRITTERS we had ordered would be deep fried until they came upon our table in a nice, rich, battered, and fried form, and we both sighed in utter defeat. Because I HAVE to try everything we order due to this little blog I run, I had a tiny/medium sized bite and that was all I could muster. While it was surprisingly very moist on the inside (ugh I hate that word and I can't believe I just used it-the "M" word that is) and the chive aioli was a great accompaniment, I couldn't eat more than a bite. It was just too rich for me.
Finally, it was dessert time. Due to fullness of the bellies, I didn't think I could eat anything else, but Mr. Brown thought otherwise and brought us some more balls, but this time they were of chocolate. Champagne truffles to be exact.
Yes, those are my teeth marks because that is all I could eat of the truffles. Not that they aren't delish because they are, and I am a deep lover of chocolate. I just thought one more bite and you might as well just roll me out like the purple girl in Willy Wonka.
It was such a great dinner and I always have so much fun with my mama (especially when we are eating and drinking wine). Best 26th bday of my life!!
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