Piccino pals

Eleanor called me to ask if I wanted to join her and Colin for lunch at noon at Piccino. I hadn't seen them in a few weeks since they were away in Japan and I wanted to see them before I left for New Orleans later this week, but I had already made plans to eat at Piccino for oysters at 1pm. After a few phone calls and Jo telling me that she didn't want me to sit at Piccino for hours, even though I told her how much I liked it there and that it wouldn't be a problem, she and I decided to reschedule our oyster outing for some other time.

So, I headed solo to Piccino to meet Eleanor and Colin. I hadn't been there in a while, even though I have such a good time each time I'm there. The food is good and the company is even better. When I arrived, Eleanor and Colin were already seated and chatting with Cambria. I was so happy to see all of them and hugs were exchanged all around, even to Eleanor.

After catching up for a bit, we got to work figuring out what we wanted to order. We decided on three pizzas--the Margherita, the Funghi Special (roasted mushrooms, crimini mushroom pesto, garlic, and crescenza cheese), and the Red Special (kale, garlic confit, ricotta, and pecorino)--and the rabini salad with pumpkin, onions, and bacon vinaigrette, all to share.

Colin was getting anxious for coffee too, so we ordered coffee with Cambria and headed out the door and down one past the nail salon to the new coffee bar annex of Piccino. As we were approaching, a hand carrying a coffee cup reached out from the window to deliver the cup to a waiting woman on the other side. Coffee walk-through?

When we got inside, we told the woman that we placed our order at the restaurant and she read our order from the ticket. The space was a little too dark and not as warm as its larger counterpart up the street. But, it was cute enough. Eleanor got her tea, Colin got his cappuccino, and the woman walked out the door with two drip coffees in her hand. Was one of them mine? Colin went to check, but nope. The woman came back and asked if we ordered a coffee too? Yes, we did. She had just read it off our ticket only a few minutes ago. Oh, well. We could wait and soon enough I had delicious coffee in my hand.

We arrived back at our seats at Piccino the restaurant and had our salad waiting for us. It was really tasty. The onions were sweet and the bacon was salty. I couldn't taste the rabini or the pumpkin though. They tasted like bacon dressing.

Then, came our pizzas. They covered our tiny tables. The mushroom one was fantastic! It was earthy and rich with mushroom flavor. The Margherita one was good and simple. The Red Special was okay, even with the side of olive oil that Cambria suggested we have. I could only taste tomatoes and not much else. Cambria described it as "sauce forward." The crust for all three pizzas was nice though, thin (but not too thin to be floppy) and crisp. The crust was also good with a little dunk in the olive oil side.

It was a good meal and it was even better hanging out with Eleanor, Colin, and Cambria. But, I remember being amazed by the food. Maybe this time was different because Carlo wasn't back there working his magic and Eleanor wasn't tossing the pizza dough. Maybe I'm biased toward my friends. In any case, it was great to see my friends and share a meal.