On Friday eve, I ventured to one of those areas of Brooklyn, that you aren't reaalllly sure if they are safer than you remember from trips out there in years past, but they certainly have to be improving if there are restaurants and bars worth trying out there.
We ventured to Bushwick, the neighborhood of warehouses, an industrial wasteland, what I imagine Dumbo looked like circa twenty years ago. Why you may ask did we venture all the way out there for dinner? Well, the answer I would like to provide you with is Roberta's, one of the many artisanal pizza places that have been popping up all around town and this one was supposed to be one of the best. Quite the trip simply for an artisanal pizza place right? But it was totally worth it, foodwise, communal seating wise I could have done without. I always find when you are sitting at a communal table, it is very hard to actually have "your own" conversation, there simply is no privacy. I like the idea of communal tables and think that in certain situations they are fantastic, but in others, they just simply are not what you want and Friday night's communal table was exactly that -- no privacy to talk with the person you came with while sandwiched between two other couples. Oh well! The food was what we came for and let me tell you what we had which was totally worth the trip!
We started off with a Meat and Cheese plate -- obviously the meat portion was for my dining companion and boyfriend...certainly not mine...but let me tell you about the cheese portion of the plate. It featured three somewhat obscure Italian cheeses:
1. Quadrello di Buffala - Hailing from Lombardia, this pasteurized buffalo's milk cheese is quite unusual. Taking the wash ring stink and gooeyness of Taleggio and mixing it with the creamy, rich full flavor of buffalo milk, you get Quadrello di Buffala. Fantastically unctous, ripely pungent and richly delish, you can't go wrong with this cheese. It certainly needs a big wine to stand up to it.
2. Capra Verde - Also hailing from Lombardia, Italy, this is a fantastic goat blue, I'd even liken it to a Gorgonzola Dolce but with goat's milk. The usage of goat's milk gives the cheese a tangy, fresh flavor while maintaining the sweet, piquant, and biting qualities of a blue. A must try! My favorite of the three!
3. La Meola - A semi-soft cow's milk cheese from the Piedmont region of Italy, this cheese has all those great cow's milk characteristics -- weight, barnyardyness, gooeyness, and of course a mouth full of creamyness! A melt in your mouth sort of a cheese that you can't go wrong with and certainly not found often.
After the cheese plate, we decided to split their white and green pizza which was composed of Mozzarella, arugula, lemon, and Parmesan. Lemon on a pizza certainly added an interesting and unusual touch, not a bad one, just something that your brain had to process with each of the first few bites. The pizza was delish, light and airy, very thinly crusted. It did not leave you feeling too full but simply satisfied.
I would definitely have the pizza again, however, I'm not sure how much of a rush I am in to go back to Bushwick, that isn't to say I had a bad time, it's just that it is far and there is slim pickins around when it comes to things to do.
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