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Vino Capo

Oct18

Restaurant: Capo [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Location: 1810 Ocean Ave, Santa Monica, Ca. 310-394-5550

Date: September 4, 2019

Cuisine: Italian with Cal influences

Rating: The food here is really very very good.

The Foodie Club comes to Capo fairly often as it’s close and really good. Atmosphere is great. Service is excellent. Only problem is a somewhat draconian wine policy. Yeah, they have a great wine list — but we have even biggest “lists” at home.

The gang at the table.

The current menu.

I did all the ordering tonight — with consultation — piecing dishes together from the menu into a series of share plate courses for the 6 of us. I prefer this style SO much to ordering individually. Who needs an entire steak? And who can resist 6 pastas?

Bread here is usually very good.

Tuscan white bean paste and some other kind of paste (maybe eggplant).

Trish brought: 1993 Dom Pérignon Champagne P2. 94 points. Nice!

Maryland crab torta. This really is Crab Norfolk, and it’s probably the best one I’ve ever had, and I spent summers as a boy in Oxford Maryland, land of the blue crab. This is a big juicy pile of delicious blue crab, drenched in butter, and their special touch is a little Meyer lemon in the mix. Bellissimo!

Michel Blanchet smoked salmon. With more white asparagus.

Burrata Caprese. Because burrata always makes everything better.

MZ brought: 2004 Domaine Roulot Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. BH 93. As it almost always is, this is the class of the cellar with more discreet wood framing a reserved but ultra elegant white flower and pungent limestone nose that merges seamlessly into fine, precise and intensely stony flavors that finish bone dry and with a vaguely saline quality. This is built to age and should provide at least 7 to 10 years of upside development. As with the Bouchères, there is a trace of reduction but not really enough to detract from the overall sense of outstanding quality though if you were going to try one young, I would suggest decanting it for 20 minutes first. (Drink starting 2012)

MZ brought: 2014 Château de Puligny-Montrachet Chevalier-Montrachet. BH 92-95. Equally discreet wood sets off the beautifully layered nose that blends together notes of citrus, wet stone, rose petal and subtle spice hints. There is excellent verve to the delineated and overtly muscular yet refined big-bodied flavors that possess an abundance of acid-buffering dry extract before terminating in a moderately austere and explicitly saline-infused finish that is like rolling rocks around in your mouth. This is very clearly built-to-age and is going to require at least 5 years to unwind and develop more depth. (Drink starting 2024)

Baja Sardines ‘al Forno.” Sardines salted and cooked on the wood fire grill. Pretty much Spanish style and delicious!

Foie Gras on toast. Big portion, but the sauce overwhelmed.

Toro Tartar. Like Nobu’s, but no wasabi ponzu. Really excellent actually.

From my cellar: 1969 Tenuta Greppo (Biondi-Santi) Brunello di Montalcino Riserva. VM 93. Biondi-Santi’s 1969 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva has aged gracefully. Dried flowers, mint, licorice, molasses, anise, brown spices, iron, game and tobacco grace the palate in a delicate, feminine Brunello that impresses for its overall balance and harmony. All the elements come together beautifully in the glass. The 1969 is now fully mature, although it has more than enough texture and Sangiovese acidity to hold on for another 5-10 years, perhaps a bit longer. The 1969 will always be more of a delicate Brunello with haunting, nuanced Sangiovese overtones and tons of personality. (Drink between 2015-2020)

Larry brought: 2000 Tua Rita Redigaffi Toscana IGT. Parker 96-100. Tua Rita’s 2000 Redigaffi has taken a big leap forward in its evolution. The wine is infused with black fruit, prune and blackberry preserves that come together to form an inky appearance and chewy consistency. Beyond those fruit tones are equally robust aromas of Teriyaki sauce, barbecue smoke and exotic spice. Redigaffi is a pure expression of Merlot and it delivers condensed, thickly extracted and syrupy aromas some 15 years after the harvest. The wine is like a time capsule that takes us back to a time when this richer and more opulent style was so enthusiastically embraced. My feeling is that the wine has not aged as steadily as was once predicted. Upon initial release, Robert Parker had given this wine 100 points, and if I’m not mistaken I believe it was the second Italian wine to earn such an honor after the 1985 Sassicaia. Since then, it has shed much of its fruit and has become more defined by its oak spice and tangy cedar. In the mouth, the wine shows abundant texture with integrated tannins.

Yeah, I’m kinda insane and I did the ordering, so I got us 6 pastas — yep, 6 pastas. And we each got a plate like this (followed by a second round below).

White Corn Ravioli with Black Truffles. This is always to die for.

Pasta with uni, squid, and shrimp. Really nice bright seafood pasta.

Herb Gnocchi, lardo, peas and black truffle.

Round 2: Flight!

Bucatini with lamb ragu. This is one of my favorite pastas. I love the bucatini, I love the gamey ragu.

Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe. Yum.

Risotto with Lobster. Excellent!
Erick brought: 2002 Domaine Xavier Liger-Belair Richebourg. 95 points. Great.

Steak Fiorentina. A giant “black and blue” piece of cow.

Colorado rack of lamb.

Beans!

The dessert menu.

The amazing classic chocolate soufflé.

Made even better with some slightly orange cream.

Tiramisu. Good, but not as good as mine.

Petit fours.

Great night. I just love Capo’s pastas. They do them in this correctly cooked, Italian but not Italian hearty style that is just filled with flavor punch. Balance is superb.

Our wines were fabulous too, if varied and perhaps not always perfectly paired.

Capo isn’t great value — it’s pricey — but they do make really really good food and have for 20 years. Every dish is excellent and it’s a pretty varied menu. They were way ahead of the curve too on the whole wood fired trend.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Capo, Foodie Club, Italian cuisine, Santa Monica, Wine

(Not) Trimming Capo

May18

Restaurant: Capo [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Location: 1810 Ocean Ave, Santa Monica, Ca. 310-394-5550

Date: April 11, 2018

Cuisine: Italian with Cal influences

Rating: The food here is really very very good.

Tonight’s two part extravaganza begins with a stop off at Sage Society for a “pre-dinner” Trimbach tasting!

This takes place in sage’s cellar “social hall.”

With plenty of snacks. Liz carefully pairs even these amuses with the wines so the little tags are wine numbers so you can match them up.

And lots and lots of Trimbach, mostly riesling, of course. This includes several vintages of the incomparable Clos st Hune and a couple of super sweet VT and SGN wines.

In the house was Anne Trimbach (on the right).

In any case, on to Capo and the main event. Capo is a favorite of mine and I’ve reviewed it before HERE and HERE. They have a particular high end (but not formal) blend of California style (Farmer’s Market ingredients) and Italian tradition. But it’s not a strictly traditional Italian, more interpreted through a vaguely Tuscan / California vibe.

But today, the Foodie Club decides to brace their strict 2 bottle corkage policy and head on in with a small crew of four of us.

Bread and Tuscan white bean paste.

We found this 1976 Chassagne Montrachet on Capo’s wine list and it was actually in pretty good shape for a 42 year-old village!

Maryland crab torta. This really is Crab Norfolk, and it’s probably the best one I’ve ever had, and I spent summers as a boy in Oxford Maryland, land of the blue crab. This is a big juicy pile of delicious blue crab, drenched in butter, and their special touch is a little Meyer lemon in the mix. Bellissimo!

Toro Tartar. Like Nobu’s, but no wasabi ponzu. Really excellent actually.

Dutch White Asparagus with prosciutto.

Foie Gras on toast. Big portion, but the sauce overwhelmed.

Fred brought: 2004 Château Margaux. VM 94. Bright red-ruby. Knockout nose features boysenberry, currant, cedar, graphite and mocha. Suave, gentle and sweet, already displaying ineffable inner-mouth perfume. The 17% merlot component injects a silky component, and the oak element adds a complementary sweetness. Complex, lush, horizontal finish saturates the mouth with flavor. It was not clear to me in April that the 2006 would exceed this-and it will certainly take longer to reach full maturity in bottle.

Dungeness Crab Risotto. Pretty awesome and a California take on the Italian dish.

Pasta with uni, squid, and shrimp. Really nice bright seafood pasta.

Tortelli di Zucca. Not exactly the classic pasta, although it might have had a touch of Amaretto cookie in it — great nonetheless.

Rigatoni, truffle meat sauce. Capo is amazing at these meaty pastas. Perfect chew to the pasta itself, incredibly savory sauce.

Bucatini with lamb ragu. This is one of my favorite pastas. I love the bucatini, I love the gamey ragu. A tough call which is better with the rigatoni.

Larry brought: 1999 Tua Rita Redigaffi Toscana IGT. 95 points. It needed time to open up, had a dense garnet color, with a fading garnet rim, on the nose had some ripe cherry, chocolate, earth, floral, slight herb, a hint of VA. The palate had very ripe fruit, was slightly out of balance with more fruit than acidity (whereas the Masseto was very balanced here). Food worked great with this wine, bringing out plum and cherry flavors through to an excellent finish. Blueberry, brown sugar, stewed/baked blueberry flavors also noted. “Massive, beautiful now, will last ten more years,” but the wine had a few detractors: “very American, pales in comparison with the Italian acidities, unfocused. Overall, probably averaged a 95-96 score for the scorers.

Colorado rack of lamb.

Strauss Osso Buco.

I can’t remember what came in this.

The amazing classic chocolate soufflé.

Made even better with some slightly orange cream.

Berry crumble.

Petit fours.

This was a relatively simple evening for the Foodie Club, but great fun and the quality level was superlative. I just love Capo’s pastas. They do them in this correctly cooked, Italian but not Italian hearty style that is just filled with flavor punch. Balance is superb.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: asgavin, Capo, Foodie Club, Italian cuisine, pasta, Sage Society, Wine

Wine Guys at Capo

Aug26

Restaurant: Capo [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 1810 Ocean Ave, Santa Monica, Ca. 310-394-5550

Date: August 5, 2011

Cuisine: Italian with Cal influences

Rating: The food here is really very very good.

Capo is an occasional favorite of mine and I’ve reviewed it before HERE and HERE. They have a particular high end (but not formal) blend of California style (Farmer’s Market ingredients) and Italian tradition. But it’s not a strictly traditional Italian, more interpreted through a vaguely Tuscan / California vibe.

The intimate dining room.

They have very good bread at Capo, particularly the crispy things.

Capo always puts out this little humus-like spread. I suspect it’s fava beans. It’s addictive though.

We settle down to examine the MENU, which is big, and always a difficult decision because there is so much great stuff on it. They have an odd menu format, in which each item is identified by only it’s principle ingredient, forcing you to guess or ask how it’s actually prepared. Plus they have “fill in the blanks” on the menu which are filled in by a separate sheet of daily specials. No big deal, but it’s kind of bizare. Doesn’t matter though, as the food is great.

From my cellar: 2010 Borgo del Tiglio (Nicola Manferrari) Collio Friulano Ronco della Chiesa. VM 94. Borgo del Tiglio’s 2010 Ronco della Chiesa shows what this hillside site in Cormons can do in cooler vintages. Still bright, focused and intensely saline, the 2010 bursts from the glass with grapefruit, lime, mint and crushed rocks. The 2010 will probably be appreciated most by readers who like tense, vibrant whites. Next to some of the other vintages, the 2010 lacks a little mid-palate pliancy, but it is quite beautiful just the same. I especially like the way the 2010 opens up nicely in the glass over time.

An amuse of tomato covered bread with salami. Yum!

English split pea soup.

Burrata black truffle bruschetta. Besides the shaved vegetables and the bread underneath this is a big blob of burrata, fresh truffles, and a whole poached egg! It was pretty good, but decidedly rich. In some ways similar to my special eggs, in some ways like the famous Melisse truffle egg.

Woodfire grilled octopus. Nice octopus. I think Brera’s was better, but this was very good. Strong char flavor from the grill.

Sweet corn and white truffle ravioli. Can we say buttery awesome? Nice truffle/butter/corn flavor. Super soft pasta. What’s not to love? (perhaps the price)

Dungeness crab risotto. A very nice mildly crabby risotto. Good texture.

Grilled branzino. Cooked on the wood fire. Strong char flavors but the meat inside was very moist and flavorful.

From my cellar: 1997 Gaja Langhe Nebbiolo Conteisa. VM 92-94. Good full ruby. Deeply pitched aromas of plum, currant, espresso, bitter chocolate and mint. Very intensely flavored and firmly built; not as dense as the Sori Tildin or San Lorenzo but sweet, vibrant and sharply delineated. Quite penetrating and solidly structured. Finishes very long, with rich but firm tannins.

Spaghetti Carbonara. Egg, cheese, pork cheeks, peas. A very nice (and rich) pasta.
This is buccatini with lamb ragu, and it’s one of the best pastas I’ve ever had. I’ve come back a dozen times for it. I love a good ragu, and the buccatini (spagetti with a tiny hole in the middle) is perfect. The dish is rich and meaty, divine. I always order it.

Aspen NY steak, medium rare. I’m not a steak guy, but this was some fine beef, seared black on the outside and red/pink on the inside.

Bread pudding. With a creme brûlée caramelized top! Oh boy!

And this. This was to die for. Meyer lemon semifreddo, with a blueberry or blackberry sauce. Everything about this was spectacular, one of my all time favorite deserts. The cold-soft texture, the bright lemon flavor, and the tart sweetness of the berries. OMFG!

A nice plate of little petit fours, not so usual at American Italians, more french. In Italy sometimes you’ll get treated to little almond cookies and shots of grappa or sambuca.

So to conclude, Capo is hands down delicious. The food is VERY VERY GOOD, and the service is top notch. The intimate little atmosphere is great also. It’s just very expensive — definitely not a good value — perfect if someone else is paying :-).

Three other Capo meals HERE and HERE and HERE.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or for a legion of great eating in Italy itself, here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Capo, Italian Cusine, Santa Monica

Capo Hits a Triple

Sep18

Restaurant: Capo [1, 2, 3]

Location: 1810 Ocean Ave, Santa Monica, Ca. 310-394-5550

Date: September 14, 2011

Cuisine: Italian with Cal influences

Rating: The food here is really very very good.

The intimate dining room.

They have very good bread at Capo, particularly the crispy things.

Capo always puts out this little humus-like spread. I suspect it’s fava beans. It’s addictive though.

I got this 2004 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva at the vineyard in Tuscany. It was just released as it’s aged for 5-6 years in old oak. “From vines in Castelnuovo dell’Abate, is gorgeous, layered and elegant in its violets, tar, licorice and cherries. The finish is long and impeccable, but this is a somewhat ethereal style, with aromas and flavors that are already a touch forward relative to most 2004 Riservas. Ideally the wine is best enjoyed within the next decade. Anticipated maturity: 2010-2020.”

It’s worth noting that Capo has a peculiar corkage policy (I rant on it here). In short, you can bring one and no more than one bottle, and that it must not be on their list.

The amuse, a cone of tomatoes. Essentially like a tomato bruschetta — in a crispy cone.

“Heirloom tomato vegetable salad.” Very fresh Farmer’s Market vegetables.

The same salad, but with Burrata. Which, like bacon, makes everything better.

“Burrata black truffle bruschetta.” Besides the shaved vegetables and the bread underneath this is a big blob of burrata, fresh truffles, and a whole poached egg! It was pretty good, but decidedly rich. In some ways similar to my special eggs, in some ways like the famous Melisse truffle egg.

“Steak tartar.” The fries and aioli are obvious. The meat was delicious! There was a lot of pepper in there, and olive oil. But mostly it just tasted of wonderful raw beef. One of the better tartars I’ve had. Maybe a little shaved parmesan would make it even better!

We killed the first bottle (from my cellar) and bought this one off the list. It makes a horizontal of sorts, being another 2004 Brunello Riserva. It was good, but not quite as good as the Potozzine. “The 2004 Brunello di Montalcino comes across as lean and powerful in its expression of red cherries, tobacco, spices and earthiness. The aromas aren’t perfectly clean and the wine’s structural components seem to have the upper hand over the wine’s density and richness of fruit, suggesting the tannins will ultimately dominate the wine’s overall balance. Anticipated maturity: 2010-2018.”

“White corn ravioli.” You can’t beat fresh pasta in a butter sauce.

This is “buccatini with lamb ragu,” and it’s one of the best pastas I’ve ever had. I’ve come back like three times for it. I love a good ragu, and the buccatini (spagetti with a tiny hole in the middle) is perfect. The dish is rich and meaty, divine. I always order it.

Capo has an impressive wood fire in the corner that they cook a lot of the entrees on. The prices are pretty punitive, but they’re good. Plus the fire lends a wonderful wintery smell to the whole dining room.

Bronzino, grilled, with vegetables.

Dover sole.

Veal chop, nice and rare.

This is the “chocolate soufflé,” an excellent implementation of the classic. You have to preorder it at the beginning of the meal.

And they add a big dollop of fresh whipped cream.

The “chocolate volcano cake,” also with whipped cream, also preordered.

And this. This was to die for. “Meyer lemon semifreddo,” with a blueberry or blackberry sauce. Everything about this was spectacular, one of my all time favorite deserts. The cold-soft texture, the bright lemon flavor, and the tart sweetness of the berries. OMFG!

A nice plate of little petit fours, not so usual at American Italians, more french. In Italy sometimes you’ll get treated to little almond cookies and shots of grappa or sambuca.

Two other Capo meals HERE and HERE.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or for a legion of great eating in Italy itself, here.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Brunello di Montalcino, Burrata, Capo, Cooking, Home, italian, Italian cuisine, Los Angeles, Melisse, pasta, Poached Egg, Restaurants and Bars, Santa Monica, Santa Monica California, Truffle (fungus), Tuscany

Capo Valentines

Feb17

Restaurant: Capo [1, 2, 3]

Location: 1810 Ocean Ave, Santa Monica, Ca. 310-394-5550

Date: February 14, 2011

Cuisine: Italian with Cal influences

Rating: Well done, particularly for a special night.

Valentines is tricky restaurant-wise, and rarely shows off a place at it’s best. The economics of the situation tend to force them toward set menus (at high prices) and to rush the service so they can get 2-3 seatings in. We decided to try Capo, which I have reviewed on a normal night HERE.

Normally, Capo boasts of being a “slow food” restaurant. Tonight they hustled a bit, although the food was very good. We had a 7:15 reservation and they had us out of there (7 courses later!) at 9! Actually, we didn’t really mind, but that certainly wouldn’t be the case here on a normal night.

The have good bread. I particularly like the flatbread.

And this probably chickpea based dip.

For Valentines there were two menu choices, the regular on the right, and the truffle on the left. Both had two choices per course (more or less). Click to embiggen.

The amuse, a cone of tomatoes. Essentially like a tomato bruschetta — in a crispy cone.

To start we got two glasses of white. A muscat on the left and a Sancerre on the right. Other than having a rather hefty per glass price tag they were very nice wines.

“Baby red beet, ricotta ravioli.” The first of many Beurre blanc type pasta sauces. They have very nice fresh pasta here, and well the butter sauce is hard to go wrong with.

“Russian Beluga caviar, linguini.” Again with the butter. A very simple dish of pasta, butter, and caviar. It worked. The sauce was bread dipping good. This might not be the BEST venue to show off the caviar, although it certainly wasn’t overwhelmed, lending a briny note to the whole thing.

I love Amarone, as it is very grapy, and that’s one of the things I like in a red.

Parker gives this 92. “The 2004 Amarone is beautiful and understated in its wild cherries, sweet herbs and flowers, all of which come together with unusual finesse and clarity. Silky, ripe tannins frame the exquisite finish. The 2004 is already approachable and should continue to drink nicely for another decade or so. This is a very representative vintage for Allegrini. Anticipated maturity: 2010-2020.”

“Bluefin tuna tartar, caviali.” This is a very nice sushi grade tuna, essentially chopped like you might find in a tuna handroll. The bread is very toasted.

“Gnocchi lobster, truffles.” Again with the Beurre blanc! The gnocchi were perfectly pillow-like, the lobster tender, and the truffles do go spectacularly with the butter — really one of the best ways to show them off. Everyone but my arteries thought this was a fantastic dish. Again, I lapped up the butter with yet another piece of bread.

“Heirloom tomato vegetable, burrata.” No faulting this combination. Capo always has a lot of burrata, and you know I love it (HERE FOR MORE ON THE BEST FRESH CHEESE!).

“Jamon Iberico de Bellota.” Spain’s best ham (see leg below). My biggest beef with this dish is that the bread is too toasted. It has a nice charred flavor, but that overwhelms the subtle salty-nutty taste of this very fine pig product.

Oink! How did my leg get from Iberia to American?

“”BBQ Wild King Salmon.” My wife, a salmon aficionado, loved this salmon. It had nice accompanying veggies too.

“Cote de Boeuf, truffle potato puree.” This was my least favorite dish of the evening, but this is just because I’m not really a steak guy. It was very rare, more than medium closer to rare. That was good. But I’m just not that into simple meat. I like things jazzy. If one were a steak lover, I’m sure this would be awesome. As it was for me it was good, but not mind blowing or anything. The mashers were really good though, and went particularly nicely with the black truffles.

“Fruit Crostata, zabaglione.” They described this as a pear tart. It tasted like apple pie. I wonder if they mixed it up and gave us “Hot apple tart, truffle honey ice cream” except that’s whipped cream (zabaglione?) and not ice cream. In any case, it was good apple pie, although it tended to fall apart.

“Chocolate creme brulee.” Yum! This was very good, rich, creamy, nicely chocolatty!

Some various petite fours. Mostly simple nut cookies and a couple fruit cream filled chocolates.

And they even included a rose!

Overall, this was one of the better Valentines dinners we’ve done. Really, just like with the flowers one can expect to pay more for less on this special night. But Capo did as well as could be expected. The choices were good, and every dish was very well executed.