{"id":492,"date":"2016-03-14T07:00:26","date_gmt":"2016-03-14T12:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/?p=492"},"modified":"2016-03-14T07:00:26","modified_gmt":"2016-03-14T12:00:26","slug":"ibetihd-washington-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yayserver.com\/jessicaconoley\/ibetihd-washington-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"I’ve Been Everywhere & Then I Had Dinner, Washington Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Location: Vito\u2019s<\/a>, 927 9th<\/sup> Ave, Seattle, WA
\nTime: February 13, 2016 7:30 p.m. PST<\/p>\n

I could start with the d\u00e9cor straight out of a \u201850s mob-olicious film\u2014red leather banquettes, black marbled mirrors, candlelight that makes everyone look good. I could enthrall you with the in depth Battlestar Galactica discussion, or tell you the tale of the well-aged piano player who\u2019s last employer found his flirting to be too much for their conservative clientele. But, this is a story in the IBE&TIHD series, so maybe I\u2019ll just start with the tequila.<\/p>\n

\u201cJeff wanted to make sure you enjoyed your evening,\u201d the server says, as she sets three tequila filled tumblers, each garnished with a wedge of lime, on our table.<\/p>\n

Tequila was the last thing I expect because 1) I\u2019m at Vito\u2019s\u2014a restored vintage Italian restaurant in Seattle. In my brain, tequila and Italian don\u2019t go hand in hand, but I\u2019ve learned Seattle can always serve up the unexpected. 2) I\u2019m here with one of my best friends, Natalie, and her husband, Jason. They both happen to work at Charles Smith Wineries. <\/a> Since my dinner companion has a degree in enology, I assume I\u2019ll end up drinking wine at any meal we share. 3) We didn\u2019t order it. But when the owner of the restaurant (Jeff) recommends something\u2026<\/p>\n

I decide the offering is our liquid appetizer, rub my lime around the edge of the glass, and take a long deep swallow of the golden liquid. It warms me enough I forget about our mile-long hike, up hill, in damp weather, and confirm I\u2019m definitely at the right place for my IBE&TIHD Washington adventure.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only 7:30 and the menu has a line up of everything you\u2019ve ever wanted to put in your mouth at an Italian joint. Nat orders us a bottle of Prosecco and the cheese plate to buy us some time before we make the bigger decisions of the night. The cheese plate has cheese-platey stuff: cheddar cheese, goat cheese, fancy cheese three, and fancy cheese four, flat crackers, thinly sliced pears, and a lovely silver cup filled with sweet, tangy chutney\u2014it\u2019s not overly gooey. The apricots still hold enough texture that when you spread it on top of the creamy goat cheese your tongue almost falls out of your head because it\u2019s hit the balance of sweet and tangy just right.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m somewhere in the middle of a chutney chew when our server brings over the Prosecco. She pops the cork, and I jump about a foot. Sadly there is no cork cannon careening across the room, but it\u2019s a fancy restaurant with well-trained servers who clearly are more skilled at opening wine than I am. Have I mentioned that I think sparkling wine is dumb? I mean, I like how the bubbles look in the glass, but other than that it normally just doesn\u2019t do it for me. But tonight this sparkling wine tastes pretty good. (Little did I know that Vito\u2019s does something weirdly magical in their time-traveling restaurant, and I should have caught on with that first sip of Prosecco.)<\/p>\n

Another great trait of my dinner dates is they are food sharers. This makes ordering a group decision, and lets us taste a lot more things. We decide on beef carpaccio, a grilled Caesar salad, and a pickled beet salad. We sip the bubbling Prosecco, and I have Nat tell me the tale of how wine bottles are made. Some people may think such conversation is lame, but I like the idea of molten-glass lava waterfalling multiple stories, being poofed with billowing air, and stretched to form one of the more recognizable shapes on our planet. We\u2019re halfway through the mental glass factory tour when the pink shreds of rare beef tossed with Parmesan, capers, arugula, and olive oil are set before us next to the grilled romaine and a colorful concoction of beets. The beef carpaccio is melty shreds of beef deliciousness, but I see Jason is clearly in love with it, so I only take a sample. Nat\u2019s not crazy about the anchovy level in the Caesar, so I pile it onto my plate. The real surprise for me was the beet salad though. My main joy of beets is they turn everything purple\u2014sometimes they taste all right, but I never wake up and think \u201cdamn I\u2019d really like some beets today.\u201d But at Vito\u2019s their pickled beets are all colors of the rainbow and mixed with radicchio, fris\u00e9e, pear, toasted pistachios, and a verjus vinaigrette. The salad is light, the texture of the beets crisp against the crunch of the nuts. The earthiness of the beets brightened by the slivers of pear\u2014it\u2019s so good I\u2019m a little sad I had to share. Nat and I devour the plate before the well-aged piano player\u2019s done with his first set.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m still finishing my Caesar when Nat tells our server \u201cHow about a bottle of nebbiolo.\u201d Oh yeah, nebbiolo<\/em>, I think. Then I ask Nat, \u201cIs that the type of grape?\u201d She confirms it is, and a red one at that, which is lovely because I\u2019ve ordered a big fat steak for dinner. There\u2019s nothing better on earth then red wine and steak, except maybe red wine and chocolate, but honestly the steak probably wins.<\/p>\n

About this time Jeff, the tequila enabler, stops by the table to say hi. We tell him how much fun we\u2019re having, and that everything has been delicious. He is very pleased and tells us if we stick around there\u2019s a chanteuse scheduled to come on at midnight. He excuses himself as dinner arrives. Nat got the lasagna, served as a molten, steamy, volcano of awesome that you need to have your mom blow on for ten minutes so you don\u2019t burn your face off. It was a good twenty minutes before I ventured to taste it for fear of searing my taste buds. My bite was still warm, full of a plethora of meat, and well seasoned. Jason had ordered the chicken Marsala. Chicken Marsala has never made it onto my culinary radar as anything of interest, but Jason seems to enjoy it and the bite I had was quite nice. There was also a side of house made meatballs, but I completely forgot to try them because I was glaring on my plate.<\/p>\n

When I ordered the menu said \u201cvegetable of they day.\u201d I was too excited about my beet salad to ask what the vegetable was\u2014bad Jessica, amateur move. I know better than that. So Nat and Jason are digging into their deliciousness and I\u2019m fixating on a heapy mountain of Brussels sprouts. Known to me as tiny feet smelling cabbages that people always tell you are going to taste better than they do, but really they still taste like stank little cabbages, and here they are on my plate next to my perfectly seared steak, and my creamy pile of mashed potatoes, and all because I forgot to ask \u201cWhat\u2019s the vegetable of the day?\u201d But then I remember the weirdly good bubbly wine, and the beet salad that rocked my face off, and figure what the hell and stuff one in my mouth. And holy shit this damned restaurant has worked a miracle again, because here I am eating a Brussels sprout, and not in the I-have-to-eat-my-vegetables kind of way, but in the these-are-tasting-pretty-good kind of way, and I find myself shoving another one into my mouth. It\u2019s highly probable those sprouts were so good because they were paired with a steak that makes you wish you had an extra stomach. Cooked to medium, it was juicy, and so tender that it made me want to take my time with each chew so I could make it last longer. Nat, Jason, and I agree my steak is the best entr\u00e9e of the evening.<\/p>\n

About now the piano player is covering \u201cI Could Have Danced All Night\u201d from My Fair Lady<\/em>. It makes me giggle because I actually love that song. And My Fair Lady <\/em>is the only musical on earth I like\u2014every other one makes me want to gouge my ears out. That\u2019s when I realized what Vito\u2019s has been doing all night long.<\/p>\n

Vito\u2019s has taken things that I normally am ambivalent towards, or, in the Brussels sprout miracle, despise, and turned them into delectable parts of the meal. It really is a masterful feat of the chef to put out dish after dish of delicious food and help people taste food in a way they never have before.<\/p>\n

By now we\u2019re getting toward the bottom of the nebbiolo bottle. We\u2019ve probably been eating for over two hours, when the server comes to ask for dessert. Some people may have said they\u2019d had enough\u2014we however said nothing of the sort. We ordered the cannoli stuffed with chocolate cream, salted caramel gelato, and tiramisu. Jason thinks a digestif would do us right so a round of amaro is ordered as well. The dessert\u2019s perfectly adequate, but my brain is still fixated on the steak portion of the night and trying to figure out what the new band that\u2019s setting up is going to sound like.<\/p>\n

I assumed that was the end of the night, but we run into Jeff and his friend. They discover I\u2019m a fantasy writer; we explore our mutual adoration of Battlestar Galactica. I decide his friend is an MMA fighter, he says he\u2019s an engineer; I insist my story is better, and it offers plausible causation for his rotator cuff injury. The lead singer of Tacocat<\/a> shows up. And then a whiskey and a whiskey and a whiskey. But that is a very different story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Location: Vito\u2019s, 927 9th Ave, Seattle, WA Time: February 13, 2016 7:30 p.m. PST I could start with the d\u00e9cor straight out of a \u201850s mob-olicious film\u2014red leather banquettes, black marbled mirrors, candlelight that makes everyone look good. I could enthrall you with the in depth Battlestar Galactica discussion, or tell you the tale of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,19,22],"tags":[18,21,23,24,25,33,34,35,36],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nI've Been Everywhere & Then I Had Dinner, Washington Edition - Jessica Conoley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I've Been Everywhere & Then I Had Dinner, Washington | A stop on Jessica Conoley's travel & food adventure. 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