With five people at a restaurant in the East Bay, you can put together a pretty impressive array of dishes:
- Fried polenta with gorgonzola and honey
- Cannelloni beans with bread crumbs and olive oil
- Sauteed rapini
- Potato gnocchi with braised pork ragu
- Pizza margherita with mild anchovies
- Nettle pizza
- Meatballs with all sorts of tasty stuff ground in, including pine nuts
- A bottle of Slovenian red wine with alleged “blueberry” notes
- Pink grapefruit ice milk with rosemary (!) granita
- Bittersweet chocolate tartlet with hazelnut gelato and fleur de sel
- Rose-water panna cotta
The last was the real revelation, a standout even from the other remarkable items set before us. K. called it “angel veal,” which was exactly right.
Pizzaiolo is at 5008 Telegraph in Oakland and comes with the highest recommendation I can give.