by erin thursby scopes1925@msn.com
Having heard so much about Biscottis’ desserts, I decided to eat my meal backwards, starting by diving straight into dessert and finishing with a light appetizer. I began with two desserts, just for variety. The first was a chocolate éclair cake. I chose it because éclairs are my all time favorite pastry, and I wondered if morphing it into a cake could possibly make it any better. At Biscottis, it certainly can. Each slice is topped with a miniature éclair. The outer icing mimicked that thick chocolate the bakery often uses for really good éclairs. Layers of chocolate and yellow cake were separated by creamy vanilla custard. Most chocolate lovers would have simply moaned in pleasure over this bakery confection turned cake.
Wresting my attention away from the éclair cake, I turned it to the apple crumb pie. This offering was made with organic apples, a twist on the traditional. Instead of the normal gooey glop of apples, the apple bits in this crumb pie were just short of crisp. The crumb portions of many apple crumb pies tend towards dryness, but this one was all moist deliciousness. The pie crust itself was magically flaky and moist. The pecans interspersed in the delightfully messy, cinnamon-laden crumb crown added just the right nutty touch.
Since plenty of people just order desserts, I only started to get strange looks when I ordered a goat cheese salad. The ingredients were a strange marriage of flavors that tasted like an unexpected destiny. Each element was fresh and of the best possible quality. The base of the salad was a terrific mix of field greens with faultless raspberries and blueberries tossed in. Two sizable medallions of goat cheese encrusted with crushed pumpkin seeds topped this endeavor in a slightly warm perfection of flavor. The onions and raspberry vinaigrette didn’t overpower the salad, but rather balanced all the flavors on a tightrope of taste. I found that I enjoy my meal even more than the dessert.
The nine-grain bread, which comes with the salad, also deserves attention. A whole wheat bread with nine “grains” (wheat, rye, oats, cracked wheat, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, flax seed and millet) was complex rather than overwhelming, lightly crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.
A great wine list, a coffee bar and beers ranging from Corona to Guinness top out the beverage menu. There were so many drink choices it was almost dizzying— something for every palate. Servers are happy to recommend something that go well with your meal or cheese. Cheese is an important part of the menu here, possibly to complement the wide-ranging wine list. Cheese plates can be ordered as appetizers in any combination of three available cheeses: Vintage Irish Cheddar, French Morbier or Wisconsin Coca Cardona.
The crab artichoke fondue featured real crab, and plenty of it, with a side of focaccia bread chips. The bread chips were both crispy and easy to bite, which is often tricky to achieve. For the second time, I was stunned by the high quality of the bread. The fondue was topped with freshly diced tomatoes and fresh basil for just the right finishing touch.
I had slowed down at this point, my table stacked high with to-go boxes, when the fellow at the table next to me offered me a slice of his rock shrimp pizza. I offered him a taste of the crab artichoke fondue. We were both impressed. The combination of goat cheese, rock shrimp, sun dried tomato (so sweetly tart), and baby spinach on grilled pizza dough was nothing short of amazing.
Even though I was pretty full, I started to take a serious look at the pizza selections. The Ortega, a tomato, basil, mozzarella and olive oil pizza was the most traditional pizza offering on the menu. Everything else was a few notches away from an ordinary pie. The BBQ chicken pizza, topped up with caramelized onion and asiago cheese, caught my eye before I moved on to reading about the duck confit pizza. Lusting after the pizza just led to lusting after the sandwiches, in particular an ancho honey-glazed salmon BLT, but I just couldn’t eat any more.
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EU Critic’s Choice Awards
