Hearth

Dinner on Sunday night was at Hearth. I've been wanting to try this place for a while since I've heard it's a sleeper and I finally was motivated to get over there after the editor of Food & Wine mentioned it in her Editor's Letter this month.

I truely enjoyed this place. The food is upscale Italian with American influences. The Lady & I both started with the ribolitta, a hearty tuscan soup of white beans and black cabbage with crunchy homemade croutons on top covered in Parmesan. PERFECT for a 12 degree damp winters night!

For mains we had the sturgeon wrapped in proscuitto with braised escarole, black olives and smoked garlic. I had never tried sturgeon before and was a little iffy since the waitress compared it to monkfish which I don't really like. After the first bite I was glad I had tried it - the preparation was perfect in it's salty blend. We also had the special which was 2 large homemade veal meatballs with raviolis on the side. The oversized meatballs had a great flavor, although I wish there had been more raviolis with it. I was kind of sad in the end that I didn't go with the paradelle bolognese since I was craving pasta. Oh well, something to go back for I guess!

The wine list was a bit overwhelming there but our server pointed us to a full bodied Shiraz that was right up our alley. We were too full to try the deserts but they looked great.

Overall, the service was highly attentive and the atmosphere homey and down to earth. I highly recommend this place, especially for dinner on a cold winter's night. If you want to be a true foodie, try to grab one of the 4 stools at the counter overlooking the kitchen. Or just make it easy stop by the intimate bar and order the ribollita with a glass of red!