Today is Mary’s birthday. She picked her favorite Downtown Paso Robles restaurant, Buona Tavola – - We ate here a few years ago and had a great meal. They have 2 restaurants; the other is in San Luis Obispo. Last time we were here we invented vanilla gelato with Tobin James Liquid Love on top. Liquid Love is a Late Harvest Zinfandel.
We started our meal with two glasses of Prosecco by Enrico. After that we each had a glass of Wild Horse Chardonnay that was perfect.
For starters we split a salad:
Insalata al cuore di Cesare - fresh hearts of romaine lettuce served with rosemary garlic croutons, and shaved parmesan cheese in a homemade Caesar dressing
The salad was very good. We were glad that we split the salad because it was big. It went very well with the Chardonnay.
I saw an interesting half bottle of wine on the menu, La Capilla Vineyards – by Daou – 2006 Old Vine Zinfandel Reserve. A very, very nice bottle of red.
I ordered the Tortelloni:
Tortelloni bufalina - homemade tortelloni stuffed with fresh mozzarella and finished in a light tomato sauce
Another winner! This was light and perfect.
Mary saw the Gnocchi on the menu and read no further:
Gnocchi Novaresi al pesto - homemade potato dumplings in a light creamy pesto sauce
This was delicious. The Gnocchi had the perfect texture and the sauce was great, not overpowering.
The restaurant wanted to give Mary a desert for her birthday. She was so stuffed that she could not eat anything else. Well.. The waiter showed up with a small glass of house-made Lemoncello. Oh My!!! The perfect ending to the perfect meal.
If you find yourself in downtown paso for dinner, stop in to Buona Tavola. They are located right next door to the Paso Robles Inn on the City Park.
