So last
night my husband and I went out for a fantastic dinner at Osteria Mozza.  I had read about their Mozzarella Bar
on TripleCreme and it sounded like Just The Thing.  They don’t take reservations for the bar, so you have to get
there when they open and it’s first come, first served.  P.S. They open at 5pm.

Well, we
dropped the kids off at friends’ with whom we do babysitting trades a few times
a year (Yay! for friends like that!) in Culver City at about 4:40pm and then
high-tailed it to Lower Hollywood to get to Mozza.  We made it by 5:10, which was pretty fast, but then again,
it was a Sunday night. 

 Anyway,
the funny thing was, when we dropped the car at the valet, the guy asked if we
had reservations, and of course, we said no, since they don’t take them for the
bar.  He and his colleague
exchanged a knowing glance and said, “We’ll hold your car for 5 minutes, just
in case.”  Yikes.

 I was
momentarily nervous, since I didn’t have a back-up plan and don’t really know
the area that well for alternative restaurants, but when we got inside, I asked
the hostess what our chances were at the bar, and since there were 4 people
there and 15 open seats, I knew our chances were VERY good.

 HA! To
the valet guys!  We were seated
right away and proceeded to have one of the best meals we’ve ever had.  Really delicious food – and so
fresh.   That Mario Batali, he
sure knows how to write a menu.

 We
started with a dish I had seen on their website and immediately knew I HAD to
have: Burrata with bacon, marinated
escarole & caramelized shallots. 
We added Crispy Pigs Trotter with cicoria & mustard and bufala mozzarella with prosciutto di Parma.  The pig’s trotter, I must say, was not to my liking (AT ALL
– yuck), but the prociutto was fabulous and the burrata dish was just
heavenly. 

 We then shared 2 pastas –
the goat cheese ravioli with five lilies and the 
linguine with clams,
pancetta & spicy Fresno chiles. 
Quite delicious, really.  Of
course we also had some lovely Italian wine and some bread that was so fresh it
was out of this world.

 The atmosphere was really
relaxing at the place.  It was very
pleasant to be there.  The décor is
like Uber-Pottery Barn: black furniture with clean lines, a long white marble
bar, super high ceilings, robin’s egg blue walls, and the tallest crown
moulding I’ve seen in quite some time.

 Just an all-around lovely
evening.  Which is good, since
it’ll be the last of its kind for a while. 

 See, we don’t get out
much, normally.  2 dinners out in
the past 2 weeks is pretty out of character for us.  It’s like behavior straight out of our pre-kid days, or more
precisely, our pre-mortgage days.

 So I’m very grateful for
these 2 spectacular meals we’ve just had, because I would be anyway, but
especially because these memories are going to have to last me the rest of the
year!

An original post by Sarah Auerswald.