Poggio #2 - 2006.06.10 -- *****

Gabe and steph decided to come up to the north bay for a night, not to grace us with their presence I'm sure, but for the most part to try Poggio. The restaurant was running behind on our reservation, so we decided to go for a stroll down Sausalito marina. The fog loomed over the hills behind us as summer evening bay breezes chilled us to the core. Behrrrr.

Twenty minutes after our reservation, and an offer of free drinks later, we were finally seated by the window, inside, with a cozy view of the roaring fire oven in the center of Poggio. Before the first ourse even touched our table, we must've gorged ourselves on 3 baskets of their sumptuous breads, which made Jeanne, a bread-lover, very chirpy. The crusty italian rolls, the savory rosemary rolls, and the nutty sesame rolls, all just the way I remembered them from last time.

In truth it took us a while to order. The generous menu made our choices difficult, and the lively conversations where my cousin tried to dig up dirt on me, didn't help the progress. As customary with our group, the ordering and eating were done very much family style. Take our first courses, Braised lingua (beef tongue) with capers and cipollini faced off against Manila clams in spicy tomato sauce, with some porcini mushroom topped gnocchi "cakes" and fig-gorgon-endive salad lightening the atmosphere. It was quite an even matching (except the salad, ), but the smooth, creamy, yet so well carmelized gnocchi cakes must take top prize if not just for its uniqueness.

The main courses by comparison didn't quite live up to their predecessors, perhaps unfairly judged due to our wanton feeding upon the breads, but the ample portions of the appetizers may have played a part too. Gabe was doing the best amoung all of us, being wise to the perils of carbs, and was able to finish all of his leg of lamb and cut into Steph's almost untouched beef strozzepretti (tube pasta with stewed beef) and help me finish my sort-of-plain grilled salmon (with big size peas, pea shoots and morels). As for Jeanne's spaghetti with head-on shrimps and saffron tomato sauce, we had to make the best of it and picked out all of the shrimp. I was a tad disappointed that my zuppa di pesce wasn't offered on the menu. None of the evening's tomato sauce quite lived up to that one.

Groaning under the weight of our bellies, we nevertheless could not pass up dessert. The four of us shared in on a plate of panna cotta smothered in strawberry sauce. In fact, the dense, creamy custard was quite a refreshment, proving the old adage that desserts go into a completely separate compartment.

$144 for four, all incl.