Food: Frasca

So, I decided to add food reviews in to the mix.  This is probably more for me to remember what I've had and where I've been than anything else.  But if you want to talk food some time, it's one of my top favorite topics to ramble about, along with cycling, basketball and Vegas.

Quickly about me, and food: I consider myself fairly well-traveled in the foodie world.  I've hit 11 Madison Park, Atera, Redd, La Toque, as well as many of the top restaurants in the Denver area, Duo, Cholon, Fruition, Oak, Rioja, etc.  Which brings me to this, my first actual review...

Frasca - Boulder, Feb 23, 2015

Frasca has consistently been my favorite restaurants in the area.  In fact, the only one of the aforementioned I've eaten at multiple times, and I keep going back.  The food is, of course, excellent, but it's a lot of the little details that make me love Frasca. The entire staff is always top notch, very knowledgeable, friendly, and accommodating.  This particular visit was for their Monday night wine dinners, where they always bring in a winemaker to pair a 4-course meal with a single winery at a reasonable (for fancy dinner) price point.

The menu:
Antipasto: Barba di Becco - Salsify, blood orange and black trumpet mushroom
Primo: Penne Rigate - Wagyu beef, prosciutto and romanesco
Secondo: Maiale - Berkshire pork, anson mills polenta and sugo naturale
Dolce: Torta - Winter citrus, ricotta and orange agromato

The pairings
All from Robert Biale, all big reds, 20% new oak.
2012 "Basic Black" - A petite sirah blend, with zin and mourvedre
2012 "Black Chicken" - This is a Napa Zin.  And the fun fact is that the old grocery, owned by the Biale family, used Black Chicken as the codename for booze during prohibition.
2012 "Monte Rosso Vineyard" - Another Zin, but from a Sonoma vineyard.

The result
Although another delicious meal at Frasca, there were a couple slight misses for me. But I'll start at the top.  The Basic Black on its own was my least favorite of the 3 wines, but that first pairing was definitely the best, and a fine example of how a great pairing takes both the wine and food to the next level.  The earthiness of the black trumpets played fantastically with the wine.  However, I took my first bite without the mushroom, and the citrus and salsify didn't have the same affect.  But this was an extremely inventive appetizer, and well executed.

The penne with wagyu was simply delicious.  Simple, and delicious.  Ground wagyu, perfectly al dente pasta, oil and some magic seasoning.  I loved it.

The maiale had the single best and worst bites of the meal.  The pork was served 2 ways; a couple medallions, and some cripsy, amazing short ribs (?).  I always leave Frasca plenty full, but I would have taken another 3 servings of that.  The polenta was rich and smooth, and matched well with the pork.  But the greens, which I'm usually a fan of, just tasted too... green.  It took away from the overall experience for me.  So I ended up eating all the greens (you know, gotta be healthy) and then proceeded with the pork.  The fatiness of the pork and polenta went great with the depth of the big Monte Rosso Zin.

I'm pretty sure the dessert was excellent... but just not up the alley of either me or my wife.  I heard the table next to us raving about it, but I just wasn't in to the heavy citrus and fruitcake like texture.  However (insider secret coming!), Frasca makes their own chocolates daily, and I requested a couple though they weren't on the evening's menu.  White chocolate filled with coconut goodness, and some delicious coffee (I need to find out who their roaster is).  I left happy.

Summary
Another solid performance, but the couple off notes loses some points from it's usual 10 spot.  8.5/10

Coming Soon
Me swooning over the USAPCC course announcement.  Seriously, I love it.
Giro preview.
Maybe nothing at all since I write in this once like every 6 months.

Parting Thoughts: Uptown funk IS going to give it to you.  You don't believe me???? Just watch,