La Cucina Italiana

Through a friend, I had an opportunity to visit Spiga the night before their grand re-opening. It was then that Nick (General Manager) and Carmelo (Owner) walked me through the restaurant's face-lift and Chef Iocco?s exciting new lunch and dinner menus. This made it very easy for me to imagine sitting down to a four course meal paired with a nice bottle of wine. My vision included the following:

Antipasti: Carpacchio of prosciutto and bresaola with arugola, parmigiano and lemon cream
Primi: Parmigiana of eggplant with crispy pasta sails, tomato and fresh mint condiment
Secondi: Sesame crusted trout with striped beets, fresh poblano pepper, kiwi insalata, rice and zenzero vinegar reduction
Dolci: Chocolate trilogy of chocolate budino, gianduia gelato and truffle bacio

After visualizing my future dining experience, I perched myself at the bar, where I had a front-row seat to watch the extremely energetic Jose train the front-of-the-house lunch staff. As I looked on, he demonstrated everything from the proper technique for frothing milk for a cappuccino, to the importance of maintaining a clean bar area, to his expectations for the reaction to dropped silverware. I could tell that his audience of trainees, (like myself) was soaking up every word he was saying.