tuscany on taylor

date: may 4, 2007
bet: will mason keep his promise to be home by 8pm on the night of his office's annual cinco de mayo celebration?
stakes: dinner
winner: olive
loser: mason
location: avenue m (695 n. milwaukee) tuscany (1014 w. taylor)
cost: $100.00

olive: mason and i had big plans for thursday dinner - a little homemade concoction that i like to call mexipies. as usual, i was starving, but mason, as indicated by our bet, was consumed by the office cinco de mayo party, and thus not around for dinner. i called to let him know that i had to proceed with the mexipie plan without him due to my condition of starving, but he coerced me to agree to wait until 8:00 p.m. when he surely would be home to partake in the mexipie feast. i agreed, and a bet was born. but 8:00 came and went without incident - less than surprising knowing that mason had probably been sharing a seat with liquid enemy numero uno (aka tequila) all evening. he waltzed through the door, as only a tequila-happy mason can waltz, at about 8:20, effectively crowning me queen olive, lord of the mexipies, winner of bets.

mason: let me just jump in here with a quick aside about olive's mexipies -- they are damn good, and damn fitting for a post-cinco de mayo party feast. in actuality, they probably deserve their own review, so i'll stop the description here. but know this dear readers: my tardiness and resulting bet loss were not for lack of trying nor lack of interest, and the mexipie that i enjoyed once i finally got home and olive finally stopped gloating was fit for the king of mexico himself. in fact, it was so glorious that it's earned the name "mega-mexipie" because of the extra care that was taken in its preparation (thanks to olive's younger sis for the extra ingredient suggestions).

olive: we planned to celebrate my victory at avenue m, or so mason might have you believe. it's conveniently located near our apartment (we can see their outdoor patio from our back porch), and we've been anxious to explore what appears to be a delectable menu. sadly, we couldn't get last-minute reservations on friday night, so we defaulted to tuscany on taylor street. and i am exceedingly pleased that we did.

mason: note that there are a couple other tuscany locations in the city, and both olive and i have eaten at all three on more than one occassion. one is in wrigleyville a block south of the metro on clark and the other is crammed into the nordstrom's food court on michigan. while both locations have a nice selection of choices, neither can even come close to comparing to the taylor street location, which is where it all began (sigh...).

olive: the restaurant has a couple dining areas. we were seated in the main room up front, which featured numerous packed tables alongside a somewhat open kitchen. the place was bustling. our waiter was a large, older italian man whose first job was to mix the garlic. allow me to explain: each table in the place is supplied with a plate of roasted garlic, which the waiter then mashes and mixes with a bit of olive oil and a few spoonfuls of parmesan. we were brought a basket of warm italian bread, and we took the liberty of assuming that said bread was to be coupled with the garlic potion our waiter so masterfully prepared. the sponge-like interior of the crusty table bread was the perfect match to the garlic, and as what one might call garlic super-fans, mason and i were happy to indulge. i probably would have been satisfied filling up on this alone, but there was more deliciousness to be had this night.



side note: i would caution anyone who is not a fan of garlic to avoid tuscany, because it's abundant at this place. i would also caution anyone who is not a fan of garlic to have their tastebuds examined because that just isn't right (i'm talking to you, grandma).

now, onto the meal. to start, i ordered the insalate della casa, comprised of delicious crisp greens, cherry tomatoes, carrot shreds and a light vinaigrette dressing. this salad was perfect in just about every way. none of those pretentious, bitter weeds that too often find their way into house salads. the cherry tomatoes exploded with sweetness upon crossing paths with my chompers, and it wasn't long before everything else in the salad dish disappeared down the belly hatch. major satisfaction.

for the entree, i selected the tuscan whole roasted chicken and potatoes. man, they weren't kidding about a WHOLE roasted chicken! the bird was as big as a house, or at least a small dog. but it was decidedly chicken, and decidedly juicy and delicious. the roasted potatoes were quite delightful as well. they even had this great, tough roasted skin that really trapped in the flavors of whatever herbs were used.

and while the food was nothing short of incredible, the thing that really put this meal over the top was the service. our waiter was so attentive, and he had such great character. i especially enjoyed how he spoke to us in a mixture of english and italian language, responding to each of our requests with "si si" and a gentle pat on the back. this guy clearly knew what he was doing. we witnessed several satisfied customers thank him personally after their meal, handing over rather beefy chunks of change. he even helped ensure that mason got "the good pasta," but as the gracious winner of bets that i am, i'll leave that tale up to his telling.

mason: the good pasta indeed. but before explaining this, i want to talk about our bet for a second. as some of you already know, there have been numerous bets made while one or both of the authors of this blog were under alcohol-induced duress. that's all well and good most of the time, as it usually makes for some of our more interesting bets (i believe the now infamous "makeout bet" was made by a semi-drunken olive -- otherwise, i don't think it would have ever come to fruition). but then there are cases like this where a completely sober olive coerces a partially (read: completely) tanked mason into a bet that involves him leaving a company gathering early (which he hates). so, although olive won the bet fair and square, please let these past few sentences represent my informal protest of her bet-making tactics.

olive: classic mason, trying to pawn off the bet-making blame on someone else.

mason: so on to the actual meal. honestly, there's not much more that needs to be said about our general dining experience. as is usually the case, the tuscany staff was extremely kind and the service was unmatched. likely due to our reservation, we were seated immediately despite the fact that the restaurant was packed, and the garlic/oil/cheese was prepared and our drink orders were taken before we could even open our menus. our waiter reminded me of one of my older male relatives -- very italian and a bit plump -- and the two large parties flanking our table reminded me of my entire family -- loud, hungry and semi-obnoxious.

to start, i had about a loaf of bread. that's right. a loaf. you see, this garlic/oil/cheese combination is so good that the only way you can really force yourself to stop eating it is by running out of bread. betwixed loaf and entree came the seafood soup, which was full of vegetables, shrimp, salmon and squid -- damn good if you like that kind of fishy dishy. i just wish i had saved some bread to dip in the soup (fool!).

for the entree, i opted for the angel hair with marinara. i usually stay away from simple dished like this at italian restaurants for two reasons:

1. the star of dishes like these is the sauce. and i've been hard pressed to find a red sauce that i like better than my own mother's.

2. i love some sort of meat in my pasta. whether it's meatballs, sausage or seafood, it always makes the meal a bit more impressive than it would be otherwise.

on this occasion, though, i was interested in trying tuscany's red sauce because i had heard from numerous people -- including several family members who have tasted my mother's red sauce -- that it was the best in the city. but what about the meat? well, i decided to ask our waiter if he could add some italian sausage to the dish, which he was very happy to do. not only that, but as olive alluded to earlier, he said he would also give me "the good pasta" instead of the regular angel hair, for which i had no argument.

i'm going to make my review of the main course as short and sweet as possible:

i ate the whole damn thing.

sure, olive had a bite or two, but the rest went straight down MY belly hatch, and most likely directly to my thighs.

seriously, though, tuscany's portions are no joke, and given the loaf of bread and bowl of soup i'd already consumed -- not to mention a couple glasses of cabernet -- i was pretty darn impressed with myself.

the only other thing to add is pretty representative of the way this restaurant operates, which is classily. very classily. olive and i valet parked our auto, as we usually do when we frequent this place (parking is a bit tough), but realized as we walked in that we had no cash. olive was a bit concerned about this, which is olive's way, and was anxious to take to the streets to find an ATM. never fear, i assured her, our waiter will help us out. sure enough, after a quick explanation that i wasn't even sure he understood, our waiter brought our bill to us with a ten dollar bill stuck in the side pocket. now that is classy. dude can't even speak very good english, but he knew what we needed and was more than happy to oblige.

for those of you who have been alarmed by the cost of our meals in the past (posie, i'm talking to you -- are you still reading?), please know that the $100 bill was about 25% tip, not including the $10 we already owed the waiter for his valet-related solid.

frankly, i'm of the opinion that when service and taste align in such a way as it did at tuscany on taylor last friday night, it's more than worth a 25% tip.