Sunday, October 14, 2007

you gotta love LIBERTY TAVERN (Arlington, VA)

Sunday night we headed out to dinner with Samuel, his friend Joshua, and Joshua's daddies for a wonderful and filling evening at the new LIBERTY TAVERN in Clarendon (www.thelibertytavern.com) which we will definitely return to again very soon.

The menu from Chef Liam LaCivita offers a mix of Italian, New England (his roots) and more, and it is very hard to decide WHAT to have:pizza, pasta, fish, meat or other! We started with a bottle of KURT ANGERER "KIES" Gruner Veltliner 2005 from Austria full of grapefruit and very refreshing. The wine list is pretty decent and has many good selections in the $30-50 range. We later changed to a FEDUO MACCARI "Re Noto" NERO d'AVOLA 2005 from Sicily which was a medium bodied red with cherry jam overtones. Our final and best wine was a KILIKANOON "Killerman's Ridge" Shiraz 2004 from Clare Valley which the menu described as blackberry with charcoal and very voluptuous, and while we agreed, there was also a strong tobacco essence.

Samuel wolfed down his plain pizza, an amazing $8 or $9 deal with eight HUGE slices (1/2 went home for eating later in the week!). Joshua liked the MAC & CHEESE which came with several side options and he chose fresh fruit which consisted of blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, apple and more--quite impressive for a kid's menu! The bread is made in house and is yummy, especially the brioche style
rolls.

The portions are LARGE from the monstrous FRITTO MISTO appetizer of calamari, clam strips, haddock and fennel all nicely fried with a very rich thick creamy aioli, but just too much. The salads are gorgeous and one of us tried the APPLE ENDIVE which is made with impressive Great Hill Blue Cheese, spicy pecans, tarragon buttermilk dressing and sauteed bacon bits.

Pastas are good too (but they were out of the gnocchi) with BAKED GARGANELLI coming in a smoked tomato cream sauce with pancetta and bufala ricotta "Bella Vitano."

Pizzas are a big hit here and we all loved the AUTUMN PIZZA of wild mushroom, potato, pancetta, rosemary and robiola cheese as well as the ADAM's LINGUICA with crushed tomato, mozzarella, oregano and the now almost famous housemade Linguica sausage (so who is Adam?).

I opted for the "Sunday Dinner" which is a three course fixed price special for an amazing $25 that changes weekly.This week it featured a small (the only small thing on the menu, I think) appetizer of beautifully sauteed MUSSELS with SHALLOTS, WHITE WINE & CHILES.

Luckily it was not too large, because the entree was a monstrous dish entitled NEW ENGLAND "BOLLITO MISTO" which needed more explanation on the menu. It will go on the fall menu this week, we later learned from Chef Liam, and is a dish NOT TO MISS. The fajita style hot plate comes with VEAL CHEEK, VEAL BREAST, COTTOCCHINO (sp?) Sausage and Hangar Steak as well as nice autumn vegetables: Carrots, Turnips, Potatoes.

It is somewhat like a stew, but with a thicker and lesser amount of sauce. The dish was supposed to come with Salsa Verde and Apple Mostarda for dipping a la Bollito Misto style, but somehow it got left behind. It didn't really matter as the meat was so tasty it needed NOTHING. I could not finish the dish and look forward to the leftovers tonight with the sauces which they gave me to take home!

The "Sunday Dinner" came with a gorgeous dessert from taste to presentation of HONEY & VANILLA PANNA COTTA with Caramelized Figs. The two timbales of custard were at opposite ends of a long narrow dish joined by a bridge atop them of simple thin baked pastry like a long cookie. It was all superb and so amazing for only $25 TOTAL!

The boys spotted the RED VELVET Cake earlier at the next table and we gave in allowing them each to have a bite while we munched on the rest/ It is a devil's food cake with Cream Cheese and Meringue Frosting, definitely for cake-aholics.

One of the funnier events of the evening was when I was telling the story of Samuel's night out the week before and how he got the waiter's attention when we wanted ground pepper by yelling, "EXCUSE ME." Well, in my repetition of the story, the maitre d' spotted me and ran over to see what I needed as I waved my hand in the air calling, "EXCUSE ME!" We laughed hysterically as we told the story to him! At least Liberty Tavern has jovial, helpful and attentive service worth going back for!