Dan Pitt’s Opinionated Compendium of Downtown Palo Alto Restaurants
Dan Pitt’s Opinionated Compendium of Downtown Palo Alto Restaurants
Some restaurants include the word “eclectic” in their tag line. Then there are those that simply by their nature earn the moniker. Zucca European is among the latter. The in-laws took us out for our anniversary tonight, much to their (and our) satisfaction. Zucca’s pan-European menu stretched from Spain to Israel, stopping by France, Italy, Greece, and Turkey along the way. (No, nothing German or Scandinavian.) Appetizers included Turkish chicken livers, which my father-in-law almost ordered. Putting something like that on the menu takes courage. There must have been at least fifteen hot and cold appetizers. Pastas included quite a few vegetarian ones, such as pumpkin ravioli with baby arugula in a lemon cream sauce. The entrées were not especially exotic, save the Israeli salmon on a falafel pancake with beautifully steamed yellow zucchini. But they were all delicious, arrived hot, and were sensibly sized.
The wine list is definitely Eclectic with a capital E. It’s organized by both varietal and origin so, for example, a Sancerre will show up under both France and Sauvignon Blanc. There are some nice choices from South Africa, Argentina, and Spain (such as a tempting Grenache-Syrah-Carignane) as well as the usual suspects. Vintages are interesting, too, such as a 2000 Bordeaux (not one I’m familiar with, but I’m no Bordeaux expert) and a 1991 Vin Santo for dessert. Most are very reasonably priced and some are quite high but those are special wines and I suspect the prices are reasonable for those as well. I’m pretty used to bringing my own wine for its eclectic nature but I think in the future I will order off Zucca’s wine list, just to try some of this stuff. Sure piqued my interest.
Finally, when was the last time you ate in a restaurant whose chairs were on casters? It’s really nice! Odd, but nice.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Zucca European: Accidentally eclectic