Another delicious destination last night, all of half a mile away, a relaxing evening at one of our neighborhood’s pair of favorites: Chris Douglass’s Tavolo Ristorante.

We started with rosemary focaccia, which always comes with chili flakes, parmesan, and evoo. Then Barbara had Tavolo’s famous fettuccine shrimp scampi—famous in our house, at any rate—which has the perfect combination of garlic butter, tomatoes, scallions, and lemon. I went with the truly delicious but unfortunately named bistecca au poivre, a flat-iron steak crusted with black pepper and accompanied by cognac cream, lusciously poached potatoes, and broccoli rabe. (Just kidding about the name being unfortunate, but why give a linguistically hybrid name to a lovely Italian dish? It would be just as scrumptious without the French incursion. I suppose the reasoning is that most Americans are more likely to know poivre than pepe, or maybe they will start thinking inappropriately of “steak and peppers” when they’re in an Italian context. Southern vs. northern Italy, you know. But I digress…)

Service from the other Chris was, as always, attentive, professional, and friendly. Tara was, again as always, constantly making herself useful, doing absolutely everything that needed to be done, as managers ought to do everywhere.

Of course grappa and espresso at the end—for Barbara and for me, respectively. There’s no problem falling asleep shortly after a double espresso, is there?

Categories: Dorchester/Boston, Food & Restaurants