I just want more wine...

I have meant to sit down and write this post for ages. And I finally want to get it done today. I apologize that I have been horrible about updating this blog lately.

I just adore wine. This is something that any of my readers should know.

Last year for our anniversary, my husband and I went on a road trip through California. It was SO much fun. We stopped in Las Vegas, Disneyland, PCH, San Luis Obispo, Monterrey, San Francisco, and Napa Valley. It was so great. I'll try to give you more details on our other stops, but for today I'm going to give you info on our stop in Napa Valley.

Anyone who loves wine should go to Napa. If you love wine and you haven't been to Napa, what are you waiting for? We spent two days in Napa tasting wine and taking in the sights. The views are INCREDIBLE.

We had the opportunity to visit several vineyards. Our first stop was the Robert Mondavi vineyard and winery.  We received a private tour of the estate and the wine cellars. It was breathtaking. Doug was our tourguide. He is an oenologist (wine scientist). It was a great tour and tasting.







Here are the gorgeous wine barrels in the cellar.

We got to taste 3 different wines made there. A Chardonnay and two different Cabernet Sauvignon.

One of the Cab wines we got to taste was a private selection that we were privileged to taste as it was a wine that was close to $300 a bottle. It was delicious and the most expensive wine I have ever tasted. It was delicious though I also feel that the $35 bottle was just as good. A perfect example of why you shouldn't let the dollar amount on the bottle fool you into thinking that it is better.

After Robert Mondavi we toured a few other wineries and had a chance to taste and try out several different wines.

For dinner that night we went to Ristorante Allegria. I highly recommend this restaurant. We were able to bring in our own bottle of wine to the restaurant which was awesome because we only paid $15 for the bottle at the grocery store that most restaurants were charging $50 to purchase off their wine list. The corkage was FREE which was great so we saved SO much money. The food was delicious and the service was great. Our waitress was attentive and didn't mind that we had a really slow dinner. They even gave us dessert (delicious tiramisu) as an anniversary gift. I would absolutely dine there again.

The next day was our second wedding anniversary. We took a wine tasting seminar at Franciscan Estate. It was a Sensory tasting where we would taste wine and smell these vials of scents. It helped you learn how to pick out tastes and scents in the wines that we tasted. It ended up being another "private tour" because there weren't many people around in Napa that week. The Franciscan wines are amazing. I loved them so much and bought several bottles. It is a beautiful vineyard. (No pictures because there was so much fog that morning, you couldn't see it).

Again, we visited several other wineries in the valley and had an enjoyable afternoon.

Dinner that night was Oenotri. We didn't really enjoy this restaurant. It felt extremely stuffy and the service left a lot to be desired. The portions were small for the price and I felt that the food was bland. I was disappointed because everyone around town raved about the restaurant and I felt that it fell pretty flat.

One thing that is interesting. As much as I love wine, at the end of a day of tasting you can definitely tell when you have had enough.

We loved our visit to Napa Valley.

If you want to plan a trip to Napa, let me know how I can help you out! As a travel agent I would happy to help you plan your perfect escape to Napa. It makes a great trip for a long weekend.

Cenone di Capodanno a Firenze a Tavola

So yesterday my husband and I decided to go to the fireworks that they set off every year in Downtown Denver. We decided to forgo our usual New Year's Eve plans that usually involved tons of junk food and alcohol, and feeling like crap for a few days afterwords.



We didn't have any reservations for the night, but I thought it might be nice to go out for a nice dinner so I logged on to Open Table to see what I could find that had something available. We decided to try out an Italian restaurant that we hadn't been to before but that I had heard great things about. The restaurant, Firenze a Tavola, is in the basement of the Italian deli, Parisi at 44th and Tennyson St. I thought we were just headed out for a normal meal, but when we arrived at the restaurant we found out they were only offering a four course meal, hence the term Cenone. Cena means dinner in Italian and when you add -one to the end of the word it means big, like nasone. Naso for nose, nasone for big nose.

I was a little bit disappointed because a four course meal isn't something I can eat any more. Since I started losing weight in September, I've been eating much smaller meals which have led to me not feeling well when I over-eat. All fine and dandy, but it means a four course meal isn't really worth the cost in my book. So, while I accidentally walked us into the four course meal, we decided to just take it easy and go with the flow and try what was being offered. It was a wonderful meal which I'm very happy to share with you.

First off, let me apologize for the terrible lighting.... we were in a dark corner. 

Here is THE GOOD: The food and wine!

I'll start with the wine which was amazing. We ordered this bottle of Icardi Barbera d'Asti. Barbera wines are quickly becoming my favorite red wines. This one did not disappoint and at $33 a bottle, it was a great price for the restaurant. We followed the third cheapest bottle rule, which usually leads us to something good.

Name: Barbera d'Asti
Grape: Barbera
Vintage: 2009
Dominant notes: light, slightly spicy, very fruity, clean finish on palette.
Would drink it again: Yes, in a heartbeat. 
Cost: $33 (at restaurant)


For my first course I ordered the Cartoccio di Scamorza cheese: Puff pastry stuffed with Scamorza cheese served with olives and prosecco roasted vellutata.

This was oh so yummy. And I even ate about half of my olives. I HATE olives, but for some reason they were really great on this dish and paired well with the cheese and puff pastry.  Scamorza is classified as a stinky cheese so it made for a very rich, flavorful dish.

My primi dish was the Pasta Maltagliata con congilio brasato: braised rabbit over rough cut butternut pasta and brown butter and spices sauce.

This dish was to die for. I would gladly have eaten three times this amount but the rabbit and butter kept it pretty rich, so I couldn't actually finish it. The leftovers were good though. The sauce on it had bits of butternut squash, sage, and some other delicious spices that left you wanting more. 

My main dish: Pan seared Colorado striped bass filet with roasted pear and parsnip puree, prosecco and peeled green grapes, and crisped prosciutto di parma.

This was a very interesting twist on fish. It was served over pear and parsnip puree which added sweetness and the crispy prosciutto added crunch and saltiness that enhanced the other flavors of the dish perfectly. 

And for dessert: I had chocolate cake with a salted caramel top, and my husband had the Tiramisu. These were good and I almost forgot to take their pictures because it was yummy and I dug right in. Mine was good, though it should have been served warm. See below for notes on Tiramisu.

The bad: Unfortunately, all of the reviews which I read about this restaurant seem to hold true. They have amazing food, but the service leaves a little something to be desired. I have had multiple course meals at other nice Italian restaurants around town and this place was surely the slowest. We were seated at 6:00pm and left at 8:25. Ouch.

We also had to send a plate back to the kitchen. My husbands main course came out cold. And I mean cold! The sauce was cold, the meat was room temperature. It took a VERY long time for it to come back out so we ate a part of our meals separate. He got to stare at me while I ate my food, and I got to stare at him while he ate his. Kind of messed things up a lot.

His tiramisu was also frozen in the center. Premaking the desserts is fine, they just need to be taken out of the freezer with enough time to thaw out before being served to your guests. (Also, in my book, all Tiramisu should taste like Sambuca, I didn't taste any.)

These are just the few things that I would say could have been better, faster service, better plating and temperature management of food, and when I'm ready to go, don't keep me waiting for my food that you boxed up an hour ago.

Overall: I enjoyed our meal at Firenze a Tavola. It was worth it for the visit, though I probably wont be headed back any time soon as I much prefer ALBA in Boulder for the amount of money that I was spending at this restaurant.

Name: Firenze a Tavola
Destination: 4401 Tennyson St. Denver, CO 80212 (under Parisi deli)
http://www.firenzeatavoladenver.com/firenze.html

Cost: $$$

Ambiance: Rustic, Intimate, Basement

Suggested Attire: Casual to Business Casual

Best Part: Food combinations were creative and tasty without being haughty. 

Could Do Better: Service speed and Food temperature

The coolest ride I've ever been on... too bad it's stuck at Universal.

We started our 10 day Orlando vacation with an evening at Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios and 1 day each at Universal and Islands of Adventure. The main purpose for our stop at the Universal theme parks was to see the extremely popular, highly acclaimed Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

I'll start with the stuff that was just okay, and then we'll get into the GOOD stuff and my advice for visiting these parks. Please note that we were traveling during low-season, so some of our experiences may be different that what you will experience during high season.

Our first night in Florida we visited Halloween Horror Nights. This event claims to be the number one rated Halloween themed event in the U.S. My husband and I are not big fans of horror movies or haunted houses, so we were a little skeptical about this event. I can honestly say it is checked off my list, and I probably wont ever be doing it again.

The bad: To get through certain areas of the park, you have to go through "scare zones" where actors try to scare you. Most of these were lame and annoying. I don't think that a guy chasing me with a non-functioning chain saw is scary, I just think it is loud and annoying (I must be getting too old). There was one scare zone that I thought was cool because it had fog machines, it was dark, had eerie music, and people dressed as bats who popped out and scared you, though most of the time you could see them clearly. It wasn't in your face scary or aggressive, just spooky. I don't mind spooky. Old episodes of Scooby-Doo, spooky, but not scary, that is what makes them great. There are also several haunted houses. The thing I felt these really lacked were themed lines. You were often brought through a back lot of the park and waited on a gravel pathway between some very ugly buildings. Then all of a sudden you were in the haunted house. It didn't have a very good transition into the haunted houses which I think would improve them. There were two haunted houses we went in to that I really liked. One was based on Edgar Allen Poe's the Raven. It was well themed and the whole thing really told the story well. The other that I liked was a cemetery in the middle of winter. It was cold and snowy, and spooky. Cemeteries give me the creeps so I had a good time and we weren't crowded by other guests in this haunted house so we were actually startled by many of the actors.

The good: Most of the locals who attend the event are there strictly to get drunk and participate in the Halloween themed activities. This is great for park visitors because some of the rides were open during the event with VERY short lines, so we were able to walk on to many of the rides. The best ride at Universal Studios has to be the Rip, Ride, Rockit Roller Coaster. This was the first coaster my husband had been on for almost 10 years and my first in probably 3 years so it was definitely a thrilling experience for us. Here is a video that someone took with a view from the front of the roller coaster so you get the idea.



Top notch roller coaster. We rode it that night and during our day visit to Universal. My favorite coaster is still the California Screamin' at Disney's California Adventure, but this might be a close second.

Our next day we spent at the Islands of Adventure where we spent most of our day in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I'll come back to this in a moment.

Our third day was spent at Universal Studios during the day. The highlight of this day had to be the $80 we earned for watching a television pilot episode. We earned $40 each for giving our opinion on an upcoming show for NBC. If it ever airs, I'll let you know. It was a great break in our day because it was a little rainy and we were a little tired, and thanks to our time at HHN, we had already seen most of the park. There are plenty of other great rides in this park, but I'll leave them for you to discover.

Islands of Adventure was a really great day, even with my accident prone husband.

The best advice I can give you about visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Get there EARLY! We booked our trip through Universal Orlando's website which gave us early morning access to the WWoHP. You get in an hour before the general public. Plenty of time to take some uncrowded pictures and ride the Forbidden Journey at least twice before the crowds pick up. And trust me, there will be crowds. This place is very popular. As soon as 9am rolled around, you could tell the difference. For most of the day the WW is hard to move around in. The spaces are small and with all of the people, it is very hard to move around. Expect to wait a long time to check out at Honeyduke's sweet shop, to beat this line try to get around to the Zonko's counter for a shorter wait (its the same shop). Here are two photos so you can see the difference between the two areas.

Before 9am:

Around lunch time:

Mmm. Butterbeer. Butterbeer is delicious. The best way to describe it is a butterscotch cream soda with a heavy cream topping. I really prefer the cold version to the frozen version, though many posts I read before our trip recommended the frozen. I tried the frozen first while my husband got the cold. My next two were cold. I wish I had some right now....

The WWoHP has many shops straight out of the books from Hogsmeade Village. We bought a bunch of stuff, but I really wish I had bought more. Especially of the sweets. They were great. I can't wait to open my chocolate frog!

The rides here include a small coaster, the Flight of the Hippogriff, two larger roller coasters which are intertwined, the Dragon Challenge, reminiscent of the challenges which take place in book 4, and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, the coolest ride of all time.

What makes the Forbidden Journey the coolest? It takes you through iconic scenes from the books and uses brand new ride technology to get you there. Its a big blend of many different types of rides and it is all put together seamlessly. Think Haunted Mansion meets Sum of All Thrills meets The Simpsons Ride (formerly Back to the Future). It was amazing. For someone who love Harry Potter as much as I do, it was definitely a highlight of our trip. Plus, you get to tour the inside of Hogwarts Castle as you wait in line (not that we waited in line). Here are some great shots from inside.

The house points

The entryway to Dumbledore's Office

The Pensieve

The rest of Islands of Adventure was very fun as well. There are loads of other things to do. My husband got hurt so we needed to take a bit of a nap break at the first aid station so he could get patched up, but then we were back at it for the rest of the day. The Hulk roller coaster really shook your brain up and lived up to its name, the Spider man ride was fun, and we really wanted to ride the Rip Saw Falls, but it stopped working when we walked up.

Some advice for the Universal Parks:

• If you are there during low-season you may not need 2 full days. 
• If you want to see the WWoHP, get there EARLY! Book your tickets through Universal to get even earlier access. Remember each minute the gates are open to the park there are more people in front of you on the rides. 
• Be careful of queue ropes. They can be dangerous. 
• If you think you need to buy more, you should just do it. It may be a while before you are there again. 
• If you aren't big into Haunted Houses, skip Halloween Horror Nights, it isn't worth the extra admission. 
• Don't plan on eating in the parks after 4pm! All the eateries start closing up, even the snack stands in all the other sections of the park outside of the Harry Potter zone. You will probably be eating at the Three Broomsticks if you plan on eating later in the day. This baffled me since I can make a reservation in WDW for a restaurant in a park for 8:50 when the park closes at 9. These parks closed at 7pm and everything was closed at 4 to 4:30. This may have been an off season thing. 
• When they say they close at 7, they mean it. 

I hope this helps you in your planning a trip to Universal Orlando Resort. What do you think? Are you a big fan of Harry Potter? Will you be visiting these parks on your next trip to Orlando? And whatever happened to Nickelodeon Studios? 

Walt Disney World is not for the faint of heart or stomach

My husband and I just returned from our annual vacation. Our previous trips that we have taken were to Italy, where we got engaged, and to Hawaii where we went on our Honeymoon.

This year's trip was to celebrate our one year anniversary. We decided that because my husband is working on his Master's Degree, it would be best if we weren't gone for too long, or too far away from internet access. So Europe was out of the question since finding internet there is difficult and expensive and usually only found in seedy "internet cafes". So we decided it would be really fun to go to Orlando and visit Universal Studios and Walt Disney World. 

I love anything and everything to do with theme parks and Disney, and I'm obsessed with Harry Potter, so it seemed like a great trip in the making. As we started our research about the trip we were quickly overwhelmed with all of the options available for our trip. This is where the title of my blog post comes into play. Planning a trip to Orlando, or Walt Disney World alone, is not for the feint of heart. It takes a lot of work to plan a trip to the World. Lots of work to save up money. Tons of research. Lots of reservations. Rechecking reservations to see if prices change. I learned so much from our trip about vacation planning in general. I will never look at a trip the same way again. Especially a trip somewhere easy, like Italy. That's right... I now think planning a trip to Italy is a walk in the park. 

So what exactly makes a trip to Walt Disney World and Orlando so complicated? Here are just a few things: 

Too much to see (There are 4 theme parks, 2 water parks, a shopping area, golf courses, Cirque du Soleil, and more at Walt Disney World alone) 

Vast size of the parks (Plan on an average of 10 miles of walking each day) 

Cost

Transportation options (To rent, or not to rent? That is the question.)

ADRs (Advanced Dining Reservations)

Meal Plans (Are they worth it?)

Crowds (What time of year is the best time to visit?) 

Hotel options (Should you stay on Disney property?) 

and so much more... 

Having worked at Walt Disney World as a College Program student in 2005, I thought I knew what we were getting ourselves in to with this trip, but I didn't realize just how complicated things can be from the guest side of the counter. If I can recommend one thing to anyone planning a trip to a Disney park, please do as much research as possible. It will save your vacation. 

Now that we are back, I know that all the research that I did before our trip (around 2-3 hours a day for 2 months) really paid off in the end. I think the best part of our trip was our Deluxe Dining Plan. I think it was absolutely worth it because of my love of good food. Without the dining plan we wouldn't have let ourselves eat at the high end restaurants that our dining plan made possible for us to eat at. We ate at 4 restaurants that we wouldn't have eaten at because they would have been out of our price range of what we could afford. The meals at those 4 restaurants alone paid for our dining plan. The blogs posts that will follow this post will contain posts all about the restaurants that we ate at on our trip and my honest review of their value on the dining plan or out of pocket, and everything we were able to try. 

Before I get too far into everything, I must give credit to the three resources that helped me the most with planning our trip. The first is touringplans.com. This website provides amazing information through decades of research on the crowd patterns in the parks, the best order to visit attractions in a park. Attached to this website is the second thing I couldn't have planned without: Lines mobile app. This application provides access to the touring plans, current wait times for rides in all four parks, and the "Lines Chat", where you can compare notes with other travelers and self-proclaimed experts. They provided amazing advice and opinions that helped me to make decisions and valuable information about details that a new "World" traveler would be lost without. While both of these require a subscription the touringplans.com website, they were definitely worth it. And those who own a copy of one of the Unofficial Guides to Walt Disney World (the publisher of the site is also the author of these books) gets a discount off the fee. The third thing that I couldn't live without is disneyfoodblog.com. This had indispensable information about the different restaurants around the "World" and their menus. 

I hope that after you read my full reviews on each park and many of the restaurants that we were able to eat at, you will be inspired to attempt a trip to Orlando, and I also hope that you find at least some helpful advice in what is posted here.

Il Posto in Denver

Sunday, September 11th, by official birthday, we headed down to Denver for dinner with my dad. After everyone in my family hemmed and hawed over where we should go, I just made a reservation at a place that I had been wanting to try for a while.

The restaurant is Il Posto and has a menu that changes daily based on what they purchase at the market that day. Any place that has the balls to change their menu frequently based on what is fresh usually has their head in the right place. Head chef and owner Andrea Frizzi is a transplant from Milan and has cooked for Pope John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and Prime Ministers Gorbachev and Andreotti. His website states that Andrea's philosophy behind a good restaurant is quality food, attentive service, attention to detail, creating new ideas, and staying organized. These are all qualities that we found apparent in the restaurant even before we arrived.

The Maitre d' called us after we made reservation on Open Table, he noticed that we have noted that it was my birthday, and asked if we wanted to sit outside. It was a gorgeous day in Denver, so I couldn't resist saying yes to sitting outside. We had a pretty big group, and they had a pretty small patio, so I appreciated that they would let us take up such valuable restaurant space.

We met up with my Uncle David, my dad, step mom, and little sister at the restaurant around 7pm. They greeted us and told me happy birthday and offered everyone a tasting of Lambrusco. Lambrusco is a sweeter red wine from central Italy's Emilia-Romagna made from Lambrusco grapes. With two non-drinkers at the table I got 3 tastings! Yum!

We had a fun starter of assorted cheeses and bread and a caprese made with mozzarella burrata, a soft creamy mozzarella.


Everyone ordered something different for their main meal, I'll go around the table.

I had roasted veal cheeks with peaches and fresh vegetable and micro-greens. This was very tasty. It was a cut of meat I had never tried before so that was excited. The only thing I didn't love about this dish was that it was heavy. There wasn't much food on my plate, but I could barely eat two pieces of meat because of how rich the meat was.

My stepmother had gnocchi with vegetables. They were tasty and perfectly cooked. The pasta dishes tended to be more rustic while the "secondi" were much more frou-frou.

My dad's dish was very good. Seared scallops with fresh melon. Thank goodness no one got listeria... I kid, I kid. I had eyed this one on the menu, but decided against it for something that I hadn't eaten before instead. I'm adventurous like that.

My uncle had a very traditional dish of pappardelle pasta with a bolognese sauce. He tells me it was delicious, but I unfortunately couldn't taste it because I'm allergic to mushrooms which were in the sauce.

My husband had the steak dish. It was grilled peppercorn steak with grilled strawberries, eggplant and a cheese which my husband didn't care for.

My little sister ordered one of the two risotto dishes offered. the little purple dots are grapes. I was apprehensive when I saw this dish described on the menu but I think it was my favorite item of anything that anyone ordered. Andrea knows his risotto because this was perfect and more along the lines of what I had been hoping for when we came. I wish that I had ordered it and I was very jealous of her dish. I kept stealing bites and I'm lucky my sister didn't stab me with her fork because she loved it too.

Luckily I have a family that is okay with sharing bites of their food with me since I like to write about it.

Dessert was panna cotta, zeppole and mixed sorbetti (peach and raspberry). Only the sorbetti survived long enough for a picture.

All the desserts were very yummy.

Overall, I enjoyed our visit to this restaurant the service from the head waiter was great. I was a little disappointed that our waitress was a complete failure at pronouncing anything Italian, and also didn't understand me with I pronounced the Italian foods with slight Anglicization of the words in hopes that she would get it. It broke my heart a little. But sometimes I need to remember that not everyone is an Italophile like me.

The restaurant had good ambiance being stacked between a few other unique restaurants on 17th. I did feel that the style in which the food was served didn't quite fit my concept of the restaurant. I felt that the meat dishes were plated in a manner that didn't make them cohesive. It was several little piles of food instead of being guided through how to eat it on the plate. What I love the most about Italian food is that it can be delicious and extravagant without feeling overdone. This was just a little overdone for my taste. That isn't to say that it wasn't delicious, which it was, I just felt that it could be more accessible in presentation.

Name: Il Posto
Destination: 2011 E 17th Ave Pkwy, Denver, CO 80206

Cost: $$$

Ambiance: Modern, Clean, and Hip

Suggested Attire: Casual

Best Part: Service and traditional style appetizers and pastas.

Could Do Better: Don't try too hard.

The Wine
My dad let me pick whatever bottle I wanted from the wine list. So I picked a Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. It was a slightly dry red with a hint of pepper and spice. It also had a good balance of acidity and dark fruits.

Name: Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
Grape: Montepulciano
Vintage: 2007
Dominant notes: dry, spicy, and dark fruits
Would drink it again: Yes
Cost: $47 (at restaurant)

Life without Alba is a life I don't want to live

 

(photo taken from Alba website)

On my birthday Raph took me to my absolute most favorite restaurant in all of Colorado. This gem is located in Boulder in the McGuckin/Sunflower Market area. It faces Folsom, so it isn't too hard to find, but it is definitely tucked away.


We've eaten at this restaurant 3 times now, and have had a phenomenal experience each time. This was our first time eating there when it wasn't freezing out, so we got to site in the courtyard which was lovely with a gas fireplace and a fountain. We were seated right next to the fountain. This place has amazing ambiance inside and out and always feels very intimate. The perfect place for a special occasion or a romantic date night.


(photo taken from Alba website)

(photo taken by Heather LaPuma)

The menu that was available while we were there is what I would consider a fall transition menu. You can always tell a good restaurant because they will change their menu based on the seasons and what is available. I can say that I had one of the best meals of my life this evening. 

We started our meal with a tuna bruschetta which was a tasty way to get the meal started. 

Then came out our pasta dishes. I ordered the evening's special which was agnolotti (hand made pasta pillows) filled with Haystack Chevre, house-made ricotta, and herbs from the Alba herb garden, it was then topped with a roasted pork that was marinated in a balsamic sauce and then a sprinkling of more of the goat cheese and herbs. One of the best pasta's I've ever had.

(photo taken by Heather LaPuma)

And then Raph had the Ravioli di Melanzana - Eggplant and fresh mozzarella stuffed pasta, roasted tomatoes, chive and tomato sauce. This was a very light dish that was flavorful and fresh. 

 (photo taken by Heather LaPuma)

Then we had our main course. Which was Wild Boar Milanese - Parmigiano crusted wild boar loin chop, mixed greens, caramelized onion, heirloom grape tomatoes, and a lemon vinaigrette. This was delicious and we shared it. 

(photo taken by Heather LaPuma)

I only had time to catch one of these babies because we were really excited about eating it. We also had some delicious Brussels sprouts which were cooked in butter with pancetta (Italian salt-cured bacon). It was my husband's first time trying Brussels sprouts and he liked them, which I knew he would because he was getting them made in the proper way at a good restaurant.

The Wine
We'd already had a lot of wine this day, so we settled on just glasses of wine this day.

I had a glass of Produttori Langhe Nebbiolo, read my entry on the Roero to learn more about wines made from the Nebbiolo grape, my current favorite. I'm really in to wines from the Piemonte region of Italy right now and so that is what I wanted for my birthday.

Raph had a glass of Damilano Barbera d’Asti which is also from the Piemonte.

For dessert our lovely waiter offered us a selection for my birthday. I ordered the Creme Brulee trio. The three flavors were vanilla, hazelnut, and amaretto and they were absolutely lovely. He even stuck the candle to the side of the plate so that I could break the tops of the brulee on my own. They each had a different topping as well. One had peaches, another blackberries, and the other one shaved hazelnuts. I'm not sure which was on which, but I can assure you they were all good.

(photo taken by Heather LaPuma)

Its so hard to get a picture of an uneaten dessert around me... I have to remember to photograph before I dig in. Not always easy. 

I really hope that you give Alba a try. It has been one of my favorite restaurants for years and I hope to continue enjoying it for years to come. They offer a monthly wine dinner which offers a 4 course meal with a wine pairing for each item, usually around $60 dollars a head, which isn't too bad considering you will be fed and watered well. You can view their next wine dinner on their website as well as the current menu selections.

Check out Alba on their website at www.albaboulder.com. 

Name: Alba Restaurant and Wine Bar

Destination: 2480 Canyon Blvd Boulder, CO 80302

Cost: $$$

Ambiance: Romantic/Intimate

Suggested Attire: Business Casual (for Boulder)

Best Part: Fantastic Northern Italian food, as good as what you find in Italy. 

Could Do Better: Can you move down the street so I don't have to drive so far?

Festival Italiano

What an amazing birthday weekend! While I'm bummed that life is going so quickly, its always great to take a moment and celebrate just how far I've made it.

This weekend I did a lot. Friday, after a hellish day of work, I was craving nachos like you would not believe. We headed over to Hacienda Colorado in a near-by shopping center so that I could get some nachos, and Kira joined Raph and I for dinner. We also went to Yogurtland which I love. They have an oatmeal cookie flavor out right now that is delicious.

Saturday started out nicely. Raph gave me my birthday presents on Saturday morning because he couldn't wait to give them to me. He also planned some good surprises for the day.


First stop, the Italian Festival at Belmar. This was really fun. We did a wine tasting and got to see "Gli Sbandieratori" from Firenze (Florence). Raph had never seen the flag throwers before, so that was something fun and new for him to try out too.

Gli Sbadieratori are flag throwers who appear at festivals around the world and in Italy to represent and promote Florence. They are really cool to watch, and if you ever get a chance to see them in action I highly recommend it. Just in case you never get a chance to see them. Check out this video.

Then we went to our wine tasting of "Tuscan" wines, though the white they served was an Orvieto which we all know is from Umbria. Or at least I know. First up is just that. This is the Campogrande Orvieto from Santa Cristina. This was a fairly standard Orvieto with a nice taste balanced between the ripe citrus that is typical of this wine and also light floral notes. It finished with a clean citrus taste on palette.

Name: Orvieto
Vineyard/Winery: Santa Cristina CampoGrande
Grape: 40% Procanico, 40% Grechetto, 15% Verdello
Vintage: 2010
Dominant notes: Lemon Zest, White Flowers, Fresh Citrus Finish
Would drink it again: Yes
Cost: N/A - from Wine Tasting

Next up we have the Santa Cristina Sangiovese. Sangiovese is a type of grape that is generally used for making Chianti. This wine is technically a Chianti, but because it isn't grown in the Chianti region, it can't be called as such. This wine was described as an intense bouquet of cherry and raspberry with hints of violet and tobacco. Unfortunately I found that this wine tasted mostly like tobacco and was so overpowering it really didn't make it possible for us to taste the other notes that were in its description. 

Name: Sangiovese

Vineyard/Winery: Santa Cristina

Grape:  85% Sangiovese, 10% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon

Vintage: 2009

Dominant notes: Tobacco, Hints of Spice and Smoke, Slight Dark Fruits.

Would drink it again: Absolutely NOT

Cost: N/A - from Wine Tasting

Next up we have the two Chianti that were offered. I started to get over the taste of the tobacco after a few sips of water, but it really messed me up for a few minutes. We moved on the the Bella Sera Chianti. This is a pretty common bottle to find in most chain style or inexpensive Italian Restaurants.

It has a full taste of cherries and spices, a medium feel to the palate, with medium tannins and quite acidic. Overall this is a standard Chianti, but I'd probably choose a Gabbiano or Banfi bottle before I pick this up. 

Name: Chianti

Vineyard/Winery: Bella Sera

Grape: 100% Sangiovese

Vintage: 2009

Dominant notes: Cherries, Spice, Vanilla, Tannins.

Would drink it again: If it was the only option.

Cost: N/A - from Wine Tasting

Last up for the wines we tasted was the Castello D'Albola Chianti Classico. This wine I found to be very interesting. The funniest part of it was that the first taste that you got on your palate was a piece of toast. It literally tasted like a piece of bread. After the bread flavor settled, then you could taste the other flavors, a slight hint of violet, and dry sweet fruits. It was definitely my favorite of the reds that we tasted this afternoon.

Name: Chianti

Vineyard/Winery: Castello d'Albola

Grape: 95% Sangiovese, 5% Cannaiolo

Vintage: 2009

Dominant notes: Toast, Violet, Sweet Fruit.

Would drink it again: Yes

Cost: N/A - from Wine Tasting

After the wine tasting we walked around and tried out a few other of the good eats that were available including Sicilian style Pizza, Italian Ice, and pastries from Dolce Sicilia Bakery. If you haven't tried out this bakery, I highly recommend it. The cookies and pastries were delicious and some of the most Italian tasting pastries I've had in the US.  You would have thought we were in Boston, not Colorado. Very yummy. My favorite item, which I ate too fast to take a picture of was the pistachio cannolo (Yes with an O because I only ate one).  The lady making them was filling them at the back of the tent, so the shells were perfectly crispy. Never wait to eat your connoli. They will get too soggy. I was a little sad that I missed out on the gelato, but I was too full to enjoy it.

It was a very fun filled day and I really enjoyed myself. It was really fun to get to see the different places around town to get some great Italian food and support some smaller family-owned companies. If you missed out on the Festival Italiano, be sure to look for it next September out at Belmar. They've been having this for a few years now, and there is live music, cooking demos, wine tastings, and bocce tournaments. It was great fun! Check it out!

Up tomorrow on the blog: Saturday's dinner at my all-time favorite restaurant in Colorado.