Michelangelo’s
1725 I Street, Sacramento

Often, I mention the excitement, importance and necessity of the “culinary adventure.” This is when food lovers, foodies, venture to the edge of comfort to try something new at the risk of a terrible tasting outcome for the sake of discovering a sweet, juicy, raspberry-red ruby of delicious enlightenment.

Always on the lookout for a worthy location to learn and try something new, I came across Michelangelo’s while walking around midtown several weeks back. The building appeared to be an art gallery, upon first impression. As I stood outside reading the small plates menu, a guy said, “Are you gonna come in? Or are you just gonna stand out here?”

That guy tried to convince me to go in and eat (even offered to buy me a drink) and told me about the local products and quality of atmosphere and eats found at Michelangelo’s. He turned out to be partial owner of Sampino’s Towne Foods and told me of the delicious sausage that his father made by hand that was served at Michelangelo’s, and how he enjoyed libations and sated his appetite most Thursdays at the restaurant, while being entertained by live music in the small, cozy restaurant.

I did turn down his invitation that Thursday, but I told him I’d come back a few weeks later, to see if I agreed with him firsthand.

I returned two weeks later, ready for food and music. But Michelangelo’s was abnormally closed for the day. Boo. But I wasn’t going to be swayed to change my food safari destination that easily, so I stopped in the next day for a late lunch.

I decided to kick off my Friday afternoon lunch right, choosing a glass of red wine with the help of the genuine, friendly, personable and knowledgeable waitress/bartender, Lisa. The tart, sweet and only a bit dry Boroli Quattro Fratelli Barbera d’Alba 2005 was $8 a glass and tasted of raspberries and cherries. I was so enthralled with my Italian wine that I almost forewent the food. But, I’d picked a unique dish that deserved my attention.

I ordered the $12 red wine gnocchi from the lunch menu, intrigued by the combination of red wine, anchovy, seasoned ricotta and lemon zest. I’m a big fan of anchovies (although I’m always careful when and where I eat them) and was curious how their pungent, salty oceanic flavor would meld with red wine.

I discovered upon arrival of my plate of potato spoon-rolled pasta in a muted mauve sauce that the blend was delish—at first anyway. The wine lent itself to a sour/tart flavor that offset the salty-fishy-ness of the anchovies. Of course, my wine helped my palate along, highlighting the robust and melding flavors. The ricotta was appropriately peppered and salted. I’ve sugared or salted ricotta before, but never peppered. Lovely.

Flavor complexity is generally a good measure of quality. That means the seasonings and spices of a dish are so well melanged that you can’t distinguish one from another and each bite is a ominous flavor surprise. My dish was such.

The only real flavor-texture problem was that the gnocchi was probably cooked a minute or two too long. It should be chewy, but more firm than chewy. The chewy-ness of the gnocchi and the sour fishy sauce did become difficult to stomach after the magical effects of the vino took hold of me (a bit too strongly) that fated Friday afternoon.

Recalling my conversation weeks back about the sausage, I couldn’t pass up ordering a side of it. The sausage was incredible, equally yummy hot or cold—not an easy or frequent accomplishment for sausage. A salty, smoke-y flavor popped at first, then a spicy herb flavor finished off the bite.

Honestly, portions were smaller than they should have been. The gnocchi probably $3 more than it should have. And for $5, I got maybe two or three ounces of sausage. That didn’t seem appropriate.

Michelangelo’s offers great Italian wines at what I thought to be a decent price. If you’re not in the mood for splurging on a complex flavor experience, you can get your cheaper thrills with glasses of vino. It’s certainly a shmancy place. You may or may not be disappointed, depending on the pretense of your visit to such a wine-derful place.

Thumbs up for romance or bromance. With close homies or with love interest.
Other circumstances don’t quite take hold of the enchanting quality of vino and vittles at Michelangelo’s.

By Josselin Basaldu

La Trattoria Bohemia

3649 J Street | Sacramento, CA

I don’t know about all of you fun, food-curious fanatics out there, but my interest in the food inside any restaurant is dependent upon its outside appearance.

On many a brisk walk to enjoy a cider at the Bon Lair, my interest was piqued by the artwork on the side of La Trattoria Bohemia. Stick with me here. If you head east on J Street, you will see two gorgeous signs on the left side of the road boasting Italian, Czech and Bavarian cuisine within. It wasn’t the somewhat odd combination of cuisines that caught my eye, but the art nouveau copies of Alphonse Mucha’s early 1900s Czech prints. The images are an enchanting (in a non-drug-induced way), inspiring and articulate mixture of women and swirls and swoops of color.
Interest in the restaurant may have stemmed from the Mucha artwork on the outside, but further cyber research led me to a menu with a few dishes that could have actually been tasty. So, off I was to try it.

I admit, the reason I chose to eat at La Trattoria Bohemia had nothing to do with the food. Honestly, judging from the shabby, pub-like appearance from the outside, I probably should’ve stayed away.

Inside the joint, La Trattoria Bohemia’s decor was crisp and clean. The walls boasted modern burgundy lines and borders surrounding pastel hunter green and cream. Mucha prints highlighted the walls with beautiful Czech women and 19th century vision. The open bar was Old World modern. The whole place was like an oxymoron—or like that average-looking person you date who has a stellar personality. Unless you had the courage to be non-judgmental, you’d never receive such a wonderful and unexpected surprise.

The food was even better than the interior. What a surprise. I’ve taken many a culinary adventure—trying new places and ordering the most unusual dishes—but few actually ended in food that was better than expected.
I dragged a foodie friend along to help me taste what La Trattoria had to offer. (Plus, dinning is better with company.) We were both surprised by the freshness, flavor complexity and presentation of the food.

For a starter (it was an appetizer AND dessert kind of lunch), the potato cakes practically jumped out and screamed “Pick Me!” in CzEnglItalian (I don’t actually know what that would sound like). Several Italian starters also looked good, but I couldn’t recall the last time I had a potato cake, much less a good one. The choice was between the slightly sweet Czech potato cakes ($7.75) or the savory Bohemian potato cakes with salmon, red onion and sour cream ($8.75). As per the waitress’ advice, we went for the latter.

When you order an appetizer and it’s actually incredibly appetizing, you should give yourself a high-five or gold star for a choice well-made. The browned potato pancakes were stacked Napoleon-style and sandwiched pink smoked salmon, sour cream and sweet red onion. The gorgeous structure smelled deliciously of basil and oil-crisped potato, well garnished with cured green capers and diced vibrant red bell pepper. The potato cakes seemed to be seasoned with a mixture of basil, oregano and other undecipherable spices. The crispy, potato-y, salty, vinegar-y sweet flavors melanged so well. Texture was fabulous and varied with crunch and cream. The appetizer portion was big enough for a meal (depending on how you grub down), and by far the best part of the meal.

Since I’m kind of poor, but more importantly bloated from heavy holiday foods (yes, still), I wanted to opt for a lighter main dish. If someone offered you an arugula salad with caramelized pears and prosciutto, would you turn it down? No. Exactly. I didn’t either.

In a medium-sized bowl, I received a mound of small green arugula leaves covered—not just sprinkled—with the mildest bleu cheese and prosciutto, a pinwheel of chilled grilled pears and drizzled with reduced balsamic vinegar.
The salad was actually much bigger than it looked. As I ate my way through the arugula, the bleu cheese and prosciutto seemed to sink and bathe in the sweet balsamic vinegar pool that accumulated.

La Trattoria Bohemia serves the kind of food that seems to get better as you work your way through your dish. It’s a bizarre and intriguing experience.

My friend had the Bavarian goulash with pork, sauerkraut and Czech dumplings. The only complaints were that the dumplings were too dry—which is typical of traditional Czech dumplings—and more gravy from the goulash would have been nice.

Although we were full, we were enticed to try the homemade tiramisu. The dessert was very tasty. There was a good cream-to-lady-finger ratio and the coffee liqueur and almond flavors really came through. We did eat all of it; but for $5, it was a touch too expensive.

As a wrap-up, I would say that La Trattoria Bohemia deserves a solid rating of 7 out of 10. The food was fresh and delish, but each dish was overpriced $1 to $3 more than it should have been. The restaurant was clean and modern, but the atmosphere was slow and dull.

If you’re ever at the Bon Lair at a decent hour and want some decent grub, head over. You’ll be surprised. But you probably won’t care for the dumplings.