Mangia, mangia @ Bar Italia

Professor Tokarz calls Bar Italia her 'second kitchen.' She wasn't exaggerating. When she took our clinic class out to dinner yesterday (what a sweet lady!), it was clear she's a valued and frequent customer. She embraced the employees, chatted up one of the owners on the phone, and put our dinner on her account. We ended up sitting outside in the perfect weather, drinking wine and eating delicious things for 2.5 hours. Sigh, if only we didn't have two more weeks of class...

They started us off with a couple of appetizers: the caprese salad and asparagus with prosciutto. Ymmm-hmmm. The caprese salad was delightful, and after we cleared the plate, the leftover olive oil and seasonings made the perfect dip for the bread on our table.

The asparagus... omg. I adore that they separate out all the ingredients and let you combine as desired. I happened to love everything on the plate: poached asparagus, prosciutto, little slices of parmesan, and lemon aioli. I made sure to have each bite contain all parts, and boy am I glad I did. It all goes so well together! The aioli really kicked it up a notch.

We ordered three big bowls of different pastas to share, and all were pretty solid. Cheese tortellini with peas and mushrooms:

Very rich, and very good.

Shrimp, calamari, and mussels in a garlic tomato sauce:

The calamari was tenderlicious!

Fettucine with eggplant and olives in a tomato sauce:

Probably my least favorite, but that's only because I don't do olives. Asians rarely do.

Dessert time! Always my favorite time of any meal. The tiramisu came in this adorable contorted glass:

I wasn't wowed by this tiramisu, but it was pretty tasty (because hello it's still dessert) and went well with our cappuccinos. 'Twas a lovely way to end a long and relaxing meal!

Bar Italia
13 Maryland Plaza
St. Louis, MO 63108
314-361-7010