Talking about Concetta is not food porn; Concetta is Food Erotica

A friend from church (New Hope Christian Fellowship) gave Susanne Herfurth (my lovely fiance) and I a gift certificate "Dinner for two" at Concetta in downtown Modesto (1205 J st).

When she called and said she had won this certificate and a bottle of wine in a raffle the night before and wanted us to have it as a Valentine's gift, I replied that it seemed a bit excessive. She then informed me that she felt that God wanted us to have it and that she had won it for us. What could I say to that? I said thank you., and thanked God as well because Susanne and I haven't been able to afford going out to nice restaurants much.

Well, tonight we went downtown to have dinner at Concetta, and I am here thanking both God and Sarah Stone Keath publicly for gifting us that opportunity. The atmosphere is bistro casual, the service was very good, and the food is fan-fucking-tastically fabulous. 

Concetta is locally known for using fresh local ingredients, and having an ever-changing menu (tonight's is pictured here). Also, I have heard good things about their food and service whenever the place has come up in conversation which it does from time to time. I am always interested in restaurants because I am a foodie, and because I worked in restaurants for better than twelve years when I was younger.

I gotta say, Concetta is as good as any of them, and that IS saying something. I have worked in several very good fine-dining establishments in Monterrey, CA, and Ft. Lauderdale, FL, among other places. 

This evening, our table was set and waiting when we arrived for our 6:30pm reservation, including ice-water that the ice hadn't had a chance to melt in. We ordered iced-tea to drink, and it arrived momentarily. The waitress answered our questions easily, and consulted with the owner about our gift certificate since there was no dollar amount on the paper and we wanted to know where we stood before ordering. The answer was perfect. "Dinner for two, not including alcohol" is what the certificate said, and what it meant was that we could order whatever we wanted off the menu with no price cap. Awesome.

We started by ordering two Appetizers: Lamb Meatballs in a spicy tomato sauce, and Marinated Olives. There was a wide variety of olives in the dish, oil cured, brine cured, green, black, brown, and in all sizes from pinky-nail sized up to thumb sized, and everything in between. Yummy, but the meatballs stole the show. I do have to appologise in advance for the pictures, the food was so good that I forgot to take a picture before digging in each time something new arrived on the table.

I had been told they were good, and that was an understatement. The sauce was delicate and mildly spicy, the meatballs tender and juicy. While we ate those, we perused the menu further, and decided to order the rest all at once which suits the style of the place just fine as they are pretty much a "tappas house."

We ordered two salads: Wild Greens and Goodies, and Pear and Gorgonzola Salad with berries, marconas, and honey.

And two Entrees: Pork Scallopini with polenta and mustard cream, and the Pan Seared Flat Iron with wild rices and arbequina oil. 

We began eating them as they arrived, so we tried the Scallopini first, followed by the Pear and Gorgonzola salad, then the Steak, and finally the Wild Greens, but don't get me wrong, they all arrived within a very few minutes, and we were sharing each item as it showed up, so everything was groovy in our book. After thouroughly enjoying it all, even bringing home the few bites of the Wild Greens we couldn't finish to share with our Duck (pictured here helping Susanne wash dishes) who agreed that it was indeed a fine salad. 

Susanne and I discussed the finer points of the meal at length and came to the following conclusions.

1. Everything was Great!
2. You can't hardly compare meatballs to olives, so they were individually excellent, and complimented each other well.
3. The Pear and Gorgonzola salad was unbelievable. The only way it could have been any better would be if there was a bit more Gorgonzola in proportion to the other ingredients. The marconas are toasted almond bits, and the berries are big juicy blackberries...Awesome.
4. The Wild Greens with Goodies were good, a solid example of that kind of salad, with the Goodies being slivers of red pepper and little green beans, romano cheese and so forth in a very light dressing, probably just misted with oil and balsalmic, and topped with a couple of crustini with a yummy hummus like spread on them.
5. The Pork Scallopini was lovely, but the polenta and the mustard cream sauce stole the show on that plate.
6. The Pan Seared Flat Iron steak was awesome, cooked perfectly without having to tell them anything. If you like to cremate your steaks you should probably make a point of letting them know, but you'll be missing out. The wild rices were nice, but the polenta stole that show also.

We didn't have room for dessert, but plan to go back after our wedding and Honeymoon next month, so we'll just have to save room then. Tonight was just right for tonight. Thank you again Sarah.