Frankie & Augie’z
Lately, I’ve been into canned vegetables and fruits. I’m not sure what it is. I crave the super tender vegetables (the good ones aren’t too mushy) with a good amount of salt. We’ve been liking carrots especially. We also love green beans especially french style. That’s when they cut them lengthwise into like a julienne. It’s fun to eat. So that’s been the really fun low end of our food cravings.
Last night, I was going to cook. I was totally prepared but filled with a bit of dread. Then Steve suggested that we go out somewhere. We were going to treat ourselves to our favorite dinner at Gino’s Trattoia (597 Route 6 Mahopac, NY 10541), but we decided that it would be way too crowded on a saturday night. Instead, we decided to go back to Frankie & Augie’z. It was highly recommended to us by a friend. Actually, he raved about it a little. This wasn’t one of our low budget outings, we paid like $80 bucks (including tip) for it. I’ll tell you if it was worth it, worth all the hype.
As soon as we were seated (and there was no wait) we were tended to. The bread came out with nice foil wrapped blocks of butter. The butter was nice and cold but definitely spreadable. And the bread. It was warm, almost hot. We guessed at how they made it. We thought they started out with like a thick pizza dough, cut it into wedges and rectangular shapes with a pizza cutter. Then they baked it up and the crust came out like the crust on a pizza. It was a nice way to start out meal. A word about the water. They gave you a carafe of it with a lemon wedge in it. They were very attentive to our water needs. I guess that’s common place in nicer restaurants. I’m too used to diners. Oh, but this place wasn’t super fancy, it was very casual.
We started out with calamari fritti (fried) with marina for dipping. It was pretty good. They were all ring parts, no tentacles. I like tentacles but I got over it quickly. When I looked at them I just knew they wouldn’t be crispy. Maybe calamari in italian restaurants purposely don’t do that. That would make a lot of sense as I’ve run into this many times. But sometimes, like on saturday night, I wasn’t missing it. Their marina sauce for dipping is very good. And it’s a nice, color. It was a nice red, slight orange. We squeezed a lemon over the calamari and hit it with salt. It needed it alot. But once it was hit with the very fine salt from the shaker, it was very edible. Steve enjoyed them a great deal but limited his intake to save room for the rest of our feast. I killed off the calamari even when Steve stopped. I couldn’t help it. Each piece was cooked perfectly. Tender and soft but not too soft. And of course not at all rubbery.
Next course, salads. The salads were composed of crisp and cool iceberg lettuce, shredded carrots, one thick, cucumber round, one green olive, one black olive, a few slices of red onion and I had mine with house dressing, italian dressing. And Steve had his with blue cheese. The salad components were very fresh and served at a refreshingly cool temperature. I didn’t love the dressing and I’ll tell you why. First of all, I was put off by the color. When I ordered, I actually asked for italian. I wasn’t sure if when they said house that they actually meant italian. So the dressing was too sweet and lacked some serious seasoning. More salt but not to the rescue. I didn’t finish it. Steve didn’t say anything too positive or too negative about his salad although neither of us finished it. Moving on.
Then I had to try their version of Veal Francese. It was served with penne with marina sauce on the side. I never ever thought that I’d find a veal francese as good as Gino’s Trattoria. But! I totally did. My veal dish was delcious. It was missing the coloring and viscosity of Gino’s dish that I love so much but the flavor was right on. And the three, small pieces of egg battered veal were right on. The egg part was cooked awesome; the veal part was cooked awesome. I savored each bite, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Usually I go into vacuum mode and focus more on how my belly feels than what I’m actually tasting and experiencing like when I inhale giant wedges with tons of meat on them. But I didn’t do that last night and boy, it was worth it.
Also, I had some asparagus that’d been cooked with a generous amount of garlic and I think stock. They were cut into approximately 1″ pieces and served in a baking dish. It was a nice presentation. The asparagus had a very nice texture. A slight crisp, very slight with a tender bite. It didn’t taste too garlicky despite all the garlic so I ended up stabbing hunks of it right alongside the asparagus. Steve’s not a big fan of asparagus so I don’t get to eat it too often. I used to eat it quite often over ten years ago. I think I’ll have to find some recipes and force it on Steve as he’s forced so many foods on me.
The marina they used for my side of penne was very good. It was very slightly sweet and a nice color and thickenss. If one of our batches of magic tomato sauce were this good, I’d be very pleased. And the penne was cooked to a perfect doneness. Not too soft, not at all mushy with a pleasing, tender texture. Well, I actually couldn’t finish all of my pasta and asparagus. I was getting too full and once again, I had to save room.
Steve had the veal valdostano. Breaded cutlet, prosciutto, mozzarella, tomato, mushrooms, onions & marsala wine sauce. I tasted it. The breading had a nice crunchy (not overly crunchy) texture. The veal was nice and light. It was smothered in all that goodness in a not too thick or too thin marsala wine sauce. It was very good and Steve enjoyed it a lot.
I washed this meal down with a nice, chilled glass of chardonnay. Steve had a ginger ale. For dessert, we split a piece of cheesecake. At first, we ordered italian cheesecake. I love the stuff. I don’t prefer it over New York cheesecake but I definitely enjoy it. The waiter explained to us that their homemade cheesecake was in between both styles and we ordered it with great curiosity. It was served with whipped cream flowers and drizzled raspberry sauce. The verdict. It was really good. It was a dry (not dried out - there’s a distinction) piece of cake that went nicely with the whipped cream flowers and the light raspberry sauce. The texture was not a usual experience for me. Steve loved it. He also had an espresso that disappeared very quickly but he didn’t love it cause he’s very hard to please in that department.
Aside from one very long wait to actually order, the food flew out super fast and we were overall very pleased with the service. Our waiter was attentive, knew what you needed and when. We left him a nice tip with thoughts of going back there some day. This was our second time. On our first visit, we ate in the non-restaurant part and had pizza. And yes, they’re pizza was very good. When I reviewed it, I mentioned that gasp, it was on par with our beloved Gigi’s pizza (Lee Rd. Jefferson Valley, NY 10535.) Okay, I’ll say it. It was better. So, all the rave from Steve’s friend was worth it. I would recommend this place to others and I’d go back there again. The only problem is, I’d want to try something else, but I know I’ll order the same thing again. Oh, well. Poor me having all of these luxury problems. Til next time guys, Eat Something Good!
Here’s a link to Frankie & Augie’z
http://www.frankieandaugiez.com/
Frankie & Augie’z Ristorante & Pizzeria
3673 Hill Blvd
Jefferson Valley NY 10535