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| - The street reminds me a lot of Italy, especially during high tourist season. There always seems to be someone standing outside holding a menu, trying to get you to come in. Sounds like a shady business practice. La Fenice didn't have someone standing outside, but we still would've almost missed the place if we weren't paying attention. The space isn't much to write home about, but it is cozy and probably really intimate if there were more people. Even with an empty restaurant the staff had spacing issues.
This is your quintessential Italian restaurant, complete with friendly servers with heavy Italian accents. We started with a little prosciutto and melon, and the gnocchi. Melons other than cantaloupe seemed strange, but I guess anything sweet and juicy to complement the salty would work. The sauce on the gnocchi was a little sweet, but still good and even better with the cheese.
They really do the pasta justice, which seemed fresh, by cooking it al dente in my case. Pappardelle with duck confit ragu was cooked well; the duck not overcooked and just enough tomato sauce. Thankfully this sauce wasn't as sweet as the antipasto, but that may have just been the game-y flavor of the duck confit balancing the sweetness out. Nevertheless, I'm a sucker for pappardelle, so this was a hit.
Wine was served a touch warm, probably due to how it was stored, but a drop in a bucket for a few moments solved that problem. I probably enjoyed the dessert portion of the meal the most. A little wine, a little limoncello, a few whiffs of some grappa, a little grappa, and then my favored affogato, and I was all set. We had our own little smelling session of their grappas, and that helped us pick out some really good stuff.
4 stars for some seriously solid Italian fare, made better by the desserts, after dinner digestifs, and homely service. Don't be scared of this somewhat touristy street.
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