Local Foodie Moment: Plate, New Albany

Back again!  How was everyone's Christmas?!  We had a great holiday and were able to see lots of family and friends!  Of course, here's some pictures of the fun!

Pyrohy Making!

Christmas lights at GE's Nela Park!

With only one day left in the year, we continue on with our new restaurant list of 2013!  A couple weekends ago we went to Plate in New Albany for a little anniversary celebration.  We were celebrating that it had been one year since Chris proposed (oh yey warm fuzzies)!

Plate is captained by culinary team Alfonso Contrisciani, Certified Master Chef and Chef Phillip Gulis.  Normally I don't include much about the chefs but our server gave us their background in her introduction which was a nice touch.  Alfonso is one of 67 master chefs in the United States, impressive!

We each got a glass of wine to go with our meals, there wasn't really a cocktail list to choose from but they had a good selection of wines.

We started off with their bread basket served with olive oil and balsamic for dipping.  There was regular sliced baguette but there was also a focaccia bread that was delicious!  We each ordered the Insalate Italian salad which was very tasty but I thought it was a little overdressed.  Typically I'm all for plenty of dressing but with a tart red wine vinaigrette less tends to be more especially when its tossed.  There was a fabulous mix of greens in there though!  It was topped with roasted red peppers, calamata olives, provolone, pickled red onions and tomatoes.

Chris got the Cheese Ravioli with a meatball on the side.  I'm sure I've told you before how he always has to try the meatball at any new Italian place we go.  Or he'll order it for dessert!  The Pomodoro sauce was delicious!  It was very fresh and acidic, Chris would have preferred it be a little sweeter but he's a fan of sweeter sauces in general.  I loved the sauce and had him give me a scoop for dipping bread in.   He also would have liked if the ricotta in the ravioli was stronger.  He said the meatball was good that it had some onions in the mix that made it tasty.

I got the Gnocchi, which I don't typically do because I was never a big fan of that form of pasta growing up.  Our waitress indicated it was one of the signature dishes and the sauce, with smoked bacon, peas, asparagus and corn in a cream base, sounded really good so I decided to give it a whirl.  This was delicious, you could tell the gnocchi were handmade.  The sauce was very good, the bacon gave it a saltiness and there was a little kick in there too.  I would have liked more veggies in there to break up some of the heaviness of the pasta but overall it was good.

Just when we thought we couldn't eat another bite our server told us about their dessert menu and how they have a pastry chef on hand at all times should we have any questions.  We decided since it was a special occasion we could splurge.  She also told us about the Death by Chocolate, chocolate cake, layered with chocolate mousse enrobed in chocolate ganache.  She still brought over the dessert menu for us to mull over but we ended up getting the Death by Chocolate.  We were a little worried that it would be really rich and almost sickeningly sweet but it was to. die. for!  It must have been made with dark or semi sweet chocolate because it wasn't super sweet it had some of the bitterness I love about dark chocolate.  We only could eat half of the portion but we brought the other half home.

The service at Plate was incredibly pleasant and very helpful, our server's name was Nikki and she was a total sweetheart.  I'd venture to say she's one of the politest and best servers we've had in awhile!  The actual food expediting was a little slow but we weren't really in any hurry so it didn't bother us.

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They also have pizzas which looked very good from what we could see at other tables.  The atmosphere is kind of a rustic barn feel.  There are different patterned plates hanging here and there along with large TVs for game watching, etc.  There is actually two large rooms in the back of the restaurant where events could be held.  They even offer cooking classes!  

I think what was so interesting is for someone with such a prestigious background the restaurant had a comfortable casual feel, nothing pretentious and snooty just made from scratch good food.  Overall, good food and great service, if you are in the area check it out!  

There's still a few restaurants left on our list (just two!) so I'll be posting those soon as well as some soups and shoes and even a little 2013 in review!  So stay tuned and have a very happy and safe new years eve!

Cheers!

Steph