A^2 Restaurant Week Review: Gratzi

Today's lunch installment for restaurant week found me checking out Gratzi on Main Street with my good friend Kristal.

Gratzi flags hanging above the entrance

We met up for lunch just before noon, and found no problems getting seated in a quiet booth for our standing reservation. Our waiter was more than friendly (albeit a little new it seemed) and we got right down to business of ordering up lunch from the special lunch menu which included your choice of an Antipasti (appetizer), a Primo Piatti (entree??), and a Dolci (dessert). The selections were as such:

Antipasti

Insalata Mista Della Casa (mixed greens with tomatoes and sharp asiago cheese, tossed in a white balsamic vinaigrette
or
Zuppe del Giorno

Primo Piatti

Orecchiette Rustica (disk shaped pasta with sweet Italian sausage, garlic, chile, broccolini, radicchio, extra virgin olive oil and pecorino romano)
or
Margherita Pizza (tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, sliced tomatoes and fresh basil)

Dolce

Torre di Cannoli (cannoli wafers layered with berries, ricotta and pastry cream)
or
Sorbetti (assorted Italian ices)
or
Gelati (assorted Italian ice creams)

I know my Kristal well, so I knew before we even got to the restaurant that she would order the Margherita Pizza for her main dish. This left the Orecchiette for me, which I was more than happy with since it's actually a dish I make myself at home a lot, and I was interested in flavor comparisons. We both chose the Insalata Mista to start (because it's way too hot in Ann Arbor for soup the last few days).
Our salads arrived looking rather lovely on their large white plates, which almost made up for the fact that our waiter had overlooked giving us bread when we sat down. No worries though, he quickly corrected this mistake upon seeing our carb-hungry eyes, and we were treated to a big hunk of a warm, crusty Italian loaf (word on the street; i.e. Kristal, says that Gratzi gets their bread from Zingerman's. Yeah for more local!). The salad itself was minimal, but the tender greens were lightly oiled and well paired with a generous slice of asiago and a few quality slices of tomato. It's not a salad I would write home about, nor was it a traditional Italian Insalata Mista (I know because I took an Italian class where we learned how to make one) but it was perfect for our quick lunch date.

Insalata Mista

Next up our entrees arrived. Unfortunately, there was a slight mess up with Kristal's order, so she got to watch me eat my pasta while she waited on her fresh pie. While I didn't think my pasta was perfection (am I picky about my pasta or what?), I was really pleased with the pecorino grated on top and thought the noodles were well cooked and dressed with the sauce. This orecchiette was a little bit more spicy than my dish, and it was also a little bit more oily, but I appreciated the flavor profile a lot. It's something I would order again, and was even more pleased with my choice when I found out it was also the one served on the restaurant week dinner menu. That made it feel like even more of a steal for only $12. Once Kristal's pizza arrived, I didn't get a chance to snag a bite, but I didn't hear any complaints from her side of the table, so I assume all was well in mozzarella, tomato, basil, pizza dough land.

Orecchiette (similar to a dish I make!)

To close out our lunches, we both pretty much decided immediately that we had to have the cannoli. I do enjoy both a good sorbet and gelato, but pastry cream was calling my name. It did not disappoint. While our salads and main entrees didn't win points in the presentation department, our dessert definitely did. I thought the cute little cannoli crisps topped with piped pastry cream and paired with a raspberry sauce and pistachios looked spectacular on the plate. They say you eat with your eyes before your stomach anyway, so it was not lost on me that this not only looked fantastic, but tasted marvelous too!

Cannoli dessert

I would say overall, for only $12 stinking bucks, this three-course lunch was a steal at Gratzi. While I sometimes find the ambiance in the restaurant a little pretentious (it captures a lot of the over 50 business executive crowd due to it's ornate decorations, white swanky table linens, vested waitstaff, etc), I didn't feel too out of place and certainly didn't feel poorly treated by any of our servers. My feelings on Gratzi's environment could also just be leftover sentiments from when I was a lowly college student on campus though, and all the rich kids would go to Gratzi with their parents. So don't let that color your impression. It's worth a visit for a great meal at a great price for sure!