La Ciccia

I'd been hearing about La Ciccia since it opened a little while ago at the very end of Church St. I think there used to be a pizza spot there, which has now been transformed into a neighborhoody Italian spot. Well, not exactly Italian. La Ciccia is a Sardinian restaurant. Sardinia is an island in the Mediterranean Sea, technically part of Italy but with hints of Greek and Mediterranean culture. Interesting culinary potential for sure.

Julia and I ended up checking it out last Thursday. It's a small restaurant, filled to the brim with people who looked like they'd been there before. That's a good sign. The chef came out a couple times to talk to people at different tables, the waiters knew some of the patrons... A very friendly and familial atmosphere, for sure. As first timers, we were a bit out of the loop, but settled in pretty quickly and tried to figure out what to do with the menu.

We decided to go with one appetizer, two firsts, and a main to share. The wine list was another story. They have a huge wine list, with mostly Italian wines and a huge number of varietals that I had never heard of. Neither of us were drinking too much, so we each ordered a glass. Can't even remeber what I had. But it was nice. Should have written it down.

In the end, we decided to start with one of the specials (there were a few daily specials, which is nice) which was a plate of Sardines. The dish was definitely not what we (Julia) expected. She was thinking the little sardines like the size of the canned ones. These were some big sucker sardines. With heads. Maybe 8-10". My experiments in seafood eating continued- it was an interesting experience to try and separate the meat from the crazy little fish skeleton. Flavor wise, they were a little on the fishy side for my taste, but not too bad.

For firsts, Julia got another special- a linguini (or something like it) with baby clams and a simple oil and garlic sauce. I had gnocchetti with pork sugo. Both were good, neither were excellent. I liked the texture of the gnocchetti, but generally found the sauce a little lacking- perhaps a little less rich then I would like from a meaty sauce.

For the main, we shared a slow cooked pork with olives and carrots. It was more stew-like then we anticipated and almost beef-y in flavor. Really, it tasted like a beef stew with some salty-olive-acid flavor. Not exactly what I was looking for.

In general, dinner was fine but not great. Wouldn't necessarily rush back. We might have ordered the wrong things. Hard to tell on the first trip.