My new found love for sunflowers (Erbaluce)

If you were to ask me, “Nikki, what is your favorite restaurant in Boston?” my answer would be Erbaluce in Bay Village. I found this gem in late 2008 when my mom came to visit after I moved into the city. We took a chance on this newly opened venue in an unfamiliar area for us, with about 3 yelp reviews, no set menu and no website at the time.

As you can imagine, I fancy myself an adventurous eater, and luckily when my mom and I are together she is always up for new food experiences. After almost 3 years, I can still remember exactly how we felt — it was like we were at someone’s home and we were a long-awaited special guest. We were given 2-3 free courses during our meal and the chef/owner came out to talk to us. I can hear you saying, “ya, sure ok, they were only a month old and trying to seduce their first round of customers to tell their friends. Wait til they get more traffic, they’ll crank through tables like most other places.” But, you’d be wrong. Every time I’ve gone back, I’ve been treated like I’m a VIP guest and those that I have urged to go for a special night out have experienced the same spectacular service.

With a place that focuses so much effort on great service some may think that compensates for mediocre food, but those who think that would be sorely mistaken. Erbaluce’s dishes are like nothing I’ve had before. These succulent meals provide an escape from Boston and will transport you to a villa in Italy as the sun sets.

Draghi is a true artist and inventor in the kitchen. After talking to him for about 15 seconds, you realize that he just gets it. He respects the food and is able to bring out the beauty in the most mundane ingredients. My most recent visit’s ground-breaking plate was the braised sunflower appetizer.

The sunflower was an appetizer special. It was topped with ricotta cheese, arugula and capers. When we spoke to Chef Draghi, he confirmed what I was thinking as I ate the flower, that it was meant to act like an artichoke. He had experimented with this meal as a replacement for artichokes during a wine dinner for some of the top Italian vineyards.

Since this is a special, I urge you to go ASAP to try this out as sunflowers are in season through late summer early fall and Chef Draghi selects his dishes based on what’s in season each day.

Also, we ordered a lobster broth appetizer and their special heirloom tomatoes with burrata (which I seem to get everywhere I go this year). Both of these selections were satisfying, but neither held a candle to the sunflower gem.

One additional element of the pre-entrée portion of the meal that is important to highlight is the homemade spread/dip for the bread that arrives at your table when you are seated. Upon first bite of bread with this dip, everything around you falls silent as you taste the smooth texture and complex yet light flavor atop a common, somewhat boring portion of bread. I’m ashamed to say that I cannot remember what is in the dip, but my gut is telling me it’s some sort of white bean concoction.

To accompany our delectable appetizers, we had a celebratory bottle of rose champagne. I was with my co-workers/friends to celebrate a six-plus month project that is finally coming to a close, so this bubbly was the perfect way to start the meal.

After we finished the last drop of the champagne, we wanted to order a great bottle of wine. The one thing with the Erbaluce menu is that it is very focused on Italian wines, so for most people, many of the options are unfamiliar.

When I don’t know what wine to choose, I never hesitate to ask those who work at the restaurant for recommendations. Nick, the resident wine expert, who does not want to be called a Sommelier, took my request for something “similar to a Chenin Blanc” and recommended the Branchini pignolette (Emilia-Romangna). The scent of this wine seemed like it would be far too much for what we wanted, but the actual finish of the wine was crisp and light, opposite of the initial robust scent. I liked the trick played on my senses. He and I then chatted more about wines.

In February, I developed a love for The Scholium Project wines when I went to the 50th birthday party of the owner, Abe Schoener. At this shindig, I was blown away by his unique, ground-breaking wines. Abe was named one of Esquire Magazine’s 2010 “16 Geniuses Who Give Us Hope.”

If you get a chance to try one of these wines, don’t hesitate, it will change your thinking about wine in the best way possible. It is like seeing a work of art you never thought possible, or watching a highlight on SportsCenter that defies your understanding of sport. Esquire describes The Scholium Projects as “a winery rooted in the philosophical belief that only by experimenting at the precipice of disaster can we challenge our understanding of what wines can be — and create new ones.” I’d never had wines in the flavors and colors I sampled that night at Abe’s birthday celebration, and fell in love with every single one of them — even the wines that were meant to taste a bit like cognac or olive.

From this conversation about Abe, Nick’s next recommendation for us was a complex bottle that he felt I would like since I was a fan of The Scholium Project wines. I’m drawing a blank on the name of the wine he brought us, but I believe it started with “Mon…”

To stay on the topic of beverages, Nick came over to us after we finished our entrée course and presented us with the option to try his homemade limoncello or vermouth. He made both of these beverages during Hurricane Irene to keep himself busy. I tried a little of both and to be honest I didn’t know what to expect. I knew that my last limoncello experience was at Aragosta a week or so before and it was cloyingly sweet, but Nick’s version was fresh, lemony and had just enough sweetness!

For our entrées we got veal short ribs, homemade fusilli with eggplant, filet mignon and sunflower risotto (shown in order below). We all shared our dishes to ensure everyone was able to enjoy the beauty and taste of each entrée – one of my fellow diners is on a gluten-free diet, so our server was very helpful and able to confirm what options were gluten-free or what alterations could be made to them to make it work. 

For dessert we ordered two options in the “ice cream” family. One was peach gelati and the other was goats milk sorbet. We ordered the roasted peaches dessert too. But of course, that wasn’t all that came to our table – two complimentary portions of their concord grape, oversized crab apple and chocolate truffle plate accompanied our dessert selections.

At the end of our meal, Chef Draghi came out and talked to us for at least 30 minutes about our meal, the history of Erbaluce and his culinary career, how much he loves his wife (and co-owner) Joan, and his hope to showcase the up-and-coming female Italian wine makers at their next wine dinner. I’ve subscribed to Erbaluce’s mailing list for as long as it has been around, but I have yet to go to one of their wine dinners. I think this upcoming one will be the perfect way to start!

Oh and just in case you weren’t convinced to go to Erbaluce for your next celebration or just any dinner out, Erbaluce has been recognized by many of Boston’s key publications including Improper Bostonian, Boston Magazine, The Boston Globe and Stuff Magazine among others.

If you go, please let me know how you like it. You can tell by our smiling faces that we had a blast!