09/12/17
It is always a treat to dine at Brando's. One of those places that seems to do everything better than expected. Simple thing, like a Ketel One & Cranberry - I don't know if they have their own bog out back but this cocktail - the juice was incredible, like a Jolly Rancher candy - tangy, sweet, and so dang good it went down way too fast. Had to get a 2nd - equally as good. All that to point out, Brando's is that type of place where you know the expense is indulgent but satisfyingly worth having drinks, starters, wine, salads, entrees, left-overs off someone else's plate, dessert, and cappucino & sambuca. More to the specifics of my last visit, it was the entree that just starred, just showed out. Orchiette is a pasta - it is a unique pasta, and a unique word - the "ch" makes a "K"-sound - the shape is a round coin of dough with a finger-poke in it - and at Brando's this orchiette is matched with a sweet italian sausage and a bitter, crunchy, broccoli rabe (rapini). That's the general line-up of this dish: pasta, sausage, broccoli rabe. The game-changer, the life's blood, the extraordinary, the magical element, is that sea of broth - you see it in the pic - not saucy, not clear either. Buttery. Savory. Spicy. All of it combined is something I have never tasted before - a flavor I've never experienced - but it gave me the feeling that eating Thai food gives me - I don't know the specific ingredients or what binds it all together but there's a chemistry taking place that not only gives special character to that broth but changes the way all of the other pieces of this dish taste - together! And while I did knock out my orchiette, as well as many bites off other plates around me, some bread and oil, vino - and finished the sitting with my own serving of cannoli and aforementioned cappucino & sambuca (not a coffee drinker btw) - it was a memorable taste experience taking down that bowl of orchiette, not leaving a drop. I'd do it again, too.