As the Menards have said before, Sunday is for Simone. 

This past Sunday I ventured out for lunch with Frances at Simone’s renovated restaurant. Having never seen his old restaurant, I was impressed by the freshness and modernity of his new place. When commenting on how small the kitchen is, he told me this new one is three times larger that his former one! While at first this seemed impossible, I soon remembered that Simone is the only person working in this kitchen.

He preps the dishes, cooks them, makes their presentation, and sometimes washes the dishes. From start to finish, the things you eat are 100% Simone. And so when you are eating a dish from Simone, you are also eating something he is proud of.

And so lunch commenced. We left the menu up to Simone, and were pleased, as usual. A perfect DiFilippo rose was consumed by all. Upon leaving, he asked if I would come back to help for dinner, which I accepted with enthusiasm.

He made some fresh pasta for the night, and then a massive thunderstorm set in. A bit nervous that perhaps there would be no crowd for the night, (and it being the aperitivo hour), we had a spritz. But alas, people showed up, and Simone cooked away, preparing dish after dish himself for his happy customers. He even convinced me to eat a snail ( I have been a vegetarian since birth)…and I will admit it was good.  It all was a delight to witness.

And what would a Simone post be without a recipe? Yet again, we will bring you a zucchini recipe, appearing on the blog tomorrow!

Ci Vediamo!

—-Elsa