Bite Club: Cocoa bucatini at now-closed Il Paffuto

💭 My thought bubble: It may seem silly to review a restaurant you can no longer dine at. But it was so good, I need y'all to sympathize with the loss I am feeling!

🍝 The menu: Focused on seasonal ingredients, the menu was divided into three parts: Primi, secondi and charcuterie.

• Of course, there was a veggie-heavy focus, featuring a miso focaccia with fermented turnip greens, potato ravioli in a nettle sauce and aged cashew-hazelnut cheese with garlic-confit honey.
• A friend and I split the zucchini croustade (a flaky pastry-style pie with squash, tomato and ricotta), cocoa bucatini and lion's mane saltimbocca sauteed in sage butter.

🍄‍ The bite: Who knew a chocolate-flavored pasta paired with a spicy red sauce and buckwheat tempeh meatballs would be so delicious? The standout, however, was the koji beet-wrapped saltimbocca with tender, pan-fried mushrooms and polenta.

• Both were truly decadent dishes rich with texture, creaminess and kick —a hard trio to nail down.

🙏 The bottom line: While Il Paffuto is lost to time, Adam's brilliant, mind-melding cooking can still be found at Astera.