Coqueta San Francisco & Bottega Napa Valley

My husband and I just returned from a trip to Northern California with some friends of ours and experienced two amazing meals while we were there, both at restaurants owned by Michael Chiarello.

Coqueta is a Spanish tapas restaurant located in San Francisco and Bottega is an upscale Italian eatery in Napa Valley.

While both meals were memorable, the service and food at Bottega were nothing short of amazing; it is a whole dining experience, not just a place for great food. The waitstaff are some of the most knowledgeable and attentive I have ever experienced. And the food? Indescribable. The ricotta

Enjoying our meal at Bottega. You MUST order the ricotta gnocchi!

gnocchi are little pillows of heaven, just as my friend described and has been talking about for the past three years since her first visit to Bottega. She worried that as much as she and her husband have been talking this place up for the past three years that it wouldn't live up to their near mythic descriptions. Turns out it was BETTER than they had described.

Our waiter at Bottega, Scotty, was one of the best waiters I have ever had at a restaurant. He didn't just wait on us, but entertained and educated us at the same time. It felt like we were having dinner with a really great friend who loved food rather than someone waiting on us at a restaurant. I even learned something new from him that night: if you're baking with chocolate and you can smell it, you've already lost a majority of the flavor since it is such a volatile ingredient. Which is why, when you order the chocolate lava cake at Bottega, it comes out to you wrapped in parchment paper, and the server makes a show of unwrapping it and wafting the chocolate scent right to your nose. It is quite a sight to behold.



I don't, however, want to leave out Coqueta from this conversation, which was also an unforgettable dining experience. One of the friends we were traveling with has two severe food allergies that make it almost impossible to eat out. However, the chef, manager, and waitstaff at

Tapas at Coqueta

Coqueta were extremely attentive and vigilant about making sure she would be safe eating there -- even providing her with a personalized menu that the chef went over and crossed out items that would not be safe for her to eat. I could go over every single thing we ordered and tell you how absolutely amazing they all were, but this would be really long blog post. Rather that describe every dish, I'll just say that if you're in Northern California and you're looking for a memorable dining experience, you can't go wrong with either one of these two options. Not only will the food impress and wow you, but you will be well taken care of. The staff at both of these restaurants are passionate about food and want to share that passion with their customers. You get the sense that the people working for Michael Chiarello are not working on fall-back careers. Food IS their career and that is refreshing to see.

Food other than turkey that will make you feel thankful: MANI Osteria & Bar in Ann Arbor

Nowhere in southeastern Michigan is there a better place to try new restaurants than Ann Arbor. For those of you  reading my blog who aren't from the Midwest, you might not already know that Ann Arbor is a college town - The University of Michigan proudly resides here - and its penchant for variety and sophistication is fairly well known in food circles. Since my husband and I live only about ten miles from A2, we frequently find ourselves wandering downtown Ann Arbor, looking for a new restaurant to try.

Last night, we found ourselves wandering into MANI Osteria & Bar. It was one of those moments where you have to be grateful that there is such a thing as serendipity. I had read some things about MANI on UrbanSpoon, but we did not seek it out last night. It just kind of fell in our lap.

When we walked in the door and arrived at the hostess station, we were offered a seat at the chef's bar where we could watch the food being prepared as we ate. For a foodie such as myself, this was like watching dinner theater - but WAY more entertaining. I was so impressed with the ballet of food preparation and organization going on the kitchen that I daydreamed of one day being able to cook without making my kitchen a disaster area as these professionals so beautifully displayed.

Look at all the beautifully organized mise en place

My husband enjoying the show

The pizza dough was being stretched out and put in the wood-burning oven right in front of me.

After perusing the petite menu, we ordered two antipasti: aranchini (risotto croquettes) and crispy pork belly smothered in apricot marmelata. To tell you the crispy pork belly was a religious experience would only be a slightly a hyperbolic statement. It was like eating superbacon. (If you read my blog regularly, you already know my close relationship with bacon.) It took the very best part of bacon: the salty, crispy goodness, and elevated it to a new level with the meaty chew of a steak. I wish I had taken a picture of this dish before I gobbled it down. But I ate it too fast before I even thought that I should've had my iPhone handy.

For dinner I ordered arugula and prosciutto pizza with scamorza, olive oil, and sea salt. While the pizza was not nearly as luscious as the crispy pork belly, I was especially smitten with how they served it. Instead of buying fancy, elevated pizza plates like most red-checkered table pizzerias, MANI decided to take reduce, REUSE, recycle to a whole new level and serve their pizzas atop giant empty cans of tomatoes.

 Not only does this show patrons their commitment to reducing wastefulness, but it also gives customers yet another glimpse into the ingredients they use in their dishes. With more people these days demanding to know where their food comes from, this is really a simple, yet ingenious move on their part.

As I sat there savoring every bite of my meal and sipping on a glass of perfectly spiced sangria, I  couldn't help but stop and think how I really want for nothing in my life. I have a wonderful husband, a job I love, and a roof over my head. What more could anyone ask for? And the fact that a meal at a trendy downtown Ann Arbor restaurant could make me contemplate all the things I'm thankful for, just shows you how darn good their food really is.

It's not Thanksgiving dinner, but I sure feel thankful right now.

Sophistication just oozes out of the walls of this restaurant, and yet there is still a casualness about it that prevents it from being pretentious. The simple, sleek decor, along with the giant windows that display the bustling downtown Ann Arbor scene make the space feel urban and trendy.

Urban and trendy, however, can be two words that spell disaster for a restaurant if the food is not up to snuff. Since MANI only recently opened in May of 2011, it remains to be seen whether this restaurant will be a long-standing Ann Arbor institution, but given their manageable and delectable menu along with chefs and an owner who show a commitment to simple Italian food with quality ingredients, it is my hope that this place stays around for a very long time.

I don't often fill out comment cards at restaurants, but this meal compelled me to do so. While the food at MANI is on the pricey side so it's not a restaurant we would visit regularly, I can assure you that we will be returning - hopefully for years to come.

It was so good I had to excessively use exclamation points!

If you ever find yourself wandering downtown Ann Arbor, you can take the serendipity route like we did, or you can seek out this eatery with attentive service and gratitude-inducing food.

MANI Osteria & Bar
341 E. Liberty St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
(734) 769-6700