Piccola Italia
Unica Cucine Italiana
837 West Park Avenue
Cobblestone Village
Ocean NJ 07712
732.493.3090
Hello fellow food lovers! I hope that today finds you all well and unscathed by the wrath of Irene. Hopefully, everyone was as over- prepared as we were (The Captain made sure of it), and you have enough water, batteries and food to last you through to next Hurricane season, or blizzard, whichever comes first!
Anyway, Friday night in the midst of all of the hullaballoo about Irene, Joe and I had a hankering to go out to eat, which is unusual for Joe, but not so much for me. I knew that I was in for a weekend of being stuck inside and cooking everything in the house, so I was determined to go out beforehand and NOT cook on Friday night if I didn’t have to. After debate about where to go, a little dance that we usually go through whenever we are going out to eat, we settled on what I thought was Piccolo Italia. We loaded into the car and started on the 5 minute trip to the restaurant, except on West Park Avenue the Captain went into the left turning lane! I quickly questioned where he was going, he said, “that Italian restaurant that we haven’t been to in a long time”. I said “Piccolo Italia is in Cobblestone” he said “I was going to Mike and Nellies!” OK. So this went on for a while back and forth and we finally established that he thought the restaurant we were going to was Mike and Nellies and Liz, Joe and I thought we were going to Piccolo, so obviously majority ruled. We went to Piccolo Italia.
We haven’t been to Piccolo in probably close to 10 years, so there have been quite a few changes. The most notable one is the size of the restaurant. When we were there last the restaurant was a very small storefront in the corner of Cobblestone plaza in Ocean Township. The restaurant has doubled in size moving into the storefront next door. The décor is nice and tasteful, warm colors and wood, wine bottles and a nice mix of modern and traditional art and elements. It was early, around 5:30, so there weren’t too many people there yet. More people began to filter in as we were finishing up and I think that if New Jersey wasn’t in a state of emergency and if the Governor hadn’t told everybody to “get the HELL off the beach!” then it probably would have been a lot more crowded.
I can’t remember what was on the original menu specifically, but I could see that the menu had changed a bit, I am not sure if they have changed hands or chefs from the original restaurant. The menu , though changed, still looked really good.
We were greeted right away and the busboy asked if we wanted sparkling or tap water, we chose tap. The server came over and she took the drink order; I was the only one to order a drink, I chose just a house Pinot Grigio and it was good, I failed to get the name of it however so I will try to get it and make a note later. When the server came back she told us what the specials were in addition to the menu selections, one of which we ordered. After she brought the drinks we were ready to order, we ordered the Eggplant Rollantini appetizer that was on special, Cockle Clams with Toasted Garlic,Basil, Roasted Corn, Jersey Tomatoes, wilted arugula and bacon appetizer (on the menu this is PEI mussels and cockle clams, but none of us are crazy about mussels so we asked if we could just get the clams, no problem). For our entrees The Princess chose the Porcini Seared Day Boat Sea Scallops with Truffle Mashed Potatoes, Beurre Blanc, Port wine reduction and Sautéed mushrooms. I chose the Grilled Double Cut Pork Chop with smoked Gouda and bacon Risotto, French beans and a Maple Ginger Reduction. The captain asked if he could just get Linguini with white clam sauce (no problem) and Joe ordered the rigatoni with just marinara sauce (also not on the menu but no problem).
After we ordered the busboy came over with a large crusty roll for each one of us. They were very good, crusty on the outside and soft on the inside, it’s a good thing that they only give you one, because you really could fill up on bread that good. While we were waiting for our appetizers, another server came over and gave us each a plate from the chef, it was a taste of something that (I guess) the chef was working on, a shrimp fritter with a black bean and tomato Pico d’gallio and remoulade sauce. The shrimp fritter was delicious and the beans and tomatoes fresh and cold and tasty, Liz and I got to split Joe’s (because he don’t do that).
