Like a man riding a unicycle down Butler Street on a 20 degree day. What a hipster d-bag.
This was what I saw on the way to a lunch with two other people from my office, courtesy of our IT consulting firm, at Matteo's in Lawrenceville.
My irritation grew when our disaffected server handed us our menus and made us (me) feel inadequate for not getting an appetizer or soup. It's a business lunch at 12 pm on a Wednesday.
Peak irritation occurred when she read the "specials" of the day. On the printed menu, there were probably six pasta and five sandwich choices. She proceeded to wax poetic about (at least) five pasta dishes and three sandwiches, plus a soup.
Is this lunch sponsored by Lumosity or something? How in the world were we expected to remember all the specials? Oh yeah, the giant chalkboard that only half of our table could see....forty feet away from us...written in faint chalk.
So I was all set to not like this place and give a scathing, unicycle-influenced review.
But I can't. The food was excellent.
Three people got this baked ziti-esque dish with pasta, mushrooms, sweet and hot peppers, and sausage. It was a special, so I can't tell you exactly what it was because I didn't take my fish oil memory pills that day.
My co-worker and I got campanelle pasta in a sage-butter sauce with rapini, complemented by sweet sausage disks. I was worried it was going to be a lumpy sauce, but it was the perfect consistency. This was also a special, but they should bump this up to full time.
The sixth guy got a meatball sub and he seemed to enjoy it also.
The decor of Matteo's is urban chic, pretty spartan. They have a nice size bar for being a relatively small restaurant. The full floor to ceiling window at the front brings a lot of natural light into the place. I've always been a fan of Piccolo Forno right up the street, but Matteo's is a place that I'll have to take DB~ too, as well.
