A Nice Spot For a Bottle

And now, for a word from our sponsors... Brooklyn, a good place to visit, a great place to live!

In support of that supposition, I offer you Pane e Vino, on Smith Street. A nice little place, with an indoor garden that's enclosed, so it's open year round. Stopped off in here for a bottle of wine and some starters. The wine was a nice Montepulciano from 2000. It started off a little bitter, but after 20 minutes, it had breathed enough to open up quite a bit (and it only got better as it breathed more). For dishes, we had the polenta, which was actually done right and well, with some white truffle oil, mushrooms and a hint of sausage. Very well done and you could tell the polenta was freshly cooked when we ordered, as it didn't cement up until well after we were finished with it (it was delish, but we were really there to drink wine :). We also ordered the bruchette tradizionale, which was fine, but a bit plain. Not that it was bad; it was exactly what it purported to be: tomato and basil on bread.

The standout bit of the evening was the dessert (man, am I on a dessert kick lately or what?): glazed pear in a red wine sauce with a bit of ice cream to make it all go down easy. The pear was really well glazed: not too sweet, not burnt. Carmelized pretty much perfectly. The red wine sauce was a wonderful complement to this, as well as to the wine were were almost finished drinking. And the ice cream, well, swirling that around in the sauce and getting to drizzle it on the pear was heavenly. And the pricetag for the evening wasn't too steep, either. I'd say it's affordable enough for daters who are out to hit Smith Street to make an impression or as an alternative to Manhattan wine/dining. The bottle we had was $32, which isn't bad. There were cheaper wines on the list--which was quite well rounded, both in white and in red varieties and regions--but this one was middle of the road. And the most expensive bottles on the list were only $80, which isn't that bad.... Overall, I'd give Pane e Vino a 4 out of 5.