New restaurant

There's an Arby's near my house. It's part of this shabby little strip mall that includes a muffler shop, two empty storefronts (including a former computer service center that had "Byte" in its name, from back when "byte" implied all things technological), a Chinese takeout place, and signs for "Pasta Plus Restaurant and Gourmet Store." I've been wanting to see what Pasta Plus was for a while, but never got around to it.

Yesterday, I wanted a dessert. A good dessert. Not the greasy "brownie" sundae at one of the local chains. Not sure of exactly what I wanted, I turned to our modern equivalent of bibliomancy and typed "great desserts near (my house)" into Google.

Wouldn't you know that Pasta Plus came up? Online reviews were... glowing. This was the same place, right?

Book, cover, etc. We went last night. The service was at genuine Italian speed (as compared to our meals out on our honeymoon), which is to say that dinner took an hour and a half. But I was okay with that, because it gave my poor, squeezed pregnant stomach time to make room for the next batch of food coming out of the kitchen.

Good food. Possibly not four-star food - I am not the person to judge - but damn good food. We both had specials, him the beef tenderloin, me the trout. Both delicious. Mine came with a side of freshly-made pasta - the house specialty. I asked for just butter on it, since acidic marinara sauce is a No-No at the moment.

This was the first pasta I've ever had that was pretty much worth eating on its own. I've always thought of pasta as something that serves as little more than a carrier for the sauce. This was really good.

And for dessert? Zabaglione (a Marsala wine-flavored creamy thing that's like a more solid whipped cream) with fresh berries. Delicious!

They make pizza, too. We're so trying that the next time we order some.