Today is the Day!

I had to follow-up on my previous post, lamenting the lack of appropriate festivites for St. Joseph's day. I was kvetching about it to my father, who said that the Armory Restaurant was having a table, dinnertime was already booked but there were still seats for lunch. I called up immediately and made reservations with a somewhat gruff employee who assured me I would enjoy myself.

As a bit of background on the Armory Restaurant, it's on Connecticut Street, near Plymouth. It looks like a neighborhood bar from the front and it's a place one could go by all the time and not register its existence. A few years ago, someone told me they have really good Italian food and by that I mean, spaghetti and meatballs and chianti in a straw-covered bottle. I, like most Italian-Americans-am pretty partial to how my family makes that kind of food. I'm not saying other styles are bad but it's just to each his own. Some like a sweet sauce, some only use tomato paste, my grandmother would die if someone put oregano in the sauce (that's only for pizza suace!). The point is, I've never been there and had no idea what to expect.

Well, I was pleasantly surprised. We were quickly ushered into a banquet room in the back, with row after red-checkered row of tables. We immediately struck up a conversation with our neighbors; a young woman and her 90-year old grandmother. She promptly whipped out a picture of a massive, framed picture of a St. Joseph's table they had in 1985 while explaining that she just moved back here from Virginia where (eegads!) they have no Italians or cardoons to speak of!

The food was set up on a table in the center of the room, tables were called up for their turn, wedding-style. I have to say, I was impressed with the offerings. Here's a list of each dish; lentil soup, pasta with beans, pasta with peas, pasta with clams, pasta con sarde, pasta with eggplant, pasta with broccoli, dandelion omelette, artichoke omelette, caulifluar omelette and cardoon omelette. I was a little sad to see that my favorite vegetable were not battered and fried but instead cooked to make omelettes (fritatta). Actually, the dandelion omelette was great, and although the others were fine, I thought the vegetable retained too much moisture. Plus, if you've ever prepped cardoons, it's a pain in the butt. After all that work, I want them fried! But all the pasta was cooked and seasoned well, not overdone. The pasta con sarde was actually very good and the eggplant was great. It sort of reminded me of caponatina, with ample capers and a slightly smoky flavor. Even the pasta with clams was surprising; the clams seemed to be fresh, they were definitely not those small ones in a can!

Desserts were just ok but everyone knows sfingi is best served fresh and warm. I would give the food a B but the overall experience was an A. I loved the jovial, frenetic vibe of the staff and listening to snippets of other peoples' conversations about how they celebrated St. Joseph's Day. I miss being with family and get nostalgic and misty but I really enjoyed my hour at the Armory. Happy St. Joseph's Day!