Having spent all day Saturday
hiking on the
Amalfi Coast, we had planned to eat dinner in
Sorrento. But we were tired and nothing
particularly struck our fancy, so Steve suggested we take the train back
to Portici and go to La Tradizione again, since
our first time had been so great. Best idea ever.
This time we
arrived around 9:00PM, and the place was packed--we didn't even know if
we'd be able to get a table, and we certainly didn't expect extra
attention. But we were seated right away, and as the host led us to our
table, Luigi passed us and gave us an enthusiastic "Welcome back!
Welcome back!"
Steve decided to order a bottle of wine
instead of the usual quarter-liter or half-liter, and when Luigi himself
came to take our order, his response to Steve's wine choice was, "Wow."
After we finished ordering and he walked away, I said, "What did you
just order?!" I was so afraid that somehow, with the language barrier, he
had just accidentally selected a 100€ bottle or something.
So
when Luigi returned with the bottle of wine, Steve asked him how much
it cost. Luigi was a bit confused ("Don't you know? You ordered it...") but
got a menu and showed Steve: 24€. Steve asked why he had said "Wow!",
and Luigi explained that it was a very good choice, an excellent wine.
He then poured just a tiny drop in each of our glasses, and said he had
to take the bottle back to the kitchen for ten minutes.
In the meantime, we enjoyed our appetizer: bruschetta con pomodorini. I basically could not get enough bruschetta.
We also had our pasta course: bucatini alla Don Salvatore.
It was the hollow spaghetti (which are so hard to eat!) with sausage,
provolone, parmesan, tomatoes, and something else listed as pendolo on the menu, which Google Translate helpfully says is "pendulum." Right, thanks. Anyway, it was SO good.
Luigi
eventually came back with our wine, and Steve asked what he'd done with
it back in the kitchen. After rephrasing (his English was very good,
but we still struggled a bit here and there), he understood the question
and explained that he'd had to decant it. He spent time telling us all about
the wine, where it came from, the type of grapes, why he doesn't mark it up as much as other restaurants, etc. Then somewhere in
the midst of all that, the power went out in the restaurant. Total
darkness.
We didn't expect to hear from Luigi after
that; clearly he had more pressing things to attend to than a
conversation about wine with us. His restaurant was packed and had no
light or air conditioning. Yet incredibly, the kitchen continued
bringing out food as normal. Our meat course was
misto di carne alla brace (mixed
grilled meats--four kinds of grilled beef and pork), which honestly
wasn't fabulous. Not bad, just a little lacking in flavor. And we also
had
misto di verdure alla griglia (mixed grilled vegetables)--also OK.
The
power wasn't coming back on, so we propped up my phone with its
flashlight on in order to be able to see what we were eating:
 |
| The infamous bottle of wine |
Much
to our surprise, a while later, Luigi returned. Even though the power
was still out and the restaurant was packed, he came back to finish his
conversation with us! He chatted with us about wine and then explained
why the power had gone out (Italian politics--fascinating).
And
then he sent us a complimentary dessert! I don't know what it was
called, but I think it was essentially a deconstructed cannoli--fried
pastry and sweet cream, stacked instead of rolled and filled. Terrible
picture, of course, because I had to use my flash in the darkness of the
restaurant!
The
price for all that--an appetizer, a bottle of good wine, two entrees, a
vegetable side dish (and dessert!)--was 59€ (about $65). Total.
That included a cover charge, and tipping isn't a thing in Italy, so
that was it. What in the world?! We easily would have paid $100 for a
comparable restaurant meal here. And Luigi actually knocked it down to 55€ because of the power outage.
Steve
and I sat there staring at the receipt, marveling at the price,
and when Luigi spotted us studying it, he immediately came over to ask
if
there was a problem. We explained that we were just pleasantly surprised
by how inexpensive it was, and he chatted with us all about his
philosophy of pricing and said something like, "I
don't have a nice view. I don't have parking. I realize you can go to
places that have these things." I said to him, "Well, the hospitality
and the food more than make up for that."
Clearly that made his day :) He walked away with a big grin saying, "Thank you! Thank you!"
Of
course we had to get a picture with Luigi before we left. I for sure
look like a hot mess in this photo--it was nearly 11PM after a day of
hiking, a windy boat ride, a long train ride and then sitting in a hot
restaurant--but it still makes me smile so much because this man was
just the epitome of Italian hospitality. So, so fun.
I
wish we could drive more traffic to his restaurant, but the reality is,
it's in Portici. Very few tourists have any reason to go there. Gosh
they are missing out though! My only regret is that we didn't even try
the pizza, which was being made up front in this oven:
Kicking
myself for that missed opportunity. Alas. La Tradizione! Totally worth a
special stop if you ever find yourself on the Circumvesuviana train
between Naples and Sorrento. It's only a couple of blocks from the
Portici via Libertà station and you won't regret the detour. Tell Luigi
we sent you :)
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