MadFoodie

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Vin Santo: A Little Place with Big Food


I find myself venturing into Middleton more and more lately. Middleton is picturesque, for sure, but until recently, a visit there took the young me into the future too fast: 2.3 kids, a hefty mortgage, a sensible black Volvo and wistful thoughts of a time when Tuesday meant Pabst and bacon at Wando's, not soccer, ballet and Boston Market for dinner. It's a very settled and comfortable town, Middleton is.

The wild, childless, unmarried me made a promise to myself to try a new venues, to keep it fresh because if you have to start settling down in life, you might as well keep things fresh in food. And that meant taking a few chances, even going so far as to venture into the center of Yuppie-dom: Hubbard Avenue.

Vin Santo is a tiny little place, tucked into an older, non-descript building that, if you let the glare of Greenway Station blind you, you would never notice. I first heard of Vin Santo while dining at Tutto Pasta. The table next to ours had reached the point of drunkenness where they no longer cared what the waiter would think and if he would hock a good one into their food, and so they loudly proclaimed praise for this other, superior Italian restaurant in Middleton. While drunk people aren't necessarily good food critics, they are unnecessarily honest. I booked a table for my birthday at Vin Santo.

Now that I look back, it was awful of me to put such expectations on this poor place: a birthday dinner, with 12 people, on a Saturday night. But the lovely co-owner with the soft, proper accent, Clarissa, never flinched when I made my reservation, and was incredibly gracious when all 12 of us piled into the little restaurant.

We sat down to baskets of warm, chewy bread, served with a bright and smooth seasoned olive oil. I can get quite irate about the bread basket. If it's a good restaurant, a good, crusty bread is a sure thing, but the cruelty of the bread basket at even the best restaurants is that everyone gets one piece, and the basket is never refilled. Everyone at the table rations their single piece, and gives each other the stink eye over that last piece of bread. Vin Santo, however, obviously a humane and caring place - by the time our appetizer arrived, we were still working on the second or third refills of our bread basket, and no one had been stabbed in the hand with a butter knife.

For an entree, I ordered a fresh pasta that came in an enormous, shallow pasta bowl, the kind that makes it easy to scoop up many noodles at a time, and eat more than you intended to eat. Studded with sharp capers and salty Kalamatas in a hearty, spicy tomato sauce, it was the kind of dish that sticks to your ribs and in your memory.

For a tiny restaurant, Vin Santo is big on big. After we had waded through our generous entrees, we ordered tiramisu. With our bellies full of carbs and wine, we were expecting to nibble on the usual little slices of tiramisu that finish off an Italian meal. Our stomachs cramped and our eyes lit up when the waitress brought out concrete block-sized behemoths of ladyfingers and marscapone. From what I remember, it was some of the best tiramisu I ever had. I believe I passed out that night not from drink, but rather into a food coma, from which I awoke stupified and still full. Now that is the mark of a truly satisfying meal.

I still have a Pavlovian response to Middleton, but instead of sudden commitment-phobia, I now salivate like a dog reacting to a bell. Vin Santo was a solid introduction to the Middleton culinary scene, and as I delve deeper, you might not want to mention the town to me. It won't be a pretty sight.

If you want to go:

Vin Santo
7462 Hubbard Ave.
Middleton
608-836-1880

5 Comments:

Blogger Jonesy said...

I can still taste that Tiramasu in my mouth...that, and the pasta...and the bottle of wine...and the pot we smoked before and after the meal.

3:27 PM  
Blogger Jonesy said...

Did I say pot? Because that's just my slang for the bread and oil appetizer we shared. He he he. (Whew, I think they bought it.)

3:28 PM  
Blogger MFB421 said...

I LOVE Vin Santo. The food is always tasty, the portions are generous, the mood is always great - relaxing, casual, never too much or too little. It's just a wonderfully reliable, great dining experience that never lets us down. My husband and I count on it to fill our cravings for good Italian food on a very regular basis!

4:30 PM  
Blogger C-Weed said...

you need to update this more often! don't you eat anymore?

4:08 PM  
Blogger KateR said...

You are absolutely right. Vin Santo is a treasure. My husband and I discovered it several years when we walked downtown on a snowy night. What a treat.

4:36 PM  

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