fragole restaurant, brooklyn

last night, good friend bill and i decided to take advantage of dine in brooklyn week (april 3-11, 2006). i've soured on nyc restaurant week, which at $35, excluding drinks, tax, and tip, is hardly a bargain (though the real problem is that most of the top-tier nyc restaurants don't offer a dinner option, and often those that do, offer a "restaurant week" menu that's uninspiring).

but i love dine in brooklyn week! blue ribbon and blue ribbon sushi offer dinner options, and as late as monday night it was possible to get a reservation at maria's mexican bistro in park slope, and on tuesday afternoon it was possible to get a reservation at fragole, in carroll gardens.

that's where we decided to go.

fragole is a small restaurant. it won't be mistaken for intimate--it was surprisingly bright at 7pm, which is clearly a function of the natural lighting from outside (hooray for longer days, though), the bright light from the kitchen, and the candles on the very close set tables, all of which is acceptable. but midway through our meal, the server moved a table closer to us, and oddly enough, at an angle. so for example, where bill was sitting, the tables were about an inch apart, and on my side, they were about two. it was a little distracting.

but fragole has other charms.

on tuesday nights, you can order a bottle of wine for half the price! so we enjoyed a juicy, $38 chianti, for half that. nice.

we agreed that all of the salads sounded terrific: warm chick pea, shrimp, radicchio and rosemary salad; roasted beet salad with arucola and goat cheese; and arucola, endive salad tossed with apples, hazelnuts and gorgonzola in a balsamic vinaigrette.

the kitchen made the decision for us--they were out of the warm chick pea, shrimp salad. a little surprising, since it was only 7pm. but the beet salad was quite nice--i loved the generous hunk of firm, sharp goat cheese.

the arucola endive salad was the winner, though. (gorgonzola trumps goat cheese, in my book.)

i erred in my entree choice. i ordered the spinach and ricotta gnocchi with fava bean, tomato and guanciale--i don't love gnocchi, but i really wanted to try the guanciale (cured jowls of pig). but the gnocchi was too soft and too mild, and the fava beans and guanciale were not discernable, save a couple of bites. i honestly only tasted about 2 bites of guanciale in the whole dish. i wished i had ordered the rainbow trout filet with red wine reduction, pancetta, radicchio and almonds. bill enjoyed his choice--spaghetti with wild boar sausage, white mushrooms and butternut squash.

the desserts were the highlight of the meal--buttermilk panna cotta was like a dream! i've had panna cotta a few times recently, once at lupa, a couple of times in italy last month, and all left me nonplussed. what is panna cotta really? what is it supposed to taste like? each one i've had has been completely different. they all sort of reminded me of a cross between knox gelatin and really anemic flan. but the panna cotta at fragole, well, i'm not sure if it's a "proper" panna cotta but it was without question the best one i've had to date.

it had a bit of the firmness of a gelatin, but melted into a sweet cream, reminiscent of a creme brulee, with a very strong smell and taste of fresh vanilla bean.

i thought the pear sorbet was refreshing on its own--the heavy chocolate sauce was overwhelming. a more balanced alternative might be to combine a creamier pear gelato, with the chocolate topping.

still, i would happily go back. i figure, if the kitchen can create such a memorable panna cotta, surely there are more winning dishes to be had.

fragole
394 court street, brooklyn (take the f/g to carroll street)
718 522-7133