Pam and I met up for lunch at the recently opened Strano Sicilian Kitchen & Bar in Cooper-Young.
We started with the terrific roasted carrot bisque ($8), which was creamy but not so rich as to overwhelm earthy flavor of the carrots.
I had my eye on a number of dishes — particularly the Pasta Capelli D’angelo alla olive (angel hair pasta with Tuscan olive oil, roasted garlic, portobello mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, black olives, and baked parmesan) and the Cinque Formaggio Pizza (roasted garlic olive oil base with mozzarella, gouda, ricotta, pecorino Romano Parmigiano, and fontina cheeses topped with truffle oil). But I went with the artichoke, fennel, and fontina panini ($8.95) because the oven-braised fennel sounded really good, and it was a fine sandwich, grilled to the perfect crunch. (Paninis at lunch only.)
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Pam ordered the pizza special of the day, which came with sundried tomatoes and artichoke hearts. We oohed and aahed over the pizza’s bready, top-notch crust. Easily the favorite dish of the meal.
Personal size pizzas are 12-inches and start at $16. Large pizzas are 18 inches.
We topped off the meal with a massive and very pretty slice of carrot cake.
Pam declared the cream-cheese icing as classic, and while we made a few dents into the dessert, the rest was wrapped up to enjoy later.
