Time to regroup

It's been years, literally, since I last wrote about food. As I have lots of free time while I seek my next role, it seemed a good juncture to get back at it. I enjoyed a wonderful dinner with DW at Leuca in the William Vale Hotel in Williamsburg.
Leuca is a newer entry from megachef Andrew Carmellini's NoHo Hospitality Group. He's got so many venture in NYC now, from The Dutch to Locanda Verde, that it's a wonder he either eats or sleeps himself. I'm personally a fan of his cookbook, and the kitchen at Leuca is doing something right.
First off, I'll say eating at the bar on a Saturday night is a study in service run with military precision. As more customers start to trickle in, our bartender and his colleague are simultaneously pouring and  mixing two or more drinks, checking on our satisfaction, entering tickets, pulling orders, and making it all look like it's programmed in The Matrix. This is a machine but human at the same time. He's also knowledgeable and opinionated about his bar's and the menu's contents and happy to share both without either condescension or annoyance. We felt more educated and excited about the night. My partner, who favors wines on the sweeter side trending to dessert, was immediately offered a suggestion in that spirit with not only no judgment but encouragement to order what she liked.
After selecting our entrees, I asked for the sommelier for some help with the wine list, which focuses on and covers most of the Italian peninsula, much of which I was unfamiliar with. After an informative discussion covering the Etna region of Sicily, Sardinia, and Campania, I branched out to the Mora e Memo Nau Cannonau from Sardinia, a region and wine with which I had little experience. As DW and I were sharing scallops and pork chop, this lighter-style red with a nice balance of mild fruit, tannin, and spice was a great middle ground.
As for the food, wow! The scallops with riso venera (black Venus rice) and caper berries were excellent. The scallops were perfectly cooked with a slice of caper berry atop each and the rice a bit chewy adding some texture. A great meld of flavor and texture reminding me again that scallops done properly are one of my favorite culinary experiences.
As for that pork chop: spectacular. Some combination of grilling, frying and/or roasting left it with a spectacular crust on the outside, then topped with "Stone Fruit Mostardo," i.e. plum, peach, something mustard blend which amounts to the tastiest damned barbecue sauce I've had in ages. The bartender had called this his favorite main on the menu, and yes, I get it. I told him I kind of want a bowl of the sauce to drink, and he agreed. The delicious housemade sesame bread made an excellent vessel for mopping up what was left on the plate. I'm just glad I don't adhere to either Kosher or Halal dietary laws.
And now to dessert, which after processing the disappointment that the actual dessert menu, which has just changed, didn't include the pumpkin cheesecake listed on the dinner menu, we still enjoyed. The standout here was the pistachio cake with olive oil gelato-- the flavor combinations were so unexpected and balanced we didn't want to stop eating.
Our second choice, the budino al ciocolatto (chocolate mousse) with ginger gelato was definitely tasty, but the chocolate was almost too dark and overpowering, especially when we both inhaled the huge dusting of cocoa powder on top. The bottom layer, some crunchy combination of chocolate and hazelnut, was the best part, and while we enjoyed it, we would probably try something else next time.
All in all, we would recommend this place, as the food is definitely delicious, but given the high price points, it's probably best left for special occasions or a group outing focused on drinks and sharing some smaller plates and pastas, which looked good but we skipped this round. We'll most likely be back at some point, probably with more people to share some of the other choices.
Buon appetito!