Il Mulino

This month's AIWF Wonderful Wednesday was at Il Mulino, whose Atlanta location opened only three weeks before we visited it.

Historically, the WWs have a really horrendous showing for food with a sample of the restaurant's simplest appetizers, no real taste of the menu, and usually such a poor serving that only people who get there promptly at 5.30 get to try anything.

Il Mulino was a pleasantly surprising experience. Among the starters were a couple different kinds of crostini -- a salmon mousse one that I didn't care for and a thinly sliced beef with a reduced balsamic sauce -- a delicious caponata (which I was surprised to constantly hear the waiters refer to as ratatouille), some polpetti (I think; meatballs that I found to be dry and somewhat tasteless), and a very tasty bruschetta, especially considering it is January.

Twelve of us decided to stay for dinner, and what a dinner it was! To start, they brought more bruschetta to the table. The guy who must be "the cheese man" brought a quarter of a parmigiano reggiano wheel over to the table and began doling it out to each person. Mmmmm, delicious.

Everyone ordered a different number of courses, so there was a lot of passing of plates and sharing. I ordered the frutti di mare risotto, which came with a generous serving of shrimp, clams, scallops, and calamari. The risotto itself was deeply delicious and rich. For my main, I had the veal piccata which was delicate and delicious. The menu is dominated by veal dishes, so clearly it, along with seafood, is the highlight here.

Among the dishes that I tried were J's sausage and polenta appetizer (which was surprisingly "modern" in its presentation), a pappardelle with sausage (one of their signature dishes that was very good, and heavy. I know pappardelle should be very wide, but I found this dish a little hard to eat.), the osso bucco braised in barolo and porcinis (divine), and an artichoke appetizer (tasty). Whew, that was a lot of food!

Of the wines that we had were a 2002 and a 2007 Seghesio. The 2007 is currently one of our house wines, having made the 2007 Wine Spectator top 100 at #10. The 2002 was a deeper taste, definitely a great wine. I wonder if we could buy a case of the 2007 and stand to keep it around for five years. It would certainly be worth it.

We finished out the night with a glass of housemade grappa. But we didn't make it out the door before we sampled some of the NY-housemade vin santo, a sweet-apricot version. Delicious.

In fact, it was so delicious, that we decided to join the group that planned to return the next night -- an unprecedented event, especially considering that Il Mulino is downtown, where J and I don't stray very often. We were certainly wooed by the lack of corkage fee, the great food, and the great service.

Due to a mixture of traffic nightmares, J and I were the first to arrive for our 7.15 reservation, which we ended up increasing and delaying based on the arrival times. To pass the time, J and I sat in the outside atrium and were treated to a subset selection of the previous evening's appetizers. I assume these apps are offered to all who come while they decide on what to order. Bruschetta, just as delicious as the night before (it must be the basic), and fried thin slices of zucchini. We ordered the octopus salad and the caprese, both of which were good, but I wouldn't call standout.

We were finally seated at 8.30, at no fault of the staff who were struggling to balance a large private party and well as a couple smaller parties like ours. We ended up in their private dining room which was off aways and connected to a small wine-cellar-like room. We had a long discussion about the exorbitant $30 per bottle corkage which they didn't plan to waive or lessen at all. In the end, the catering director came out and told us that they planned to waive the corkage for the night. Definitely a bonus, but a trial to endure in the first place.

For an app, I again ordered the frutti di mare risotto, which is a pretty big no-no when the goal is to try as many dishes as possible. Truth be told, the menu is a decent size, but I couldn't really find anything that I moved to try. This time, the risotto looked the same but did not taste the same. J got the risotto con funghi which has an assortment of wild mushrooms. It was delicious.

For a main, I got the clams which are served with a light marinara sauce. The waiter got them to replace the bed of pasta with more clams, but even so, I was left hungry. I deserve it for ordering it in the first place, I assume. J ordered the veal marsala which looked very good. I have to admit I don't remember the taste.

We finished up the long meal with a glass of delicious vin santo.

So will we return? I'm not sure. Surely it was tasty and I enjoyed it. Though I certainly lean more northern than southern when it comes to Italian food and Antica Posta is closer to home and my taste buds. The argument about corkage is one that we would have to have every time we went, not to mention having to deal with getting down to and then dealing with downtown. I'm not sure it's worth the hassle, not to mention the overinflated New York prices in Atlanta.