Urbanspoon ran a contest to encourage use of its save feature, which I use regularly to track the restaurants I’m interested in trying as the are simply too many to keep track of in my head, and randomly drew me as their winner for a gift card to use at one of the restaurants on my list – Vespolina. I’d like to thank Urbanspoon for giving me the opportunity to try this restaurant!

I had been to the restaurant during the new year when it had just opened as Argona – Spanish tapas and had enjoyed the complexity and inventiveness of their dishes. But when you run an empire built on hand made pasta already, customers are interested more in pasta than they were daring Spanish cuisine, which has no pasta at all. Jason Stratton heard the feedback and bravely revamped the entire restaurant to go back to his Italian roots.  The restaurant architecture and design remain the same, but the name and menu are entirely new.

antipasti misto – the sampler appetizer platter, mortedella, beet and sardine on crostini – a nice balance with beets and sea foam, calamari in hummus – a nice combination reaching a little bit closer to the eastern Mediterranean

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My friend traveled all the way from Tokyo, and people think that he wants Japanese food, in Seattle. He was born in Seattle and Japanese food in Tokyo is much better than any Japanese food you could get in Seattle – hands down. Tokyo has more Michelin starred restaurants than Paris and even more stars overall. It kind of puts things into perspective if you think about Japanese culture and their attention to detail and their craft, that it makes sense that the same sort of reverence and obsession would be applied to food.  However, a trip to Japan and dining at one of the finest Italian restaurants is quite expensive, so we’re sticking to Seattle.  There are a few top notch Italian places on my list: Cantinetta, Café Juanita, La Rustica, Agrodulce, Rione XIII (this is more comfort food), Tavolta, and Cascina Spinasse.

Today’s choice was Cascina Spinase, after having dined at Aragona earlier this year and remembering a pretty fantastic poached egg with fontina, I thought it was time to return. We were not disappointed and ordered a smattering of dishes to get a better taste of the kitchen’s talent.  We watched, with rapture, a chef handmake pasta and breadsticks.  The food was impeccable and truly highlighted their mix of ingredients.

proscuitto and zucchini salad – this was the first half of the antipasti sampler; prosciutto with melon, which featured a very sweet melon, in this classic pairing; and charred zucchini with cheese – like a deconstructed zucchini parmesan (fresh zucchini without a hint of bitterness plays well with the mild cheese)

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