The Little Owl 6/18/11

Nothing was more exciting than finally snagging a reservation for the Little Owl in the West Village....and on my husband Marc's birthday, no less!  Just like Babbo, I had to call one month in advance, and I started dialing the number 60 seconds before 10 a.m. on May 18th and got a prime 7:45 p.m. reservation.  The day finally arrived and we got to the Little Owl before Joe & Jeanette who were running late.  We started to get a little worried about our reservation, but the receptionist was so nice and told us not to worry...our table would be waiting for us whenever they arrived.  They ended up getting there 5 minutes later, and he joked about how "late" they were, when we were actually a couple of minutes earlier than our reservation time.

So I am finally at this restaurant I've waiting so long for, and of course I had to get the famous gravy meatball sliders.  I've actually seen the recipe for Joey Campanaro's meatballs and it's EXACTLY the way I make them...but what made them taste so much better?  I think it was the delicious, cheesy  homemade buns they were nestled in.  Marc got the sliced big eye tuna with oysters, bibb, cucumber and avocado and he said it was fantastic.

I was hoping that someone would get the specialty of the house which is the Little Owl pork chop and I really talked it up, but no one ordered it.  I've just read and heard so much about it.  The problem is that once we see branzino is on the menu, that's what we order since we just love it so much.  At The Little Owl, it's served over string beans, tomatoes and olive tapenade, so that was a little different.  And yes, it was delicious. 

We ordered 2 desserts, the beignettes with nutella and raspberry sauce and the root beer float which was something a little different.  They brought out the beignettes with candles so we could sing Happy Birthday and it  was a great ending to a wonderful meal.