To set out appropriately into weekend recovery mode, John grabbed me late on Friday afternoon and said “we need a break from the craziness.” 2 minutes later we were in the car on our way to The Sicilian Butcher. Thankfully, we had childcare until 6pm. It had been one of THOSE weeks fraught with emotional ups & downs (ill family member) and a bear at work. We had not experienced happy hour in quite some time and we desperately needed a few hours to recharge. Upon our arrival, we indulged in one of their amazing “Italiano” cocktails which is a take on an old fashioned. We were off to a good start. A nice drink on a beautiful patio in the Arizona spring is a wonderful way to round out the week.
Appetizers? Sure. Why not???!! We decided to taste the burrata & heirloom tomato appetizer with olives, pickled red onion, pesto and freshly charred bread. The burrata was so smooth and creamy that it spread over the charred bread like butter. There were fresh basil leaves and pesto that hit all of the herbal salty notes that anyone would crave. AND…my husband LOVED the olives!!! Okay, okay, there’s a story here. For as long as I have known John, he has always HATED olives. That never deters him from trying new olives, but alas, he spits them out every time. Except for in this dish. The olives that came with this meal are green Sicilian sweet olives that are as sweet as they are tangy. No brininess AT ALL. They provided an unctuous & unexpected taste and we were both thrilled to try it.
After refilling our cocktails, we decided another appetizer was a good idea. Next, we decided to try the charred octopus. Fear not my seafaring friends, this was not the kraken. This was really only the octopus tentacle and not the whole octopus paired with fennel, citrus and poached potatoes. This tentacle came out a bright purply blue and was both tender and crunchy. The char on the octopus was perfect and provided a sweet culinary escape to the ocean (a far cry from AZ). Honestly, I would have eaten this as my meal and not shared with John if I knew how good it was. Next time we would be back to eat a full meal.
I looked down at my watch. It was 5:30pm and the “get home to your kids” bell was a sounding alarm in my head. It was almost time to go and we were ready to move on to dessert. Luckily for us, we were able to conclude our meal and walk 5 feet next door to the Sicilian Baker. This little bakery & grocery has a LOT to offer. Gelato, cookies, pastries and a cannoli bar. We decided to get a few goodies to go. Besides, I’m sure my son would love to try a cannoli. Famous. Last. Words. We decided to try the chocolate dipped cannoli with nutella filling. Oh, and two small Italian ‘peche’ (peach) cookies on the side please. As we checked out, John carried his espresso to the outdoor picnic table and sat beside me. I pulled out a spoon and thought it would be a good idea to just taste the cannoli cream. After I was 3 bites in John brought up that our son would most likely not mind if he never tasted the cannoli and decided to help me eat the rest. He agreed an amazing dessert like that might not even be appreciated by a toddler. We then tried one of the peche cookies. Surprisingly the peach flavor really came through and the cookie was not overly sweet. All I can say is WOW. Those desserts are DELICIOUS. Even if you have no time to eat at the full restaurant, make a pit stop at the bakery. I promise you will be glad you did. We are excited to share these sweet treats, as soon as any of them can make it home.
