Work hasn't been the same without him (insert crying emoji here).
He retired at the end of first semester and wanted to keep things quiet. We waited until the winter break to finally go out and celebrate with a bang. Joining us was our regular gang of four - me, Mr. TJ, La Ley and MFH. We told him, you pick a place and we'll take care of the rest. But first, we had some drinks (Kir Royale, one of his favorite cocktails) at his place before heading over to Hillcrest, which sadly, has become a pale shadow of its former self. Lots of restaurant turnover there and homeless people in the streets.
Sorry, no exterior shot but here's their delicious bread with butter. Mr. TJ goes to this restaurant a lot and the wait staff and owner already knows him. We had a charming waiter named Roberto. He was amazing. The owner also came out several times to check up on us.
Their corkage fee was $15; he brought the wine that MFH gave him as a gift, a pinot noir.
Here's a few of our appetizers - the caprese con burrata:
plus the prosciutto di Parma that I selected. This was one of the best things I've ever tasted. The meat was sliced to thinly and had a rich, buttery mouthfeel. I would get this again!
Our three mains that we shared:
Pappardelle with wild board ragu. This was one of the off menu specials. This was a very hearty dish with the meaty sauce and wide fresh noodles. Excellent.
The shortrib with polenta, as plain as it looked, was also quite good. Mr. TJ made a good choice with this one. The meat was so tender. I would have been happy eating just this.
The seafood risotto was also a hit -filled with clams, mussels and tiny scallops.
Everything was pretty damn good! We had such a fun time celebrating the good times we spent with him. Both La Ley and I have worked with him for twenty years, can you believe that shit? With the golden handshake and financial incentive offered by our district, he will be making more money retired than he did while working.
Dessert was tiramisu - their choice. It was served in a big square dish and was covered with cocoa powder. I told them we were going somewhere else for dessert #2. You have to remember my friends/colleagues are not used to doing crawls. They think I'm the wierd one, WTF, ha ha.
None of them had ever been to An's Dry Cleaning before and thought it was a real dry cleaning place not a gelato place. Gelato week was the next day so we couldn't try out their gelato flight special which was hiding behind a papered display case.
We got two shorts with two flavors each - Cotton (rice/milk/cinnamon or basically horchata) with Lace (pear and apple cider) plus Jarapa (dates, honey orange blossom) and Barkcloth (macadamia).
I don't remember which was which, but I liked the Jarapa the best.
I always like getting more than one flavor. It's overkill getting just one flavor, in my opinion. Our ride was actually his roommate's partner who was so patient that evening driving us around.
Previous visit to An's Dry Cleaning Gelato:
July 2018
Parma Cucina Italiano
3850 Fifth Ave
San Diego, CA 92103
(619) 543-0049
www.parmaitaliankitchen.com + reviews from you know where
I definitely want to revisit this restaurant with Bert. It's tiny inside but the service is fantastic. They really treat you like family here and the food is really well made and top quality.
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