Birthday at Beretta

If you didn’t already know, it was my Birthday last week! Yay! My dad flew into town and, man, did we eat. Thursday night (my Birthday Eve), we ventured to the Mission and dined at Beretta.

This contemporary Italian comfort food was absolutely outstanding. To start, we ordered meatballs in spicy tomato sauce, gnocchi with fresh porcini & smoked pancetta, bruschette of crescenza & broccoli rabe. All were absolutely outstanding — the gnocci being my favorite. We shared two thin-crust pizzas: margherita with burrata (yes, Casi had to Google it) and the prosciutto di parma, tomato, arugula & mozzarella. Let me tell you, that margherita pizza was absolutely fantastic.

And, of course, the Birthday Girl had to get dessert! We ordered a few to share among the 5 of us: vanilla and espresso gelati, rhubarb-almond crumb cake with vanilla gelato, and the panna gelato with extra virgin olive oil & sea salt. The rich flavor of the olive oil, the tang of the salt and the sweetness of the gelato were to die for.

While we didn’t seem to take any pictures of the delectable food, my dad managed to snap one of the Birthday hat that was gracefully given to be by the table next to us. I promptly broke the string, so this is a magic balancing act. After two bottles of wine.