I thought I would make an exception for La Follia, a recently opened neighborhood Italian wine bar and enoteca. La Follia is divided into a small dining room and a slightly larger wine bar room. The wine bar room features a bar, a handful of small tables, and several communal tables.
When we arrived at La Follia, the hostess informed us the wait for a table in the dining room would be approximately 30-40 minutes. Because we assumed we would wait approximately that long, we were happy to pass the next half an hour in the wine bar room with appetizers and wine. We roamed the wine bar room and settled on a few stools along the wall across from the entrance.
La Follia's wine list features many affordable wines from several regions in Italy. Patrons can order wine by the glass, carafe (approximately a half of a bottle of wine), or bottle. We ordered the Fruili Sauvignon Blanc, which is more dry and less citruisy than a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc but a perfect balance to the bold flavors in our cheese centric appetizers.
La Follia's menu features many crostinis, small plates and appetizers. I would recommend delving into several of these while you wait for your table.
When we had polished off crostinis and bottle of wine, I noticed almost an hour had past and went to see the hostess. The hostess informed us that "our table was finishing their entrees so our table should be ready shortly." That made ZERO sense. A table finishing entrees may still order dessert, drinks and coffee.
After the useless update from the hostess, the waitress and the hostess, to our annoyance, would stop by our stools approximately every five minutes, offering us seats at the communal table. At that point, we had waited an insanely long amount of time for a dinner table in the quieter dining room. If we had been told when we arrived it would take over an hour to have a table in the dining room, we would have taken seats at the communal table long ago.
Over 1 and 1/2 hours after La Follia told us the wait would be approximately 30-40 minutes, we were finally seated. I asked to speak to the manager, informing her that we were told the wait would be a third of what we actually waited. It would have made sense after an hour for the manger or hostess to bring over wine, comp our appetizers, DO SOMETHING besides offering us the communal table. But La Follia did absolutely nothing. I told the manager this was my first time dining at La Follia and was disappointed in the service. After listening to my complaint, the manager apologized.
I sat back down and the manager brought over a carafe (a half of a bottle of wine) for our table, which was chinsy, because at that point, we had already ordered a bottle and a carafe. The manager should have comp'd a bottle for keeping us waiting for over an hour and a half. When our desserts arrived, we learned that the manager included an extra dessert on the house as well. These "efforts" were too little too late.
The food, as described below, was fantastic. We enjoyed all of our dishes (because we were there for almost four hours and there was four of us, we were fortunate to sample many of the dishes).
But within just a few blocks of La Follia, there are several Italian restaurants that take reservations, provide better service and offer similar menus/food quality (keep reading people, I will review them in the next few weeks). Even though the food was great at La Follia, it would take a lot of convincing to get me to go back.
What to Eat:
CROSTINI! And not just because your starving while waiting for your table that might take days (ok, not days, but easily hours). We ordered the burrata, chicken liver, and marscapone & clove honey crostinis (there are two in each order but we were hungry so in the picture you can see one of each, and the panini we ordered is in the background, also tasty).
The creamy burrata was spread generously over warm toasted Italian bread. Same for the marscapone and chicken liver.
When we finally made it to our table, we were ravenous and immediately requested the arancini, fried fontina cheese risotto balls. The arancini, crisp on the outside and cheesy on the inside, were delivered piping hot and promptly. We were happy to see that the arancini appetizer was accompanied by La Follia's light and tangy tomato sauce.
The homemade fettuccine with bolognese was also delicious. It is regularly featured as a special so it's a safe bet you will find it if you visit La Follia. The portion includes a generous serving of the hearty bolognese sauce.
The hanger steak was tasty as well. The texture was a bit strange...The meat was difficult to cut into (see Jesse, I'm blaming it on the meat, not your cutting skills). But it was cooked perfectly (medium rare, as ordered) and very flavorful.
La Follia's dessert menu had something for everyone (chocolate, fruit, creamy, etc). We enjoyed the apple cinnamon bread pudding, topped with vanilla gelato. The tart apple was perfectly contrasted with the cinnamon and the sweet gelato melting on top. Also tasty, but not as delicious as the bread pudding, was the tiramisu and chocolate cake.
Insider tip: leave your AMEX at home. La Follia accepts cash and major credit cards like Mastercard and Visa.
Willing to wait for hours? I know I'm not,
Your foodie friend
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