Editorial
Front Page - Friday, January 28, 2011
River City Roundabout
Top Deal
Erica Tuggle
With Living Social’s daily deals, you can receive great discounts on local businesses such as Alleia Restaurant on E. Main Street. Alleia serves specialty dishes, made when you order and with unique flavors all their own.
- Erica Tuggle
Living Social Deals are something that many are becoming aware of as a great tool to use at local places andon items in order to save some bucks before you even get to the deal location. You can save 50 percent or more off the deal you purchase, and it benefits the businesses that participate in Living Social Deals because it guarantees that customers will be coming in to spend their vouchers.
Here’s how it works: You sign up via your email address on www.livingsocial.com. From there, they will send you a daily email on weekdays that explains the “daily deal.” These deals range from money off of spa treatments, restaurant visits, movie tickets, paintball games and a spectrum of other activities. It’s fun to see what new deal they have come up with, and also gives you an idea of what there is to do in town that you may not have tried.
It was through a daily deal on Living Social that I found the very tasty and special restaurant called Alleia. The daily deal offered $40 worth of food at Alleia for a $20 price tag. On top of that, if you “like” Alleia on Facebook, they would take another two dollars off of this price, making it $18 for $40 of your choice of food and drink. The only stipulation for this deal was that you had to pay the tax on your meal and gratuity for your server.
With my voucher in tow, I headed to Alleia on East Main Street. The restaurant had a pleasant casual atmosphere with many different separate areas where different groups could dine. The light was low and calming and each table had lit candles on them. For big groups, couples, and friends, this place accommodates all with the mild atmosphere, but a level of fine dining at the same time.
All food is cooked made to order as you can see from the line of kitchen staff behind the open counter. Chef Daniel Linley and Chef De Cuisine, Tyler Stewart, have imagined all the dishes you see on the menu and the mixture of elements that go into creating these signature dishes. The names of all the dishes are long and complicated, but the servers know exactly what is going into all these meals and explain them clearly and in detail.
We started with an appetizer comprised of grass fed beef carpaccio, Parmesan cheese, arugula and white truffle oil. I am still gushing on how savory this part of the meal was. The beef was sliced thin and when combined with the similarly sliced Parmesan and lemon flavor of the arugula it made for a great start to the meal. There was also a hand dipped ricotta bruschetta with local honey and fried Rhode Island calamari with lemon that I marked to try on my next visit.
Our first entree was the conchiglie with lamb sausage, salsa Bianca and ricotta salata. This conch shaped pasta was covered in a green cream sauce. The lamb sausage was amazing and something new, and the cherry tomatoes that were added into the dish were juicy and very tasty. The second entrée was the papparadelle with braised veal breast. Honestly, this dish had such a long description of so many great elements that we simply said “yes” to this entrée, and can’t describe it as anything but a delicious pasta dish of a truly unique variety.
We finished our meal with a dessert dish of panacotta with poached apples. This dish was a type of vanilla flan, and with the apples on top, it went well with the vanilla bean flavor. For sure, it finished off the meal right.
The wine menu is also quite impressive. The list is long and the selection sounds scrumptious. It shouldn’t be a problem to find a wine to suit your taste.
There were other dishes we would have loved to try if our stomachs weren’t so full! Dishes such as the wood fired pork shoulder with honeycrisp apples and balsamic. I would also be interested in trying the huge dish of angus beef flat iron with salsa verde. Alleia is well known for their selection of pizzas served Italian style, that they cook to 750 degrees in their hand made masonry oven. All the varieties they offered sounded worth a try.
All the food was wonderful and made us feel like it had been specially prepared for our arrival. The serving staff and hostesses were attentive to our needs and made our trip special. The deal made this dinner all the better, and gave us an opportunity to try a new local restaurant.
For Alleia hours, to make a reservation or for a complete menu, visit www.alleiarestaurant.com. Contact Erica Tuggle at reporter@hamiltoncountyherald.com.
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