Birthday Dinner at Coppa. Pretty darn amazing.

Coppa Enoteca
253 Shawmut Avenue

Boston, MA 02118-2178

(617) 391-0902

Food: 4.1/5.0

Service: 4.0/5.0

I initially planned for a larger party to go to Coppa since the restaurant now does reservations but was unsuccessful due to graduation weekend. Grrr! This didn't affect me the least since I made it there with a smaller group on a balmy Monday night. We all started with drinks at the bar and made gradually made our way to the table. Interesting and very tasty cocktails.
The food was delicious and spot on. The tapas-style small plates concept allowed us to sample a huge variety; thoughts on individual plates below. Yay! My favorite 2 dishes were the pig tail and ramp pizza hands down, which were beyond dreamy and memorable. My friend Sachin echoed my sentiments exactly the day after:

Sachin: it was raining pig tails in my dream. Omnomnom.
me: wow
Sachin: haha, well sort of. it's tough to swallow them from the sky when they still have the bones in

me: thats ok. just spit em out. check this out http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/white-cheese-pizza-with-ramps

Sachin: whoaaaa ramp pizza. are you going to make it?

me: I want to

! (Alas ramp season is over but if I do, I'll try a substitute with green onions/scallions)

The desserts at Coppa, however, needs improvement in terms of creativity and execution. Our bread pudding which was dry and not appetizing. For all the amazing savory small plates Coppa has to offer, perhaps it might be time for more thought on the dessert menu, no?

Duck Prosciutto-famed on Yelp. Unctuous, salty and wafer-thin. Melted in my mouth.

 Riccio di Mare / Sea urchin panino with panza and green tomato-foie gras of the sea. Buttery, sweet and savory. Chorizo added nice smoky meaty flavor :)

*Coda de Maiale / Wood oven roasted pig's tail with mostarda glaze-I couldn't rave more about this dish. We had to cut through the cartilage to access the tender, flavorful meat. The sweet and tangy relish that came atop the tails went well with the richness of the tails. 

Manatelle al Nero di Seppia / House made squid ink pasta with octopus, squid and Castelvetrano olives-Kinda looked like cockroach eggs when I first saw it but oh so delicious as it tasted of the sea.

House special-black pepper fettucine with poached lobster and fiddleheads-good and simple. Plus I got my fiddlehead fix!

Ostriche / Island Creek oysters with rhubarb verjus and apple-served on salt mounds. Jus could be tangy-er. 

Closeup

Roasted asparagus with ramps and poached egg-I thought this was good, not great but Tish considered this dish one of her faves.

*White pizza with ramps and farm fresh egg-OMG OMG. Ramps on a pizza are amazing in its simplicity and just a genius combination. I want to recreate this using spring onions since I can't seem to find ramps this time of year :/

Bread pudding with pistachio and orange-Meh. Dry and boring. Had tonnes better.