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Summertime is here

June 14, 2007

All your favorite Italian Dishes - the Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplants, Zucchinis, Stonefruits, Steaks, Chops, Mozzarella di Bufala, Sheep's Milk Ricotta, Halibut and Calamari have come back. At lunch we have a new section of Insalatoni - entree salads, and at dinner we're exploring a favorite summer theme - Steak - through the larders of four different Italian regions.

We have also changed the wine list's pricing structure and layout. From now on, the formula for wine pricing will be RETAIL+CORKAGE=PRICE, and the same wines are available for retail sale as well. Following are a few words about wine, from GM and Wine director Juli Gregg

"To an Italian, Wine is Food. Food varies seasonally and regionally. At Palio d’ Asti, we believe wine should too. Italian food is direct and clean - food that tastes like what it is. Palio’s Bolognese trained Chef/Owner Daniel Scherotter has developed a menu that emphasizes different regions in different seasons, depending on Mother Nature’s specialties. For the guest experience to be authentic, wine pairings are key. Wine Director and General Manager Juli Gregg have shadowed the wine program to the menu with great regional selections that evolve with the seasons.

The summer menu is quite Southern Italian, with a special emphasis on Sicily. During the summer, we serve a disproportionate amount of Nero d’ Avola, Aglianico, Primitivo, Negroamaro, Falanghina, and other great Southern wines that couple so well with foods from the region. Most of Palio’s seafood dishes are Southern in origin so we feel we must have the wines that complement.

The Wine Cellar at Palio is chosen based on the Italian way of pairing food with wine. With that ideal, we have chosen over 70% of our list to be Italian wines. Within that, we’ve stopped buying wines of mixed parentage. We believe that Italian wine should reflect the terrior it came from, not some New World ‘flavor profile’. We prefer smaller producers and encourage guests to try wine from wineries unknown to them. Several wineries in Piemonte and Tuscany have been on our list since 1990, and with those kinds of relationships comes special access. Many wines are highly allocated.

When it comes to New World wines, we’re emphasizing wines that have that certain elusive quality we refer to as ‘funk’. Because Palio is in San Francisco’s Financial District, we feel compelled to serve some of the top contenders from our ‘backyard’- Napa, Sonoma, Willamette Valley, Santa Barbara, and the other nearby wine regions. Our New World Selections represent of some of the best varietals and land from the appropriate regions: Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa, Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley, and Sauvignon Blanc from Sonoma.

Also, because we want to promote the rarest and most interesting wines, we have adopted a radically different pricing structure than most restaurants. We charge retail plus corkage ($15), and we also sell retail. If you like a wine you try for dinner, buy a bottle to take home at normal retail pricing (Price minus corkage).