Eatwith is an app I came across recently that offers intimate dining experiences within people’s homes. Yes, strangers. Yet, before that deters you, know that Eatwith does an excellent job of screening hosts and offers a protection policy that you can read about on their website here. Plus, you’re dining with a few other guests as well.
My friend and I selected an Italian dinner in the East Village with 4 guests and 2 hosts – a married Italian gay couple who were amazing conversationalists and even more talented chefs. They were incredibly welcoming and had an excellent place setting for us:
The dinner was BYOB so I brought a 2017 La Capranera by Fiano, which was unintentionally Italian and had a 4.1 rating on Vivino. I should have brought two bottles because we ended up staying for a while to talk!
As for the food, I have never had a more authentic Italian meal. Both Giuseppe and his partner are directly from Italy and they knew how to procure an authentic experience. There were fresh vegetables and a lot of cheese. Exceptionally good cheese. The next course was equally well-executed – a light quiche with a side of ratatouille that I don’t even have a picture of because it was that good. As for the main, we went with classic pasta – genovese “paccheri” with a light saffron sauce. Giuseppe and his partner explained the process of making it from scratch.
After the pasta was an amazing dessert called Migliaccio, which was made with millet flour. The strawberries were soaked in some sort of liquor:
Giuseppe even brought out a homemade spirit called Limoncello (made from Italian lemons of course) that was made by the host’s mother and was unbelievably good.
Over the course of dinner, we all bonded fairly quickly and the conversation moved through a variety of topics without being awkward at all. We all even exchanged numbers for future events. I cannot thank Giuseppe enough for hosting us and I am definitely looking forward to the next gathering.
Short Skirt Long Jacket 