A perk of lawyering in a mid-to-large law firm is summer associate interview season. I love interviewing people because I am nosy and I love to ask a million questions about their lives. I especially love summer associate interview season because I get to interview people and get a fancy lunch out of it. Our usual lunch digs for this purpose is The Carlton or McCormick & Schmicks, both of which are very nice. This most recent time, we decided to change it up and check out Sienna Sulla Piazza.
Confession: I’m not big on going out for Italian food. To me, Italian food is the food you eat at home. I don’t go out for things I could just make at home. Nevermind that this train of thought makes no sense because most places make Italian food much better than I make at home, but whatever, this habit is hard to break. So even though Italian is usually near the bottom of my list when it comes to dining out, I heard a glowing recommendation of Sienna a couple weeks back and decided to try it out.
YOU GUYZ.
I started with the chilled corn and crab soup. It was a deep bowl teeming with sweet roasted corn and flaky crab. Sweet and salty and delicate, I think this is the best summer soup I’ve ever had in forever.
The setup for a summer associate candidate lunch is the candidate plus two associates. I usually don’t photograph food during summer associate lunches because it makes me look like a crazy person. (I have only photographed lunch once before during such an interview lunch, and during both times the candidate was nonplussed and claimed I did not look like a crazy person…photographing plates is clearly becoming more socially acceptable). So with this amazing meal, I could not help myself. And I did photograph the other associate’s lunch (see pizza, above), but I did restrain myself from photographing the interviewee’s food, because that would just be too much.
The flatbread pizza was heavy with thick slices of sausage and dollops of ricotta cheese. The other associate ate one slice of it and declared he didn’t care for it. Because he does not have good taste. He ended up getting it packaged up but later decided he didn’t want it. So I ended up taking the remainder of the pizza, because it was awesome, and you can’t let pizza like this go to waste.
Pasta isn’t a good option for a lunch where you actually have to go back to your office and get WORK DONE during the afternoon, but I could not pass up this pasta with rabbit and parsnips and carrots. It was hearty and salty. I really can’t identify anything comparable. It is a perfect cold-weather stick-to-your-bones meal, but on this day it was like 90 degrees outside, and it was STILL amazing.
I’ve had some good lunches downtown, but Sienna blows them all away. I am truly in love with this place. The prices are fancy-meal prices, so it’s ideal to save this place for a special occasion. The menu offers everything from the basic spaghetti and meatballs to my more-exotic rabbit selection, so it’s a perfect place to bring your dining companions who may not be as adventurous as you.
Yes, it’s true that I only post about a restaurant if I like it, however Sienna was truly exceptional. I just loved this place. I’ll be heading back every chance I get.
