December 08 – Cerca Trova has closed. R.I.P.
Seek and you shall find… I’ve traveled all over and in cities all over the world there are tiny Italian neighborhood restaurants. Pa cooking, Ma (or the neighborhood girl or boy) serving fantastic fresh food, and tasty and modestly priced wines. Other than the absolutely delightful Italian Connection, Fort Wayne had been lacking these sorts of places. No more. Cerca Trova, located on East State in a strip mall, is just that sort of place.
Cerca Trova might be a bit more upscale than your typical trattoria, but it’s still a gem. Dinner started with a complimentary garlicky aiola and bread with fennel seeds, followed by a tiny meatball with pickled Italian vegatables. (What exactly are Italian vegtables? Beats me, but they were tasty.)
I had gnocchi for an appetizer, and to put it simply, it was the best I’ve ever had, and I’ve eaten a lot of gnocchi, bucko. Debbie had fried artichokes that were very tasty.
For a main course I had a ravioli duo, one was ground beef, one was cheese and spinach. The ground beef was so good, it was coarse ground, like sausage, so flavorful and such a pleasing texture.
The one sour note in the evening was Debbie’s pork milanese. The pork tasted strongly of refrigerator (never order pork on Tuesday? to pun on Anthony Bourdain, though I don’t think he can claim to be the first to say, “never order fish on Monday.” And it was sadly lacking in the lemony bite I’d expect in a milanese style dish.
Desserts (key lime cream and cannoli) were splendid, as was the espresso I had to go with it.
Despite the flub on the pork milanese, everything else was so good I don’t hesitate to recommend Cerca Trova to you.
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