When my dear friend Fiona texts me on a Monday to make plans for Friday, I know she’s ready for a night out. And when she tells me to wear pleather leggings? I know she means business. So last night, donned in my favorite new pair of pants, I had a great night of food, dancing and laughs with the girls.
This post actually pains me a little to write. I have had the utmost admiration for Lydia Shire since moving to Boston, I even met her once while having a drink at the bar. I have spent many a night at Towne, frequented the Liberty Hotel yet I’ve never made my way into Scampo. So last night we met our 9:00 reservation with much excitement! When dining with the ladies, it usually consists of a number of smaller dishes to share which is great because then I’m able to sample more on the menu. We carefully picked our bottle of savvy b while waiting for our table, then a great pinot grigio to go with the dishes. After much discussion we opted to share the mozzarella with vine ripe heirloom tomatoes and arugula, the Hungarian mangalica prosciutto with the basket of chestnut parmigiano arrancini, Patrick’s naan with prosciutto, and the Italian “bufala” mozzarella pizza with peppadews & sweet Italian sausage, and the duck fat fries. I know these are all simple choices, and maybe I had allowed the hype to get to me, but I was ended up disappointed. My passion let me down.
Let me clarify here though, it wasn’t all bad. But when the best part of the food portion of your Friday night is the prosciutto and a miniscule arrancini, you know you’re going to have to make up for it the rest of the night. I guess I just expected an Italian spot to have better pizza, I felt they fell flat. There was nothing about the pizza or the naan that made me say “oh my God, I have to come back here”. And the duck fat fries, while good, completely lacked seasoning and needed more than just salt. I think myself to be somewhat of a french fry connoisseur and these were not cutting the mustard. Basically, if I’m not writing in detail, there was no detail to share with you.
Will I go back? Probably, I need to see what all the hype is about and maybe I caught it on a bad night. But there are far more places I need to give a whirl first.
Lesson learned last night? Not even pleather pants can make a meal of sub-par prosciutto better. But let me tell you we still had one hell of a night!

Bon appetit!