Food Blog

Catherine Lombardi’s is an Italian place owned by the guys who own Stage Left. Mark and Francis are also known as the Restaurant Guys who do a local radio show available as a postcast. It sounds like one of the best food related podcasts, and I’m surprised I hadn’t heard of it before. They’ve had some excellent guests and discussions. In one of the episodes they discuss kids in restaurants (after this whole controversy) and olive oil. I’ll be listening to their archives for awhile.

As for the Catherine Lombardi’s, it’s probably the most elegant restaurant in New Brunswick now. Extremely comfortable, nicely spread out tables, great big comfy booths, fireplaces and La Chouffe on tap at the bar. (These guys are good at beer, they have several Belgians on tap downstairs in Stage Left). On the tables is a very nice Tuscan style olive oil made in Sicily - Frantoia, which they discuss in the podcast I linked to above.

I had a Spiedini with anchovies, which was good, but noted by a table mate that it was a ‘bit rustic’ with the crusts still on it.

For the entree I had “Cumare, Nancy’s Stuffed Calamari with Red Sauce”.

This was great, perfectly cooked, with a nicely done stuffing. For desert I had a marscapone cheesecake. The lump of marscapone on the side was a nice touch.

I’d definitely want to go back and try some of the others things here, I had a bite of the scallopini, and would want to get some more of that.