They'll Need a Crane

My oldest brother turned 40 on Sept 10th and unfortunately the weekend SexyBeast and I went to our friends' wedding was when my brother had his big birthday celebration.

Out of my Catholic guilt, I said I would take the 4 of us out to dinner, his choice. After much hemming and hawing and trying to find a date that would work out for all parties involved. Christopher decided on Katrinella's on lower Madison Ave, right next to the venerable Lombardo's.

I am to understand Katrinella's is fairly new. It's a small dining room, maybe fits 35 people and has a gorgeous tin ceiling.

The beauty of this place is their specials menu. For the low price of 20 bucks, you get a 3 course meal. The birthday boy started off w/ pasta fagioli, Allie, my sister-in-law, went w/ the shrimp cocktail. Not being a shrimp eater, I wasn't sure if it was good looking shrimp. They looked hearty. Sexybeast got Italian wedding soup, upon which he added more grated Parmesean. I picked the Caprese salad, big beefsteak tomatoes w/ sliced fresh water mozerella and fresh basil. Best of all, I added the oil and balsamic vinegar at my discretion. Way to cut down on the calories.

The bread came fresh from the oven. I had teeny piece. SexyBeast attacked the dipping oil for the bread. It was comprised of olive oil, LOTS of garlic, prosciutto and balsamic vinegar.

For the entrees, Allie had veal sorrento, it looked like a pound of veal. My bro had chicken pasta thing. Sexybeast had lobster ravioli, it was gone in 5 seconds. I had Chicken Miguel, chicken breasts w/ melted mozerella served w/ penne, green peppers, olives and sun dried tomatoes and lovely red wine sauce. I made a happy plate : )

And for dessert, 3 of us had the mousse cake. DIVINE! Sexybeast had the tiramsu. YUM!

And you can't beat that for 20 bucks.