The veal chop, and the case for the big plate
Sixteen ounces, bone in, breaded, and broiled in the wood-fired oven. When to order the largest thing on the menu, and what to do with the rest of the table.
There is a moment in a menu where a restaurant has to decide whether it is serious. Ours is Carne, and specifically the veal chop.
Sixteen ounces, two ways
The cotoletta di vitello is a bone-in veal chop, breaded, and it comes two ways. Alla milanese is the plain one: the chop, cherry tomatoes, arugula, nothing hiding. Alla parmigiana goes into the wood-fired oven with San Marzano tomato sauce and burrata over the top, and comes out looking like an argument you are about to lose.
Order the milanese if you want to taste the veal. Order the parmigiana if you want the table to go quiet when it lands. Both are correct.
What else is over there
The Barolo-braised short rib is the slow one: braised in Barolo, finished in a jus reduction, with mashed potatoes, sunchokes and asparagus. The lamb chops are Colorado, marinated and grilled, with an arugula, fennel and cherry tomato salad. The tagliata di manzo is a New York strip sliced the Tuscan way and served over arugula, which is the one to order if there are two of you and neither wants to commit to a whole chop alone.
And there is a burger, Wagyu, with taleggio and truffle fries, for the nights when that is simply what you want. We are not precious about it.
How to build the rest of the table around it
A big plate does not want company on the plate. It wants contorni: roasted potatoes with rosemary and garlic, broccoli rabe with lemon, mushrooms in a pan with herbs. Two sides between four people, in the middle, and one pasta earlier to share.
That is a proper meal, and it is how the room eats on a Saturday.
