Coltivare

In a little over 24 hours, I will be on a plane to NYC, listening to some cool jams, dirty martini in hand!

And by "listening to some cool jams, dirty martini in hand" I mean "in a dramamine-induced nap coma, head resting on my neck pillow, with Mindy Kaling's book on my lap and possibly probably some drool hanging from the side of my mouth."

Marry me please?

But seriously y'all, I'm SO EXCITED. I have such plans. Mostly plans that involve eating all of the pizza. I'll be sure to keep track of the 172 varieties on Instagram YOU'RE WELCOME PLANET EARTH.

Orange-zesting at Saint Arnold Brewery

The other night I went to dinner at Coltivare, followed by attending the Saint Arnold zesting party with my friend Christy, who probably loves New York City just as much I do. Well really she loves it more than I do. Because I love hate love hate hate love love hate hate hate LOVE hate love insert every emotion New York. (semi-related: Have you ever seen this book? HILARIOUS.) My connection here is that Christy loves New York, a city known for its vibrant and eclectic food scene, so she is the perfect partner in crime when visiting new and exciting restaurants in Houston (which, in my completely biased opinion are often just as good as, if not better than, the ones in NYC. Yeah, I said it.).

So we went to Coltivare!

The inside of Coltivare is very inviting and seems to exclaim "Farm-to-Table!" with it's simple, yet rustic/industrial, decor. And the vegetable garden in the back is fantastic. I have to admit, though, after perusing the menu I was very skeptical of all the hype surrounding Coltivare. It's a pretty small menu and the items on it all sounded very basic and un-exciting.

But they are tricksters, those Coltivarians. Because everything we had was completely exciting, innovative, and breathtaking. Also, in Coltivare's defense, this was my first attempt at eating out as a vegetarian, so options are probably starting to look a little more limited as a default.

Regardless, I love when I'm proven wrong for the better.

At Christy's recommendation, we started by ordering the cauliflower with pine nuts and raisins.

Christy is a wise woman.

Seriously, how was this SO GOOD? What enhanced the cauliflower to the point of it being such a step up from other cauliflower dishes I've had? Was it the pine nuts? The raisins? A dash of sunshine? Whatever it was, this dish was incredible. The pine nuts gave it a delightful crunch, and the golden raisins created the perfect contrast of sweet against salty (so chew on THAT 4-year old, raisin-hating Self!).

The next thing we ordered was my absolute favorite thing of the night.

Hot.buttered.baby.beets.

Is this real life? And look, I understand that for some [completely inexplicable and unforgivable] reason beets are a polarizing food. But I challenge all beet naysayers by saying: "You haven't tried these beets." They're rich, and velvety, and vibrant, and sweet, and soft, and the BUTTAH my goodness. What a sinfully outstanding and "Beetiful" (love me please) dish.

For our entree, we split the pizza with yukon potatoes, oyster mushrooms, taleggio, rosemary, and garlic. And once again, I was not disappointed. Christy and I had expressed some concerns to our server about potatoes on a pizza (yeah I agree, were we out of our minds to question what basically sounds like heaven?), but she assured us that the dish was awesome.

And it totally was. The rich, white taleggio cheese and rosemary complemented the thinly sliced potatoes beautifully. This pizza, in concordance with the other dishes, felt like a true indulgence.

Coltivare is a delightful new spot in the Heights, so go go go! The dishes are simple, yet thoughtful, and there's something there for everybody (even Kim The New Vegetarian). Be sure to get there early, as the wait tends to get pretty long the later you show up.

So level with me: How many pieces of New York pizza can one Kim consume in the span of 72 hours? I'm willing to bet on a cool 32. WITH potatoes.

4 comments dinner, food, heights, houston, italian, pizza, vegetarian

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