Lunch at Accanto

Last week, I was invited to check out Accanto, an Italian restaurant in Southeast Portland’s Belmont neighborhood. Since my old apartment was only a few blocks from the restaurant, I’d been a few times before for their Happy Hour menu. However, I hadn’t checked out their new digs since their recent remodel earlier this month. I’m happy to report that the place looked absolutely beautiful:

Their remodel really opened the space up — it was airy and beautiful, filled with lots of natural light, warm wood and bright colors:

In addition to the makeover, Accanto has recently started serving weekday lunches on Wednesday through Friday! The lunch menu is absolutely wonderful, filled with much beloved Italian dishes like bruschetta, gnocchi, and roasted vegetables. Erlend and I were lucky enough to sample from the menu and pick out some especially delightful dishes. We started with an order of deviled eggs, topped with crunchy bits of prosciutto:

We then went a little crazy and ordered three different entrees between us, not realizing that the bruschetta would be a meal by itself:

The menu had three different types of bruschetta to choose from — we went with our waiter’s recommendation, which was duck confit and candied kumquats sitting up top two generous slices of Ken’s Artisan Bread.

This was followed by Erlend’s dish choice, which was “Trippa Alla Romana”; that is, traditional roman stew with pecorino and grilled bread:

And of course, we tried to balance out all this meat and bread with a portion of my favorite vegetable: brussels sprouts! Accanto’s brussels sprouts were panfried to crispy perfection, mixed in with chili, anchovy, garlic, almond, and lemon:

Definitely, definitely, definitely my favorite dish. Who knew that vegetables could taste so good?

At this point, Erlend and I were completely stuffed. But once I took a look at the menu, I knew I couldn’t pass up some of their desserts. I opted for a chocolate orange pot de creme which came in a HUGE teacup and was topped with favorites like a shortbread cookie, salted caramel, and vanilla bean whipped cream:

And despite Erlend’s protests, I made him get their tiramisu, which was made with espresso-soaked polenta pound cake layered between mascarpone cream:

Beautiful, right? Despite our full stomachs, we couldn’t help but finish it all. Every bite was absolutely delicious.

Learn more:

• Check out Accanto’s website to see their brunch, lunch, dinner and happy hour menus and to make a reservation. As I wrote earlier, Accanto is now open for weekday lunch on Wednesdays through Fridays. 
• Little Green Pickle is the media relations firm that organized this lunch. Special thanks to Frances for putting this together and inviting me!
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