My Shout-Out to Picco

For me, the best part of the holidays is  getting together with friends to celebrate the season. Last week, I was meeting friends for a yuletide lunch and the choice of restaurants was mine. At the top of my list was Picco, Pizza and Ice Cream Company. Founded five years by Rick Katz, long-time Boston pastry chef with stints at Legal Seafood and Biba, this is my favorite lunch place. As a pastry chef myself whose favorite foods include pizza and ice cream, how could I not love it, especially when the pizza is first-rate and the ice creams exquisite.Though I may occasionally accompany my pizza with wine – and for me the essential pizza wine is primtivo/zinfandel - for this festive occasion, I chose a Yuletide brew from Troegs  Brewing Company, Mad Elf. The red-hued ale, elegantly served in a tulip glass,  brewed with sweet and sour cherries, local Pennsylvania honey and a Belgian yeast, was wonderful – it almost made me glad that it was winter. We began our meal with white bean and goat cheese bruschetta – simple but entirely flavorful. Next, for the salad course, we chose two – roasted beet and goat cheese and the caesar. Though beet and goat cheese salads have become ubiquitous and too often pedestrian, this salad was well made – the earthiness of the beets and goat cheese accented with spiced hazelnuts and a balsamic vinaigrette. The caesar was equally good – perfectly dressed, tossed with small croutons that added a lot of crunch and garnished with white anchovies(!). The pizza we chose was the Alsatian, Picco’s take on the classic tarte flambe. The foundation of any pizza is the dough and here that is perfect. Upon this foundation are added onions, shallots, garlic, sour cream, bacon and gruyere. Heavenly! And then, we were on to the second part of the equation – ice cream. One of my friends opted for the toasted gingerbread with vanilla ice cream with raspberry sauce – which was very good –  but the rest of us had the ice cream sampler – three overly generous scoops of great ice cream. All the flavors we chose were outstanding but particularly worth mentioning are the chocolate – deep, deep chocolate flavor with great mouthfeel – and the coffee chip – intensely flavored coffee studded with multitudinous flakes of chocolate. Picco was perfect for our holiday get-together - enjoying each others company, catching up on personal and professional news, family events and gossip and enjoying a great meal in a comfortable and relaxing space.

In the skirmishes of the pizza wars, some may proclaim for Emma’s, some for The Upper Crust, but as for me, this is my shout-out for Picco.