Quite the deal (plus a Sunday treat)
Posted on May 7th, 2008 – 8:37 AMBy Bill Ward
Get thee to Spasso, pronto. The new Italian eatery in Minnetonka has some decent food, but the big lure is the wine. Specifically the prices, although the selection is pretty swell.
Owned by the same folks who operate the wine store next door (The Wine Shop of Minnetonka), Spasso offers a slew of bottles at retail prices.
The beautifully integrated Tinto Pesquera tempranillo from Spain is $36, for example, and the lush and lusty Martinelli Guiseppe & Luisa zin costs $52. Piedmont aficionados, take note: There are four retail-priced offerings from Paolo Scavino’s outstanding portfolio.
The white, sparkling and dessert offerings are similarly wallet-friendly: Marco Felluga Mollamatta blend at $22, the Nicholas Feuillatte Brut 1998 for $49, and a glass of Isole & Olena vin santo at $13.
The wide-ranging, deftly chosen list — heavy on Italy, of course (Spasso is Italian for “amuse”) — also boasts some nice choices at the low end, such as Evans & Tate chardonnay at $21 and the Santa Duc Cotes du Rhone red blend at $21.
And there are 38 wines by the glass (with generous pours on my visit), so experimenting is encouraged. A couple who normally would split a bottle for dinner might consider getting one glass apiece to start, then quaff half of a bargain-priced bottle and cork the rest to take home. After all, it’s the same as buying a bottle at a store, price-wise.
Speaking of which, the Wine Shop is now staying open until 10 p.m. daily (except Sunday, of course), affording customers the opportunity to grab a bottle or three of a wine they just discovered next door.
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In an only tangentially related note — it does involve good juice — Morton’s has a cool-sounding promotion going Sunday, which is some kind of Hallmark-driven holiday, best I can tell. It’s a Champagne cocktail in which the bubbly is poured atop a wild hibiscus flower, which then blooms. It’ll set you back 16 simoleons, but that’s a small price to pay for enthralling the maternal honoree of the day.
2 Responses to "Quite the deal (plus a Sunday treat)"
A friendly correction that the restaurant is called Spasso. The etymology of the Italian word also lends itself to German where the word Spaß (spass) also means to make fun or to amuse.
You’re right, Dana. My bad. I’ve fixed it in this post, and provided a link to the restaurant’s new website.
I went to Spasso again last night and am adding a note on Spasso to my most recent post as well.
