Fresco Italian Cafe

Address: 1513 S 1500 E, Salt Lake City

ES and I went to dinner to Fresco Italian Cafe the other night for the very first time. It is located near a couple of our other favorite restaurants Mazza and Paris. So we've been meaning to try it sometime. It had the loveliest outdoor patio surrounded by a vines and trees. With cute little birds popping out every now and then. A gorgeous Utah summer night serendipitously added to the ambiance. The service was impeccable, I felt like we were her only table but a little on the stuffy side. She wasn't rude by any means, but she described the food to be "gorgeous" and "brilliant". Which I took note of as I am running out of adjectives for all these blog entries.

The chef, Mikel Trapp, has a seasonal menu, so it might not help to suggest what we had, but I will anyway. ES had the Lamb in this earthy rustic sauce. The lamb was cooked so perfectly and the sauce just complemented it so well. I think I ended up eating all of his. I ordered the strip steak. Me, trying to be more sophisticated, ordered the rarest I could handle, which was a measly medium. So of course that was also cooked perfectly and of course, it then grossed me out. So after eating around all the edges, ES ended up eating the rest of mine.

The dessert seriously was the most 'brilliant' thing I have ever eaten. As usual ES and I just ordered one to share, but I was totally regretting it. It was three small desserts, one was a banana beer budino (italian pudding) with an almond creme sauce, the next was this chocolate cake with candied almonds and a cinnamon cream sauce, and the last (my favorite) was a cinnamon gelato with dark chocolate coffee crumbles. If I wasn't surrounded by all tables occupied by well-bred, higher society, I would have grabbed the cake with both my hands and rammed it in my face, and then lick the whole plate clean. It was that good.