Looking for Luce

Ahhh, Uptown...the bane of my existence. I have lived in Rock Hill for 4 years now, traveling fairly consistently to Charlotte, and I still can't get the hang of Uptown. Every time I go, I end up frustrated, with sore feet, and sweaty from getting lost and walking so much. That being said, there may not be too many dishes coming from Uptown for awhile. However, this blog is way overdue so maybe I'm close to attempting it again.....sometime.....

Anyhoo, Shelly, Anna, and I traveled to the evil Uptown to eat at Luce. This little restaurant is set WAY back in a plaza and has no signs to let you know it's back there (can you sense my frustration?). After I calmed down and had some water, I enjoyed the free bread and the calamari appetizer my dining companions were kind enough to order as I was getting lost on the street. The calamari was breaded and served with a spicy marinara sauce, delicious and light enough to make you think you could eay way more than you should. I love calamari, but when they put the little ones on there that really LOOK like little squid creatures, I have to pass and stick to the other options on the plate.

For my main dish I ordered the Tagliatelle. Now I had a hard time finding where to get this dish because it was originally served at Coco Osteria, which is no longer in business. Thankfully, Luce still serves some of Coco's favorites, this dish included. One hundred dishes are hard to get through and, unfortunately, some of the restaurants are no more, making it difficult to complete my task! The tagliatelle is described as "spinach tagliatelle, porcini mushrooms, prosciutto, parmesan cream sauce."




Salty, creamy goodness

I used to be an Italian food lover, but it's usually so heavy that I really stopped liking it. However, doing this 100 dish thing, I've realized a couple of things - When it's made well, Italian food is FABULOUS and you can always get a to-go box!

The tagliatelle is pretty similar to fettucini and this one was made with spinach, so it was full of flavor. The cream sauce was pretty heavy, but there wasn't too much on the dish so it evened out. The prosciutto added a salty flavor that balanced well with the pasta and sauce. They also added fresh cheese on the top, which gave it a tangy flavor. I don't really like onions in certain dishes, so I really didn't eat these. I guess if you like onions, they would have been good, but I wouldn't know. Overall, this was a really good salty, creamy dish with perfectly cooked pasta. I am still a HUGE fan of Vivace's pasta, but Luce comes pretty close.

For dessert, of course, I had the tiramisu. I am still looking for tiramisu as good as it was in Boston.

This would not be it. It was served, as you can see, in a cup - not as the piece that I'm used to. It was good, as tiramisu usually always is, but it is definitely not up to the quality of Mike's Pastry Shop in Boston.

As far as the rest of Luce, we sat outside because it was beautiful weather. Their patio is really nice and it's fun to see all the business people coming out of the buildings. The wait staff was very attentive, given the fact I have no idea exactly how much water I drank because they kept filling it up. If only they had a little sign at the entrance to the plaza......