As always, my birthday celebration takes more than one day. I originally wanted to do a Chef’s Dinner Table Puerto Rican Tasting Menu on my birthday but violaleeblue could only do the day after. So for my actual birthday I had dinner with Mike and meli at a local restaurant that I had always wanted to try. I thought that Il Poeta was like the many other Italian restaurants along Metropolitan Avenue in Forest Hills but I was mistaken. I took a look at the menu and realized that the food was northern Italian and not red sauce Italian. So I was very excited to try it. And after this meal, this restaurant will enter into my neighborhood restaurant rotation. (Earlier in the day, Marco and I had lunch at another local restaurant.)

Originally dinner was just going to be me and Mike but meli wanted to buy me dinner for my birthday and I told her of my plans and she made the trek from Brooklyn to Queens. She was visiting NYC for a few days and it is always nice when her visit coincides with my birthday.

The restaurant is small and crowded on a Thursday night. Many of the people were obvious regulars. Thursday night is “bring your own wine” night. I think I had a glass of their Chianti – I like Chianti, especially with Italian food.

I had already looked over the menu at home and had decided that I would probably have two or three appetizers. The problem was deciding which ones. And then I saw the specials and it made the decision even more difficult.

I finally decided on Fegatini di Pollo (chicken liver sauteed with endive, radicchio, balsamic dressing served with soft polenta), Croquette di Melanzane (eggplant and ricotta croquette served with light tomato sauce and sauteed spinach), and Grilled Octopus with cherry tomatoes, black olives, capers, potatoes, oil and lemon dressing. The octopus is the only dish that I got a photo of.

Everything was as delicious as I had hoped it would be. I finished the octopus and about half each of the liver and croquettes. The octopus was as good as any I have had before. The liver was earthy, which was offset with the bitterness of the endive and radicchio and just a little sweetness from the polenta. I could have used more ricotta in the croquettes but I am always happy with eggplant. Both the croquettes and the chicken liver tasted even better the next day.

We did not have dessert because I had a cannoli cake waiting for me at the bar. (I had bought the cake for myself and for whomever was in the bar that night.)

Marco had bought me a beautiful bottle of Port for Valentine’s Day, which I had not opened yet, so I brought it to the bar and had it with the cake. It was delicious as was the cannoli cake.

All in all, a wonderful start to my birthday.