{"id":7640,"date":"2011-04-11T22:10:07","date_gmt":"2011-04-12T04:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=7640"},"modified":"2018-07-19T18:28:53","modified_gmt":"2018-07-20T00:28:53","slug":"amici-albuquerque-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=7640","title":{"rendered":"Amici – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Amici:
<\/span> Amici: Pizza, Pasta, Salad and More<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“There are two laws of the universe — gravity, and everyone likes Italian food<\/span><\/em>.”<\/span>
\nNeil Simon, American playwright and screenwriter<\/span><\/p>\n

A 2007 Harris Poll declared Italian food the most popular ethnic food in America, revealing that when Americans eat out, the cuisine of choice for nearly a quarter of them is Italian food. \u00a0Among the youngest group of respondents, those aged 18-30, the percentage is even higher. \u00a0Famous oenophile and food writer Dino Romano believes Italian food is so popular because humans are genetically predisposed to eat as many things that are good for us as possible. \u00a0Romano believes Italian cuisine lends itself to an anthropological need to eat a large variety of foods in many ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps the operative word here should be “large.” \u00a0When it comes to Italian food, most of us believe the only thing wrong with Italian food is described in the adage, “the problem with Italian food is two days later you’re hungry again<\/em>.” \u00a0We like our pasta in profuse portions (lotsa pasta), our pizzas to be prolific, our cannoli to be colossal, our antipasti to be ample. \u00a0You get the picture. \u00a0When it comes to dieting, there are many other things we’d rather give up. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"The
<\/span> The colorful interior at Amici<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Compared to Italians, Americans are veritable lightweights in the consumption of pasta, eating about twenty pounds per person per year compared to a whopping sixty pounds of pasta per person per year among Italians. \u00a0It’s no wonder the number of Italian restaurants opening up across the fruited plain outstrips the number of new start-ups among any other ethnic cuisine. <\/span><\/p>\n

The launch of a new Italian restaurant is a cause celebre, a time to break out a nice bottle of Chianti. \u00a0In late December, 2009, Duke City Diners in the know had good cause to celebrate with the launch of Amici in Granada Square off Montgomery Boulevard. \u00a0Situated at the former site of short-lived Iron Skillet and before that Gruet Grille, it sits in\u00a0an area heavily populated by professional offices and apartment complexes. \u00a0There is some semblance to previous restaurant\u00a0tenants, but a $25,000 make-over imbued the 3,800 square-foot restaurant with a more colorful and buoyant, clearly Italian\u00a0personality.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/span> Dinner salad with Ranch dressing<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As if the launch of a new Italian restaurant isn’t reason enough to celebrate, Amici returned, for a short while at least, to the Albuquerque dining scene one of the most genial people to grace a Duke City restaurant. \u00a0That would be Rosetta Richietti Stewart who ran the Pantry Cafe and McGilvray’s\u00a0for nearly two decades\u00a0in the burgeoning downtown area before selling them both in 2005. \u00a0Her partners at Amici were former State Representative Dan Silva and his wife Angie who bought out Rosetta and assumed sole ownership of the restaurant.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rosetta and the Silvas named their new restaurant venture Amici because it means “friends” in Italian.\u00a0 The restaurant staff will indeed make you feel welcome at this bright and open restaurant.\u00a0 Amici lives up to its name, which by-the-way is subtitled “Pizza * Pasta * Salad,” the three mainstays on a rather abbreviated menu that tries not to be a compendium of all things Italian, but a select number of dishes prepared well. \u00a0In February, 2010, Amici obtained a beer and wine license.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Housemade
<\/span> Housemade Italian Bread<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Amici is an advocate of Dino Romano’s approach to healthy Italian food, even employing olive oil (one of the key components of the Mediterranean diet) on the pizza dough and placing a decanter of it on each table.\u00a0 It\u00a0 is also a proponent of fresh ingredients and uncompromising quality. \u00a0In this case, quality does not translate to expensive. \u00a0Prices and portion sizes are reasonable.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first item on the menu is pizza which is available in three sizes: small (12-inches), medium (14-inches) and large (16-inches). \u00a0Six designer gourmet pizzas, all named for Italian locations as they would be spelled on an Italian map (Napoli, Roma, Firenze, Venice, Sicily and Milano), are offered or you can have a cheese pizza topped with any of sixteen toppings. <\/span><\/p>\n

Oven-fresh baked breads are the canvas on which Amici’s panini sandwiches are served. \u00a0Eight panini sandwiches, all with Italian names, are available. \u00a0They are served with a side salad. \u00a0Larger appetites will gravitate toward one of the seven calzones on the menu. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Green
<\/span> Green chile and potato soup<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The pasta menu lists only six entrees–Lasagna Bolognese (with ground beef), Lasagna Bolognese (meatless), Fettuccini Alfredo with green chile, Penne Pasta topped with marinara sauce, hand-made Cheese Ravioli Alfredo, hand-made Cheese Ravioli topped with marinara sauce. \u00a0Also on the menu are chicken wings served twelve per order with the restaurant’s in-house Ranch dressing. \u00a0Five salads and a Zuppe del Giorno (soup of the day) complete the menu, again not a large menu, but one in which quality is emphasized over sheer numbers. \u00a0Spaghetti with meatballs, by the way, is a featured special of the day every day though it’s not on the menu.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shortly after you’re seated, a plate of sliced bread is delivered to your table. \u00a0It’s Italian bread baked in-house and as crusty and airy delicious as any Italian bread in town. \u00a0Though olive oil is to be found on each table, you’ll have to ask for butter if you want it. \u00a0Don’t bother asking for Balsamic vinegar because you’ll get the restaurant’s Balsamic based salad dressing, a far cry from restaurant quality Balsamic vinegar.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Zuppe del Giorno is not limited to a perfunctory minestrone or pasta fagioli. \u00a0Our inaugural visit was on a bleak and dreary gray day in which the only soup which would have hit the spot was exactly what Amici was offering, a creamy green chile and potato soup<\/em>. \u00a0This elixir for cold weather blues is of medium thickness with tiny slices of perfectly boiled potatoes and a green chile piquant enough to get your attention. \u00a0This is comfort food soup that would be good on any day. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Lasagna
<\/span> Lasagna Bolognese with beef<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Garfield, the famous persnickety cartoon cat once said, “when the lasagna content in my blood gets low, I get mean<\/em>.” \u00a0There are times I can empathize with him, times when only the sweet succor of luscious lasagna can quell my cravings. \u00a0When you lust for lasagna, Amici is a good option, offering not one, but two different Lasagna Bolognese<\/em> options, a meatless option and one with ground beef.<\/span><\/p>\n

The meatless option is layered pasta with bell peppers, onions, mushroom, spinach and a triumvirate of cheeses (ricotta, parmesan and mozzarella) blanketed with marinara sauce. \u00a0The meaty option is composed of layered pasta, ground beef, onions, mushrooms and two terrific cheeses, ricotta and mozzarella covered in marinara sauce.<\/span><\/p>\n

Amici’s lasagna reminds me very much of the lasagna of my youth in Massachusetts when I practically lived in mom and pop restaurants specializing in “red sauce.” \u00a0At first glance, it resembles a pasta loaf swimming in an island of marinara sauce. \u00a0It’s a thick slab of deliciousness, a concordant marriage of perfectly prepared pasta layered with well-seasoned ground beef, rich mozzarella and a marinara sauce emphasizing the sweetness of the tomato. \u00a0The sauce has a slightly chunky texture, but it’s the sweetness of the tomato foundation which we liked best. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Roma
<\/span> Roma pizza: Smoked Ham, Fresh Tomato, Mozzarella Cheese, Roasted Garlic, Marinara Sauce<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A large segment of the popularity of Italian cuisine can be attributed to pizza which Americans eat at the rate of approximately 100 acres daily, or about 350 slices per second. \u00a0By itself, pizza is a $30 billion dollar per year industry with more than 69,000 pizzerias churning out about three-billion pizzas each year in the UnitedStates. \u00a0Representing 17 percent of all restaurants, pizza accounts for more than ten percent of all food service sales.<\/span><\/p>\n

Amici’s six gourmet pizzas are fashioned with ingredient combinations designed to complement each another. \u00a0The amenable wait staff will even swap one or two of the ingredients if you so desire. \u00a0On the\u00a0Roma<\/em>, a pulchritudinous pie constructed with eggplant, fresh tomato, mozzarella cheese, roasted garlic and mozzarella sauce, we asked for smoked ham instead of eggplant and got it. <\/span><\/p>\n

If the Roma is any indication, Amici’s pies are thin-crusted–not the waifishly thin crust you can nearly see through, but stout enough to hold up against the volume of generous ingredient toppings. \u00a0It has just a hint of char, not the pinto pony speckled char that sometimes denotes burnt, and its outside edges are heavily populated with the airy holes that seem to define good pizza. \u00a0The crust is soft, but perfectly baked through and through and as with the restaurant’s other bread-based products, it has a fresh baked bread flavor which means biting into it will welcome you with the wafting steam unique to the staff of life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/span> The Danielo, a panini made with hard Salami, smoked ham, pepperoni, mozzarella cheese, red onion, tomato, romaine lettuce, with a house vinaigrette<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our modified Roma was\u00a0 delicious, a sixteen-inch, hand-crafted beauty resplendent with premium ingredients. \u00a0The smoked ham is discernibly different from the Canadian bacon offered at many pizzerias. \u00a0Real tomatoes with their slightly acidic bite complement the sweetness of the marinara sauce, a two-punch tomato combination that helps make this a special pizza.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s possible Italians from the old country wouldn’t recognize the large pressed sandwiches Americans call panini.\u00a0 In Italy, panini is a small bread roll, not some super-sized ciabatta or Italian country bread behemoth.\u00a0 By any name, Americans have been embracing those toasted, pressed sandwiches for years.\u00a0 Amici’s rendition of the trendy panini is just a bit different in that the sandwich isn’t pressed.\u00a0 In fact, the sandwich is at least twice as thick as most pressed paninis.\u00a0 The Danielo<\/em> is engorged with hard salami, smoked ham, pepperoni, mozzarella cheese, red onion, tomato, romaine lettuce with a house vinaigrette dressing.\u00a0 It’s a nice sandwich though the salami lacked personality and other than with its saltiness, didn’t distinguish itself.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

About the only thing that isn’t made in-house are desserts. \u00a0The tiramisu<\/em> is nonetheless a very good dessert with a strong espresso flavor and a melt-in-your-mouth texture. \u00a0As with the rest of the menu, the number of available desserts is rather limited with chocolate cannoli available on occasion.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Tiramisu
<\/span> Tiramisu<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Amici exemplifies many of the things Americans love about Italian food and with the Silvas at the helm, a promising future seems imminent. <\/span><\/p>\n

Amici<\/strong>
\n4243 Montgomery, N.E.
\nAlbuquerque, New Mexico<\/strong>
\nLATEST VISIT<\/strong>: 11 April 2011
\n1st VISIT<\/strong>: 14 March 2010
\n# OF VISITS<\/strong>: 2
\nRATING<\/strong>: 17
\nCOST<\/strong>: $$
\nBEST BET<\/strong>: Lasagna Bolognese, The Roma (Pizza), Tiramisu, Green Chile Potato Soup<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“There are two laws of the universe — gravity, and everyone likes Italian food.” Neil Simon, American playwright and screenwriter A 2007 Harris Poll declared Italian food the most popular ethnic food in America, revealing that when Americans eat out, the cuisine of choice for nearly a quarter of them is Italian food. \u00a0Among the youngest group of respondents, those aged 18-30, the percentage is even higher. \u00a0Famous oenophile and food writer Dino Romano believes Italian food is so popular because humans are genetically predisposed to eat as many things that are good for us as possible. \u00a0Romano believes Italian cuisine lends itself to an anthropological need to eat a large variety of foods in many ways. Perhaps the operative…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[440,595,262,71,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-albuquerque","category-closed-in-2012","category-closed","category-italian","category-pizza"],"yoast_head":"\nAmici - Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED) - Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=7640\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Amici - Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED) - Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"“There are two laws of the universe — gravity, and everyone likes Italian food.” Neil Simon, American playwright and screenwriter A 2007 Harris Poll declared Italian food the most popular ethnic food in America, revealing that when Americans eat out, the cuisine of choice for nearly a quarter of them is Italian food. \u00a0Among the youngest group of respondents, those aged 18-30, the percentage is even higher. \u00a0Famous oenophile and food writer Dino Romano believes Italian food is so popular because humans are genetically predisposed to eat as many things that are good for us as possible. \u00a0Romano believes Italian cuisine lends itself to an anthropological need to eat a large variety of foods in many ways. 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