La Ciccia – The Pork Feast

La Ciccia might be my new Italian hot spot. We went on Monday night for their pork feast. La Ciccia is usually closed on Mondays but on the last Monday of (almost) every month they serve up a themed family style feast. My friend tells me that September is always pork and October is always lamb. For those that know about this event, they are lucky to get a seat as spots fill up fast! The one seating for the evening starts at 7pm and they promptly begin the free flowing service of wine and appetizers.

To start off we had these luscious, bright green olives with pickled onions and an assortment of marinated vegetables. Next, the humongous platter of house-cured salumis made their way onto the table. I didn't quite catch all the salumis (there was a prosciutto and prosciutta) and about 3 varieties of salumis. They were all really tasty and I certainly got a second helping! Next came the pasta course: gnochetti with pork sugo and pecorino. Man, was this pasta amazing! I had 3 helpings of that and could have eaten it all night! After the pasta course, I was just about full and couldn't even imagine eating more but Massimo (owner and chef) brought out the whole roasted pig on a platter to show all the guests. I wish I snapped a picture of the pig. Dark, golden, and crispy! They cut up the pig and served each table family style. This pig was so good. The meat was flavorful, juicy, and tender. And of course each bite had a bit of crispy skin. What could be better than that? For dessert with had a small portion of a ricotta cake served with honey and toasted almonds.

The pork feast was awesome for a lot of reasons:
a) I love pig
b) $75 (plus tax and gratuity) for pretty much all you can eat and drink. This was family style and if the table finished the big bowl of pasta, they would just bring more.
c) The pasta
d) The skin

I was able to snag one of their regular dinner menus and definitely want to return back for dinner. I've heard their pizzas are really good and they offer some fun seafood options: baby squids sauteed in a mint/basil water ($9) and octopus stew in a tomato sauce ($12). For mains, they offer a daily fish of the day, seared lamb chops ($24), and braised wild boar Sardinian style ($23).

(415) 550-8114