Old School Style

Over the weekend I was introduced to Joe's of Westlake. The idea of old school, red sauce Italian really appealed to my need for comfort food. The place is really a time warp. Especially the very old fashioned bar/lounge area. There was a wait for tables but now wait at the counter so we grabbed seats there. It turned out to be a great move as we got to see all the cooking and expediting action with the open kitchen right in front of us. The picture to the left is of all the plates waiting to be runned.
Seeing all the different options up close made it hard to decide what to order. I wanted to try everything on the menu. But other dishes will have to wait for another visit.
I decided to go with the calf's liver with onions and bacon. Liver with onions is not a dish that one finds very often anymore on menus and I had to take advantage of it. I ordered it medium, but it came out a bit more done than I liked. None the less, it was still smooth and luscious on the inside and nicely caramelized o nthe outside. The side of spaghetti with meat sauce was exactly how spaghetti should be... firm and aldente noodles with a savory and slightly sweet sauce.
Angeles ordered the veal parmagina with vegetables. That looked delicious also. Great fresh Italian bread fro mthe basket too. What an amazing value!