Eternal Recurrence

It has becoming something of a tradition over the past few years that a wet snowstorm would occur on Groundhog's Day, and I would make a trip to Italian resto Black Skirt at College and Dovercourt. Since they are closed on Sunday, this year I visited on Saturday night instead. It's a popular spot, although not as hip as Bestellen next door. In fact, with Hotel California on the speakers, and a gaggle of well-maintained 50-something doyens arriving, that's Black Skirt in a nutshell.
The complimentary bread is a good start here. With a pestle filled with freshly diced tomatoes in olive oil, you grind up your own "bruschetta" topping and dolloped it on the bread. The arancino ($5.50) arrived as a large golden ball of fried rice, with a crisp golden shell and a gooey mozzarella center. You won't find much of the veal and pea stuffing though.

The arancino came with a tomato sauce, but I used it mostly on the white sicilian ($9.95). This was an antipasti plate of 4 slices of grilled bread, some chopped tomato and basil, and white anchovies. It was light and refreshing, though I moderated the fishiness by adding some tomato sauce to the mix. For the entree, I ordered a steak salad. Their pasta is known for the large portion so I was curious if it was the same for non-pasta dishes. Apparently, yes. In this case, I was presented with the largest bed of arugula salad I have ever seen. Even with the tangy balsamic sauce and pungent goat cheese, this was hard-going near the end. Three steak medallions were done medium-rare. This was no-fuss comfort Italian.