Il Mito—Wauwatosa, WI—A Restaurant Recommendation

The food:

- Bread - Warm, thick Italian bread, cleanly sliced (major pet peeve of mine when it's not) into chunks, served with a roasted red pepper puree with a swirl of basil pesto, to dip. Delicious. Nice segue from the classic olive oil and parmesan.

- Drink - Hendricks Gin & Tonic sans Cucumber. Il Mito does not include cucumber in any of their salads, and so did not have a cucumber to put in my Hendricks G & T. They all felt really bad about it, and Deanna told me that if the supermarket across the street were open she would have run across to buy one. Sweet. I missed it, but Hendricks is so fucking good, I somehow survived. Deanna actually recommended that the next time I make a Hendricks G & T to add one twist from a black pepper grinder to finish the drink. I am very intrigued. Will definitely try that. Sounds very Violet Hour.

- Insalata Mista - a mix of baby greens and sliced lettuces, including basil, which gave the salad a delightful kick every couple bites, with diced tomato and julienned carrots, tossed in a creamy white balsamic dressing. Note: the julienned carrots were pretty, but annoying to eat. And my salad server only gave me one twist of black pepper???

- Ortagi Pizza - a nicely sized vegetable pizza with spinach, grilled tomato, eggplant, zucchini, basil pesto and mozzarella cheese. My waitress, Deanna, recommended adding some goat cheese to it. I usually am not crazy about goat cheese, but I said 'yes' since she recommended it. Wow. I'm glad I did. A light, crisp, thin flour crust. Needed a sprinkling of salt, but just a teeny bit.

- Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Torte - an individual flourless chocolate cake flipped from a ramekin over a swirl of chocolate and raspberry sauces, garnished with a dollop of fresh whipped cream and a sliced strawberry. Thank you for not including mint! The chocolate flavor could have been a bit headier--darker--for my taste; it finished a bit bland, but the sauces and whipped cream helped curb that.

- Coffee - Alterra Coffee, roasted by two local brothers in Milwaukee. Delicious. I'd put it up there with LaVazza. Almost.