last winter, i went a little crazy during madison restaurant week. i think i ate out 5 times during that week? geez!
last week was the summer restaurant week and i kept things a little less crazy by only choosing one meal to eat out. it was a good one though!
i met kelly and katherine at fresco on state street for a great meal.
full disclosure: i paid for this meal entirely on my own and i was not compensated in any way for this blog post. as always, all thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own.
fresco is a really cool rooftop restaurant with open windows all around to take in the views of state street. unfortunately, it was pretty hot outside when we ate there, so we decided to stick indoors in the air conditioning. i would love to go back when it’s a bit cooler and sit outside.
very cool.
to start the meal, i ordered a cherry sangria, which just sounded really summery and delicious to me! i originally ordered a raspberry-kiwi cosmo, but they were out of the raspberry puree for it. the sangria was great though.
i could drink sangria all summer!
they also brought out these rolls for us to start with.
they were so soft and fluffy on the inside! totally worth the cheat meal to eat grains. 
for my appetizer, i tried the wild mushroom risotto cake. anything with mushrooms in it calls to me!
it was really good. crusty on the outside and really creamy & very risotto-like on the inside. you could really taste the mushrooms, too, which i love. i can see how non-mushroom lovers might not go crazy of this dish though.
my entree was my favorite dish of the night.
i ordered the ricotta cheese gnocchi – handmade ricotta gnocchi, seasonal vegetables, brown butter herb creme. if that description doesn’t make you salivate a little, you’re crazy! the gnocchi were not too heavy, which is something i dislike about a lot of gnocchi i’ve tried. i don’t know anything that i would improve upon in this dish.
and finally, dessert.
this was probably my least favorite dish of the night, which is so sad. i ordered the strawberry basil panna cotta. i was drawn to it because i usually really like panna cotta and i thought the strawberry basil combination sounded great! unfortunately, the basil flavor was lots to me and the panna cotta was pretty bland.
i had major food envy of katherine’s citrus cheesecake. she let me try a bit and it was so good! i’m a huge fan of citrus, so i was kicking myself for not ordering that for dessert instead.
oh well.
overall, this was a great meal! the food was creative and flavorful (with the exception of that panna cotta). i would definitely love to return to fresco. it would be perfect for a date night!
i think i made a good choice for my only summer restaurant week meal.
so tell me, are you a mushroom person?
do you have a perfect summer sangria recipe i should try?
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