Campione was a small place that resulted from the partnership of Joshua Adams, Jeffrey Galli and Anthony Sferra and opened in August 2020.  It’s in an historic building that was first used to house a mercantile business – groceries and clothing.  Later it was filled with a variety of eateries.  The space is small with at least half taken up with the counter seating that goes around the kitchen.  These stools are available for walk-ins, for which they suggest getting there right when they open as there’s most always a line.  We were fortunate to get a reservation, probably because of cancellations due to a threatening snow storm.  It’s a stylish place with a high tin ceiling, tile floor, tiny wood tables, music in the background and friendly servers.  In addition to the small menu they had a number of specials and we ordered a lot of them.  It’s worth checking out if you get to this part of the country.

Set-Up

 

Food

Heirloom tomatoes, a special that evening, were accented with pistachios, crispy leaves and goat cheese dressing.  The plate had both red and yellow varities.  The tomatoes were end of season and Heirloom, so a little soft on the texture but good on flavor.  The nuts and leaves provided a textural contrast and the dressing was thick enough to easily coat the pieces.  It was good.

 

Manicotti was fresh sheets of pasta rolled with ricotta and caramelized onion, topped with shredded oxtail, mushrooms, pickled onions and spinach leaves in brodo (broth).  The thin delicate sheets of pasta were lovely and the broth deeply flavored.  All the other ingredients added to the mix when you ate them together.  The mushroom were particularly flavorful and the pickled onion accented the savory portion nicely.  It was good but did need the addition of bread.

 

The bread came as several chunks doused with olive oil.  The bread was a bit dry and so needed the oil but it was unnecessary to have when we wanted to use it with the broth.  It had been cut much earlier because otherwise, it would have been fine bread.  As it was it served as a good vehicle to mop up the wonderful broth.

 

The Game Hen was another daily special.  It came with bok choy and a potato cake.  The hen was well seasoned and the dark meat was much moister than the white.  It sat in some slightly thickened jus that was on the salty side.  Bok choy is fun but very difficult to cut and eat, but has a good crispness.  Thankfully they supplied a good knife to cut through it.   I expected the potato cake to have a crispy exterior but it did not.  It was a disappointing addition.  Overall this was a tasty dish though.

 

One more special was our dessert – a panna cotta with sage, brown butter crumbs, fig jam and saffron pears.  It was an interesting combination of flavors and textures.  Not too sweet but a nice and different closing to the meal.