La Fia was in the historic area of downtown in a corner building.  Owned by Bryan and Andrea Sikora, it opened in 2013 with Bryan as chef.  You enter into the area that has some goods for sale and you can look into the long kitchen.  The main dining room seats around 35  people with closely set small bare wood tables.  From the high tin ceiling hang ducts and a variety of light fixtures.  Windows to the street are on 2 sides of the room and music was in the background.  A few higher seats face the bar and the front windows and there was a second smaller dining room.  The current Executive Chef Dwain Kalup, focused on local and sustainable ingredients with a seasonally based menu.  On Wed. night they have a 3-course $40 menu with some optional supplements.  As we were there on Thurs. we made our own tasting menu.  There were no specials offered, as supplements to the menu.  It was only a minute’s walk from our hotel but it would be worth driving to as the food was quite good.

Set-Up

 

Food

Roasted Maitake Mushrooms were with melted leeks, parmigiano-reggiano emulsion, cured yolk and marjoram.  The order came with 2 main pieces of mushroom sitting on the emulsion and topped with the leeks.  Very mild in flavor but good with a lovely texture to the mushrooms.  I was happy to see a lot of gratuitous greenery had not been added to detract from the tasty enhancements.

 

Bucatini alla Gricia was a pasta made with Pecorino Romano, guanciale, black pepper and sourdough bread crumbs.  We split the order but it was not divided in the kitchen.  However, the pasta had been cut into smaller pieces which made it easy to eat out of the same bowl.  Nice pepper flavor that lingered in your mouth after you were finished and the pasta was cooked perfectly to make this a winner.  The crispy crumbs on the top were another perfect accent.

 

The dry aged Long Island duck breast came with a sweet and sour carrot purée, charred peppers and ginger duck jus.  The slices of breast were cooked perfectly and the fat cap was rendered to a wonderful thickness to add moisture to the meat.  The thin-walled peppers were more sweet than spicy.  Carrot slices were on the plate in addition to the purée.  The duck jus was reduced to a fabulous strong flavor that made this a great plate of food.

 

The grilled Berkshire pork chop was seasoned with chile purée and dusted with masa crumb alongside crispy polenta and escabeche.  The ancho chilies were fantastic with the moist, pink pork.  I liked that it came sliced but the bone was there if you wanted to pick it up and get the last bits.  The polenta slice had been fried to a nice crispness and covered with pickled vegetables.  It was another wonderful plate of food.

 

For dessert we split the “caramel apple” which contained salted caramel ice cream, spiced apples, milk crumb, hard cider reduction and candied peanuts.  It didn’t taste like any caramel apple I’ve eaten but nevertheless, it was good and a fine sweet dessert.  It was not the best-looking plate but all the ingredients were very tasty and combined nicely.  The apple flavor was nicely strong and it had enough but not too much sweetness.