Buon compleanno!

My father-in-law's birthday is July 31. My bro-in-law's birthday is Aug. 1. My hottie hubby's birthday is Aug. 3. Wild, huh? So this was their big birthday weekend, which we celebrated together Saturday night at Vincenti restaurant in Brentwood, noted as the number one Italian restaurant in LA by local food critic Jonathan Gold. Awww, look at the birthday boys! The menu Everyone but me opted for the 5-course tasting menu. We all started with a fig and goat cheese amuse bouche. This was so tasty that Brent and I were still talking about it this morning. My appetizer was fried calamari and zucchini. The batter was light and the homemade tarter sauce went perfectly with it. My entree was potato gnocchi with lobster sauce and cherry tomatoes. Quite delicious and surprisingly light. I only took pics of the tasting menu courses that I shared with Brent. This was the cheese plate toward the end of the meal. Thankfully only one of them was unpasteurized, so I could enjoy the majority of them. I split Brent's panna cotta, the dessert from the tasting menu. I'd make a return trip back to the restaurant on that delicious dessert alone! It was light yet sweet with perfect pitted cherries. Yum! The meal ended with some yummy complementary cookies. On our way in we spotted Ron Rifkin (from Brothers and Sisters, as well as Alias) dining there. Although we had to wait 30 minutes to get a table even with reservations (they apologized by offering us complementary drinks while we waited) and service between courses was a little slow, I'd definitely go back when I'm in the mood to splurge on high-quality Italian. The LA Times did a review recently, if you're interested. "I don't mean to panic anyone, but I'm afraid the calamari has been infested with baby squid." - Dick Soloman, 3rd Rock from the Sun