One of the hill towns that we had yet to visit yet on this trip was Montepulciano. Marta, who works for the family, told us we MUST visit this steak house called Osteria Acquacheta (www.acquacheta.eu) where they serve their signature bistecca fiorentina. She made us reservations two days prior as it is very popular and they only have two seatings per night – a 7:30pm and a 9:00pm seating. We opted for the earlier one – to give our bodies more time to digest the food if this truly was going to be some type of meat feeding frenzy.
After a day of touring around hill towns in the heat, it was hard to come back to the farm and rally again to go out to dinner and think about eating a heavy meat dinner. At some point the eating madness must stop. But rally we did – how can you say no when your hosts are stressing the importance of this steak experience. They hadn’t steered us wrong yet, so off we went.
The drive to the Montepulciano as beautiful and about 30 minutes away. I was remembering my trip 2 years ago at the foot of this hill town and the wonderful dinners I had on that trip in this town. I had confidence we were in for a treat if we could only find the ‘parking area.’ GPS can be sketchy in Italy – sometimes it leads you down one way streets – the wrong way. You see the signs ‘do not enter’ and yet you go because the hard right you need – to get to parking glory – is only a few feet away.
Turns out the hard right wasn’t there and I found myself making an Austin Power’s 30-point U-turn on the one way street to get myself turned back around. Thankfully, no other cars came up or down that road during that fun exercise and we were headed back in the right direction. I tossed the GPS directions and went by what I remembered from my trip before to get to the parking area. All the while Dana is giggling saying ‘I am so glad you are driving. The adrenaline shots must be taking a toll on your system, but you are managing like a champ!’ Her encouragement always helped.
Soon enough we were at the parking area which wasn’t as close to town as I remember as this one was a parking lot at the bottom of the hill. We definitely had a climb up, up, up to get to the center of town – which was probably good for us considering our food consumption so we weren’t complaining. We also had on our minds it was a 7:30pm seating and Marta told us, ‘Don’t be late, they will give away your seat.’ Trying to be on time on vacation jumping from activity to activity carries its own level of stress. So there we were walking as swiftly as possibility up the inclines and through the town to find ourselves out front of the restaurant by 7:30pm sharp.
Only they weren’t quite open yet, but there were all of the other 7:30pm diners patiently waiting outside. At about 7:40pm we were all ushered inside at what amounted to one big long table were you were sitting with other diners on each side of you. And we just missed the spot where we could have had a fan blowing on us. It was hot and sweaty inside and we were a little sweaty from the climb, but what could you do at this point? We just strapped ourselves in for the ride and were ready for the steak experience of this town.
The style is very ‘Soup Nazi’ lots of rules. For example, you only get one cup and it is your water and your wine glass. You have to be drinking one or the other, but not both at the same time. We did find a loop hole that we jumped through. IF, you order a bottle of wine, you could have two glasses. So we went with that hoping for some nice stemware, but alas no. Another water glass, and yet still we happy for two glasses in front of us.
We had the cutest family of four from Denmark next to us on one side. A mom and dad traveling with their two elementary school-aged daughters (8 and 6). The girls had the most beautiful big blue eyes and blonde hair and sat there so politely the whole dinner. They were from Denmark and both parents both spoke English. The mom had actually spent a year in Yorba Linda during college as part of an exchange. It was interesting to talk to them between courses and hear about their travels as a European family – what summer vacations look like for them.
On the other side we had this American couple that had retired in Italy. We met several of those types on our trip. Couples that had fallen in love with Italy and transitioned their life over there after retirement. This couple was a little quirky, however. They were refined East Coasters with an art and art history museum bent. Aka – the opposite of us, relaxed West Coasters with a wine and coffee bent. They kept trying to tell us what to do in Florence (when we weren’t asking). ‘You MUST visit this museum and see the ‘XYZ Exhibit, it is one of a kind.’ Complete with directions they would rattle off… ‘When you get to Florence, follow the fork by the Ponte Vecchio, make a right at….and a left at…then follow the road around through the trees.’ We just sat there with our eyes wide open thinking – do they actually think we are absorbing these directions? Back to the Denmark family…
All of the while this is happening there is a man within view at the foot of the restaurant in front of a wood table and wood stove butchering up half of a cow with a massive steel cleaver. You could see him whacking at the cow in the distance and then bringing a portion out to each party and seeing if they wanted that much meat. If you wanted that much, he wrote the price on the butcher paper that covered your table. It was hilarious and a little intense. So much for my vegan stint!
Soon enough he came by to ask us what we wanted, we said – please, your smallest portion of a bistecca fiorentina (which is an Italian style – T-bone steak). It is said to be one of the glories of Tuscan cuisine – grilled rare – over a wood fire. I’m here to say – even the smallest cut is massive and when they say rare, it was rare – even for this rare meat lover. He came back with our piece which was still looking huge, but like the Soup Nazi, you kind of felt like you had to just go with it and say okay. He wrote a scribble of the weight and price and off he went with your meat to have it cooked over the open flame.
As starters, we ordered a salad and no sides – we knew we had to save our appetite for the bistecca. They finally brought the steak out and it indeed still looked huge. No shrinkage in cooking there at all. We each took a piece and Dana was looking for the most cooked portions around the edge and I was still convinced I would be picking up the bone at the end and enjoy eating straight off the bone. I think we both at two slices and were full. The meat was seasoned well, charred nicely, but a little tough and the Denmark dad kept saying to us., ‘You actually have better meat in the U.S. We only by steak from Denver in our local market.’ Ha, ha. Well, what do you know. Shout out to Denver from Tuscany!
We finished dinner and decided to skip dessert there and find a gelato in town to walk around a little bit help our food digest. We leave the restaurant and head towards the center of town and hear music and opera singing. It was beautiful – we find the source in the town square and what do you know, it was the most beautiful free concert outdoors that started at 9pm just as we arrived.
We grabbed two gelatos and found a seat in bleachers they had erected for the concert. As we sat there eating our gelatos and enjoying the cooler air of this hill town we could hardly believe how wonderful it was to sit there and find this amazing free music concert to enjoy after dinner. We sat there for about an hour and Dana said after her first gelato, ‘Just an FYI, that was one of two possibly three gelatos I will enjoy during the concert.’ LOL. You go girl.
The walk back to the car was all down hill – what a night! As much as we had to rally to go on this night, we are so glad we had this experience in this hill town, with that outrageous steak dining experience, and ending with this concert and gelato. In the morning we would be leaving the farm for Florence.