| Most visitors like to start off a meal here with bagna calda, an appetizer of slow-roasted cloves of garlic bathed in olive oil and served in a warm iron skillet. It's served with an unending supply of soft, fresh house-baked buns.Other appetizers include a brie calzone, marinated asparagus and iron skillet-roasted mussels, all made with copious amounts of the friendly but potent little bulb. Even the Stinking Rose house salad is made with a garlic oil vinaigrette.For a main course, the 40-clove garlic chicken is a popular choice, and owner Jerry Dal Bozzo recommends The Slab -- a USDA Prime garlic-roasted prime rib fabled to "scare women and small children" -- or a whole dungeness crab weighing it at over two pounds and served in a "secret garlic sauce." All of these come with garlic mashed potatoes.Pastas are good here, whether you go for a simple gemelli (twists) in a super-garlicky pesto; neon ravioli with ricotta, potato and caramelized onions; or the creamy gnocchi (dumplings) in a mellow brie sauce with pine nuts and asparagus. Some items can be prepared in a "Vampire friendly" style, with no garlic.If you've never had the chance to make the pilgrimage to Gilroy, Calif., for its legendary yearly Garlic Festival, you may think you missed the opportunity to try garlic ice cream. You're in luck. It's not as freaky as it sounds -- the way its creamy sweetness plays off the bite of the garlic, especially at the end of a garlic meal, is worth a try at least once. The wine list is reasonable, and skewed to Californian and Italian wines.This North Beach landmark opened in 1991 and has since expanded its space on Columbus so that it's now several unique dining rooms, including The Chianti Room, with big picture windows overlooking Columbus Ave.; and The Celestial Room: Garlic Heaven. A total of 2,635 garlic bulbs festoon the restaurant, and hundreds of straw-covered chianti bottles hang from the ceiling.On your way out, you can pick up a jar of The Stinking Rose's garlic rose relish, garlic potato chips, flavored extra-virgin olive oil and other garlicky treats, as well as a pack of super-strong mints. The restaurant goes through 3,000 mints a week. |
