Week in Reviews

Last week Jonathan Gold was on vacation, and now this week he is back with a review of sorts from Chianti, Italy. One of the region's most famous butchers, Dario Cecchini, recently debuted the Officina della Bistecca, "a restaurant seemingly opened more as an educational institution than anything else, where the tutorials are conducted by beefy men wearing bloody aprons and old-fashioned motorcycle goggles while they grill...slabs of flesh are displayed the way that flower arrangements are in Michelin-starred restaurants, [and] charring cattle perfumes the air." Gold is completely taken by this meat emporium from the "glossy billows of whipped, preserved lard" to the "fiorentina itself, thick as an encyclopedia volume, dark red and delicately rimmed with char...a deep taste of the Chianti hills." [LAW]