737 Ninth Ave
New York, NY 10019-7201
Phone: (212) 258-2900

Under the "why didn't I think of that" category, today I ran into a pretty clever dessert presentation. Another recruiting lunch, at another neighborhood Italian around the corner from the office, La Locanda. Unlike the others, this one was a gem. A basketful of good rustic bread with quality olive oil; a deep menu; fresh, well-prepared seafood; an impressive selection of Italian wines; and an attentive and knowledgeable staff. But my favorite touch came with dessert.

There are three fruit sorbets on the menu: lemon, peach, and coconut. Because of my recent health kick, I opted for the peach sorbet over the tiramisu and ricotta cheesecake selected by my dining companions. As my lunchmates' rather uninterestingly plated desserts came out, I was presented with a frozen peach sitting upside-down on a plate, hollowed out and filled with a smooth, rich peach sorbet, a slice of the peach's bottom standing at attention in the midst of the frozen fruit puree. As I polished off my dessert, I saw a waiter returning a plate to the kitchen with a hollowed-out lemon on top of it. I can only imagine that there are sorbet-filled coconuts sitting in La Locanda's freezers; I wonder if they have little paper umbrellas sticking out of them.

To be sure, this is a waste of good fruit. The peach cup, frozen solid to keep the sorbet cold, was inedible, and constituted a good sixty percent of the peach's otherwise edible flesh. But it was so damned nifty, I'll probably have to try it myself the next time I make sorbet.