Sweet and Sour in Boston

Coppa opened up a little while ago and we've been dying to go. We were a little put off with the horror stories of the long waits since there's no reservations available. We figured going on a Wednesday with just the two of us was probably the best chance we had at being seated in a reasonable time. Just our luck there was one table for two all empty, just waiting for us to show up. Perfect. We were seated opposite of the bar along the wall heading towards the kitchen. At the bar you can see the salumi selection laid out by some sort of slicing machine.



The drink list is quite extensive with tons of cocktails and lots of wine though the beer selection is quite small but does include some beers we've never had before. I went with the cheap $3 man-can of Naraganssat and Abby went with the 21st Ammendment. It does seem to take some time before our waitress brings us some water and take our drink orders, but it was busy and we weren't in any sort of hurry. It gave us more time to formulate our plan on how to order.



At Coppa there are small plates, a selection of salumi and cheeses, salads, pizzas, pastas and entrees. We decided on four small plates and a pizza. If we were still hungry, we could always order more. This seemed to be the modus operandi of the other patrons because both parties next to us would finish whatever was in front of them then look over the menu and order another item, rinse and repeat.

The first item to arrive was the beef heart crustini. This was absolutely incredible. Imagine the best roast beef you have ever gotten in a sandwich. Got it? Well the very delicately shaved beef heart is that but a million times better. So beefy, so tender, so delicious. A very good start to our meal.




Next came the white anchovies. I am a sucker for oily fishes, and these did not fail to live up to my expectations. Very succulent, laying in oil that had just a little spicy kick to it. I wished this was the oil that came with the bread that preceded the meal because I just kept dipping our leftover bread into it.



Meatballs were next. At first bite I just thought these were very good meatballs, but nothing special. Bite after bite that followed made me realize that these were not your ordinary meatballs. I don't if it was the lardo or the tomato sauce, but I wanted more and more meatballs. A restaurant could serve these balls of meat over pasta as their only dish and make a fortune.



Our last small plate was the veal sweetbread. This had a nice crust with a very tender middle. I've had sweetbreads before but that was almost always deep fried. Coppa adds a rhubarb sauce that was just ok.



Finally the pizza came out. We went with the spicy pork sausage one and added an egg on top. When our pizza was placed in front of us, our neighbors immedataely looked on their menu and contemplating ordering the same pizza and egg even though they had half a pizza left on their table. The pizza was fantastic with a crispy thin crust and a subtle tomato sauce. The sausage wasn't really that spicy, but the egg did add a little something to the pizza.




We were stuffed, but still wanted to eat more. I asked our waitress what was for dessert and she said a homemade blueberry and strawberry sorbet. We went with one scoop of both. The strawberry sorbet was incredible...the blueberry not so much. It wasn't bad at all, just wasn't as good. Next time I'd just get two scoops of the strawberry.



Our bill came and that was the biggest surprise of the night. While Coppa is not cheap by any means, it won't hurt your wallet either. Everything is priced pretty well, with maybe the pizzas $2 too much if you want to nit pick. The sorbet was surprisingly expensive at $6, but that balanced out with the cheap beer I got. Also, I now understand why there's a seating problem: no one seems to want to leave once they are seated. You can sit and talk and have cocktails and when you want another small plate, you just order it. The two parties next to us were well into their dinners when we arrived and both were finished at the same time as we were. I like that the servers weren't being pushy and trying to get people to leave. Overall, a very positive experience at Coppa. I definitely will be back because there is so much more on the menu I want to try, including the pig's ear which was not available to us that night. I give Coppa a 4 out of 5.