If you haven’t been to Carmine’s, we highly recommend it.  We’ve been there 4-5 times in the past two years and have not once been disappointed.  Though it is part of the Rosebud conglomeration of restaurants, Carmine’s keeps it’s feel as a classic Italian restaurant.

We ate in the bar area and enjoyed a pizza with prosciutto, shaved parmesan and arugula and an eggplant stack salad.  The pizza is one of the best we have had anywhere – period.  The crust is light, the olive oil is tasty, and the arugula is fresh.  Toss on some parmesan and prosciutto and you have a world-class meal.  The eggplant stack is made of thinly sliced and breaded eggplant, “stacked” with arugula, tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella.  This is topped with a balsamic reduction that adds an incredible depth of flavor to the dish.  This dish blows away any eggplant parm we have ever had.  Either entrée is large enough for two, so we decided to have both and take the leftovers home for “The Finisher”, Alex.  We washed our meal down with a glass of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (Theresa) and a Moretti La Rossa (Tom).