La Capannina, Jersey
Comfort Food at La Capannina
Comfort food comes in many forms. Sometimes it's casual – the hot cheese toastie scoffed standing in the kitchen after a freezing walk. Sometimes it's social – Sunday night shepherd's pie with friends. Sometimes it's nostalgic – bread and butter pudding like mother used to make. And sometimes it’s a combination of so many factors you can't quite pin down, but together just make it right.
A meal at La Capannina is a bit like the latter. You don't necessarily go there for the food, or the ambiance, or the wine, or the service – you go for the feeling you get walking into a place where everything is as you expect it to be – visit after visit, year after year, decade after decade.
In an era where everything changes, La Capannina stays the same – and that is, in itself, very comforting. You get the same décor, the same staff, the same owner, and the same food. If you're a good customer, you also get the same table.
Tables at La Capannina are very important. Corner tables and window tables are the best, but you normally only get these if you've been going to the restaurant for at least 20 years, although as some people have been going there for the best part of 50 years, competition can be tough. I know guys who have had a longer relationship with La Capannina than with a life partner. And probably found it more satisfying.
War can break out over tables. Rival gangs may try to steal your table, especially at Christmas. Anyone planning to steal a table must start early, upping the bribes, sorry, tips, from September to sneakily bag the best spots once Christmas lunch season begins.
Tables aside, a meal at La Capannina always starts the same way – with a drink and a few squares of pizza. It's yummy, and means you get straight into comfort food territory without having to feel the slightest bit guilty about ordering pizza or having a pre-dinner drink. La Capannina is the sort of place where you are likely to end up having a post-dinner drink too, so you might as well give in now and accept you will end up with car back.
'Indulge and enjoy it' should be the motto above the door; a bit more encouraging than 'Lasciate ogni speranza', although once you get started on the wine, you may as well leave all hope aside with the bill.
The menu has plenty of choice – pasta, fish, meats – all classically cooked and presented – along with a list of 'specials' such as saddle of lamb and langoustines.
I opt for asparagus – steamed and served simply with butter sauce. Lots of butter sauce, because the waiter pours on about half a litre of it, then asks if I'd like a drop more. Yes please! Comfort food is about good portions that you don't have to feel like a pig to get.
Next, I have roast partridge – a small bird that often ends up being a touch dry. That is why one has gravy. And bread sauce. And latticed potato chips to dip in the gravy. All together it is delicious. Good but not complicated. Comfort food Italian style.
Vegetables are separate. Not just ordered separately and served in a separate dish but brought round by the waiter and served on a separate plate. Silver service naturally involves gold-plated prices and rumour has it the restaurant owner, Tino, bought a Maserati on the profits of vegetables alone!
While it's easy to get confused between carrots and carats, best not make a mistake when looking at the wine list. For while there are plenty of decently priced bottles, there are also a few big-name stunners, that require more than a little credit card flexing. Still, if you're collecting air miles a cheeky 118 (Chateau Petrus, £1,900) is a civilized way to rack them up.
In an era where cooking at a table is more likely to mean you're given your own ingredients and are then expected to eat the mess you make, La Capannina stands out as one of the few places in the world where the staff still come and cook for you.
The dessert trolley might look tempting – laden with tarts and tiramisu, meringue and millefeuilles. However, for the spectacle alone, it's hard to top Crêpes Suzette. Cooked in a copper pan over an open flame, the crêpes are a homage to orange. Grand Marnier and Cointreau make up the sauce, alcoholic fumes telling you when pudding is ready.
Resistance is pointless. Especially when a blob of vanilla ice cream decides to get in on the act. Crêpes Suzette and vanilla ice cream, now we're getting beyond comfort food into death row food. 'What would you eat if you were on death row and this was your last meal?' This dish would make my list. Although if I were on death row, anything that was cooked in front of me, and involved this much booze would probably make my list.
Judging by the demographic of some of the diners, a more appropriate question might be 'What would you eat if this were the last time you went out to a restaurant?' I wonder if La Capannina will still be here in another 30 or 40 years' time; whether people will be going out to restaurants in the 2050s and 2060s; and indeed, whether people will even be eating food, or something we could recognise as food.
The world moves on and dining trends change. Young customers grow up, and older ones depart. Just as Dante travelled through hell and purgatory to paradise, diners and restaurant critics alike may visit many restaurants, and eat many dishes, before finding somewhere with the enduring appeal of La Capannina.
