Palmento a Dopo (formerly Dopo) - Oakland

In April, Dopo switched to an all-Sicilian menu and wine list, and changed its name to reflect that. (A palmento is an old-fashioned stone basin Sicilians once used to crush grapes.)

We did the “sono nelle tue mani” prix-fixe in June. For $75 a head we got many cold and hot appetizers (one to three bites per person), medium portions of two pastas, small portions of two secondi, one choice each from the dessert menu, and a glass of Averna. Standouts were a spicy house-made prosciutto with fig, mussels, spicy octopus, busiate with cured tuna, sausage, and black mulberry granita.

That was a whole lot of food. We took home half of one of the pastas, the server said most people have leftovers. Maybe we would have polished it off if I hadn’t eaten so much of the excellent bread. Their prices now include service, so if you tip 20%, the cost was equivalent to $62.50.

Markup on the all-Sicilian wine list is a bit steep at the low end and they have mostly expensive bottles. The cheapest white was Valle dell’Acate Insolia for $42 (subtracting 20% service, that’s 2.5X the retail price of $14), they had one for $52, one for $60, and eleven for $70-101 (equivalent to $43, $50, and $58-84 minus 20% service). On the plus side, I’m not sure you’ll find some of those wines anywhere else in this country.