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It Must Have Been An Off-Night’ For Diva-Favorite Trattoria Marcella

By Lisa Kampeter

I’ve been known to have high expectations.  Some may say this is a good quality.  Others may say I’m high maintenance.  Regardless, for this month’s Dining Divas outing, my expectations couldn’t get much higher.

We had a Guest Diva this month so the Engaged Diva made sure to choose a restaurant that met our level of standards – excellent food, comfortable atmosphere, and patience (high maintenance!).  Well, she chose Trattoria Marcella on Watson in southwest St. Louis.

This wasn’t necessarily a first for many of the Divas.  A few of us had been to Trattoria Marcella on special occasions.  A couple of us had even been there with a different monthly dining group a long time ago.

For me, Trattoria Marcella has always been my answer for “what’s your favorite restaurant in St. Louis?”  A couple years ago, I reluctantly gave one of my favorite couples my Valentine’s dinner reservations there when they were going through some struggles at the time.  It’s their favorite restaurant, too.  This past Valentine’s Day, braving the snowy weather, I was able to enjoy a romantic dinner there.  Especially with the bad weather, my expectations were high again, but my favorite restaurant answer was swaying.

The Mother-In-Law-To-Be Diva joined us from Los Angeles.  She was in town attending a bridal shower of the Engaged Diva.  I’m not sure what expectations we had of her, but let’s just say she blew them away.  She was hilarious and definitely fit into the group.  Her only downfall…she’s a huge sports fan but not a fan of hockey.  Good thing I didn’t know that before I made the reservations.  The reservation would have been for one less!

Aside from the exciting wedding conversations, the Greek Diva shared the great news of becoming an aunt again the next morning.  We got a laugh out of the visitors’ schedule created by the new parents.  Not sure the Greek Diva even made the first list (she’s also a few states away).

Start your meal off with a glass of wine from San Gimignano.  Also, get an appetizer – the toasted raviolis.  This was a must-try for our L.A. guest as she’d never experienced them before.  The Italian Diva said they were the best she’d ever had.

The mini-bread loaves served with hummus are extremely tempting but don’t overdo it.  We stuffed ourselves too early.  The Greek Diva tried the Shaved Brussel Sprout Salad and wished she could recreate it at home.

The reason the Engaged Diva chose Trattoria Marcella was for her main course – the Lobster Risotto.  In her words, it was “heavenly.”  It’s a generous portion of lobster with creamy, cheesy risotto goodness.  The Rigatoni with large gulf shrimp in a garlic tomato cream pleased even the pickiest of Divas.

The Grandma Diva was disappointed in her Chicken Spiedini.  It was dry and barely warm.  The Greek Diva was so excited to order Porchetta Panini.  The last really good one she had was in Italy.  Unfortunately, it still is.

We went to Trattoria Marcella with high expectations because we knew what to expect.  This time around, the restaurant didn’t meet them.  Our waiter wasn’t attentive.  We had to ask him for refills multiple times.  Most of the food was just okay.

But that’s just okay with us because we still love Trattoria Marcella.  It has a great neighborhood feel to it.  We realize this may have just been an off-night for them.  But now, I really have to think about what my answer would be to “what’s my favorite restaurant?”  Yet I will definitely go back.  I’m not that high maintenance.

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