For the first ever Downtown Akron Restaurant Week, we decided to hit Bricco, one of our favorite spots.  Akron’s Restaurant Week was structured much like San Diego restaurant week, whereby participating restaurants offer a “fixed price” menu with three to four selections for each course – typically, appetizer, entree, and dessert.  (BTW, this seems like such an ideal way to attract new business – I wish Canton would do this to encourage people to dine downtown!)  In any event, we started with cocktails:

The martinis at Bricco are excellent – they have an extensive list and they’re all great.

Bricco did an excellent job of preparing their Restaurant Week menu (above).  As you can see they offered two price levels, with multiple selections for each course on each level.  Now typically we order pizza at Bricco.  They have many wonderful combos of non-traditional pizza toppings, and they are all artfully prepared and baked in a woodfired oven.  Can’t really go wrong with any of them, and there’s something for every taste.  But tonight, we decided to change it up a bit and try something new.  First, I had to start with the wedge salad.

We can’t move on until you have a chance to soak in this salad, because not only is it beautiful to look it, but it’s also my favorite salad in town.  I couldn’t possibly eat at Bricco without having one.  This wedge is served with baby tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs, crumbled bleu cheese, crisp prosciutto, and roasted garlic white french dressing.  Literally, this is the best salad and the dressing is perfection.

Dave opted for the crab bisque which was rich and creamy.  Soup is another menu item that you can’t really go wrong with at Bricco.

For his entree, Dave ordered what I wanted (how dare he!), the pan-seared scallops and grilled shrimp with apple bacon scallion risotto.  (I’m a sucker for scallops and risotto.)  But of course I couldn’t order the same thing; that would be crazy since I can obviously just eat his. The lightly-browned scallops and shrimp were tasty, but the risotto was fabulous – clearly the most memorable thing on the plate.

I ordered my second choice, which was grilled fillet with house steak sauce, roasted yukon gold potatoes, and broccolini.  The steak was very good, although certainly not the best around.  But then again, Bricco isn’t a steakhouse.  Their strength is really in pasta, pizza, and salads.  With that said, the steak was delicious and totally enjoyable with the homemade steak sauce.  I would probably order it again.

For dessert we agreed on creme brulee, which we shared.  What a delightful ending to a wonderful meal: light, rich, smooth, and not too sweet.  Creme brulee is always an awesome treat, and this one didn’t disappoint.

Midway through dessert, Dave spotted a celeb, ANT from Last Comic Standing.  I didn’t actually know who he was, but Dave was convinced it was him, and sure enough, it was.  He was gracious enough to pose for a pic, super nice guy.

So all in all, another excellent meal at Bricco.  I love Bricco because you can always count on a great experience in terms of food, service and ambiance.  There’s always a crowd, so it’s fun to people-watch if you sit street-side or on the patio.  We took my parents to lunch there for mother’s day this year, and even my parents loved it.  It’s definitely a wonderful upscale dining experience, without completely breaking the bank.  If you’ve never been there, I highly recommend stopping in and ordering a half wedge salad ($4.50) and a pizza ($10) – and enjoy a gourmet meal for an absolute steal; some of the best eats around.