C’era Una Volta - 1332 Park Street in Alameda, CA 94501 (510) 769-4828

February 16, 2013 – Today we went to C’era Una Volta (which means “once upon a time” in Italian), an authentic Tuscan restaurant in Redwood Square (next to the post office). C’era Una Volta is featured in Miss Alameda’s “Recycle Woman” movie, so we knew that they were good at recycling and composting. They also have great food.

We had:

• Bread with olive oil and mustard – When Jen (V&G’s mom) was in Florence, the local bakery called this “Scacciata.” In this country, we mostly call it “Focaccia.” Anyway, it was really good and we all liked it.

• Caprese Californiana - a tower of fresh mozzarella, tomato & avocado. Yum!

• Pizzetta - chewy cheese pizza from the kid’s menu. Vera says, “The crust was very thin (like pastry). I like it because it was very cheesy.”

• Penne ai Funghi  - penne pasta in a robust shiitake mushroom cream sauce. Linnea says, “It was very excellent. I give it five out of five stars. The mushrooms were really good.”

• Risotto ai Funghi  - a savory rice dish with shiitake mushrooms. Greta says, “I really enjoyed the food because it tastes very delicious. The Shitake mushrooms were very soft like a pillow.” Linnea says, “The sauce is very creamy and balanced out the strong flavor of the mushrooms.”

• Petti di Pollo alla Milanese - chicken breast, breaded and pan sautéed, finished with lemon & capers. The chicken was moist and crispy and tasted a bit like schnitzel. Fred pointed out that Milan is in northern Italy not to far from German-influenced areas.

Compost Report – We asked our server about how the compost program was going and she said that it was going great. They have all the bins and training that they need and she was surprised about how easy it is to recycle and compost. We met the proprietor when we went on the MASC Crawl (kind of like a pub crawl Jessica sponsored last year) and we knew that she supported the MASC program. C’era Una Volta was also instrumental in getting recycling and composting service for all of Redwood Square (since they share collection service). So, next time you visit C’era Una Volta tell them how much you appreciate their environmental leadership (and have some really good Tuscan food)!