My fifteen year old son decided months ago to procure himself a job in anticipation of the upcoming monthly expenses when he turns 16 and gets his driver’s license. Though it was very responsible on his part it sometimes puts a kink in our weekend evening plans since we have to take him to work and pick him up. Furthermore, he almost always works on Friday and Saturday nights. Therefore we often try to plan our “date nights” in close proximity to where he works.  One night last fall we decided to do the typical suburban dinner and a move date night so after dropping my son off at work (he works at a restaurant but does not want us eating there while he is working – teenagers!) we decided to check out a new location of an awesome downtown Dallas pizza joint: Cane Rosso. Cane Rosso has a cult following in Dallas and was featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives in 2012.

We have eaten at Cane Rosso in Deep Ellum before and it is hard to duplicate the original location; however, the one in the north Dallas suburbs provided another delicious dining experience. Cane Rosso’s menu is outstanding with a wonderful selection of Neapolitan style pizzas, and their S’mores Calzone dessert pizza it truly to die for! On the evening we dined in the burbs our waiter gave us privy to the Cane Rosso “secret” menu that made for a delicious dinner!

We began our dinner by first selecting a wine. Cane Rosso offers a decent wine list with many Italian selections; however, because the location where we dined had not been open long they were still waiting to receive many of the wines on the list. The lack of wines was okay because we found a good wine to drink with our pizzas and will go back to try more wine and pizza combinations.

Locations I: This wine poured a deep crimson with magenta highlights into the glass and opened with a vivacious bouquet of ripe black and red fruit jams, cedar spice box, leather and vanilla. On the palate this big juicy wine delivered flavors of blackberry jam, black cherries, plums, licorice, Asian 5-spice, mushrooms and a bit of damp underbrush. This was a very palate pleasing well balanced wine with round acidity and refined tannins that delivered a full mouth feel and lingering finish leaving the mouth watering for another sip. This wine was crafted from Nero D’Avola and Negroamaro from Puglia and Barbera from Piedmont, with a small amount of Sangiovese from Tuscany and spent ten months in large oak barrels prior to bottling. It contained 14.5% alcohol. Though it did not taste like a quintessential Italian wine it was good and paired very well with our dinner. It is a wine crafted of old world grapes into a new world wine. Furthermore, with an SRP of $18, it is a big wine for a low price. This wine is widely distributed and easy to locate, click here to find this wine.

So what did we select to pair with Locations I? We began our dinner with Cane Rosso’s Housemade Burrata: a huge ball of fresh burrata served with warm arugula and toasted crostini. Do I need to tell you how good it was? Look at it! Yes, it was a creamy ball of heaven that was mouth-watering good and blended beautifully with the rich wine. The creamy cheese balanced out the wines acidity and the peppery arugula was a perfect match!

For our pizza selections we chose one menu pizza and one “off-menu” pizza. The menu pizza we enjoyed was Prosciutto e Rucola: prosciutto crudo, arugula, housemade mozzarella, shaved Parmigiano, garlic and extra virgin olive oil all atop Cane Rosso’s outstanding Neapolitan crust! The salty prosciutto, peppery arugula and creamy cheese was a perfect combination with the Location I wine. For the off menu pizza we enjoyed the Honey Bastard: you know with a name like that it had to be good! This pizza was crafted from spicy soppresata, crisp crumbled bacon, a touch of arugula, homemade mozzarella and topped with a habanero honey glaze. It was off the chart! This pizza was sweet and savory with a kick and was an awesome pairing with the Locations I.

My Song Selection: The song I have chosen to pair with the Locations I wine and the awesome dinner at Cane Rosso is Unglued by Stone Temple Pilots. Sometimes you want a wine and food combination that just brings the rock. STP offers classic grunge, grinding guitars, solid vocals, full on rock. That also discribed our awesome dinner at Cane Rosso and the Locations I wine; full on big wine and food, no moderation! I am a rocker girl at heart and I believe it does us all good to come unglued from time to time.

Get your own bottle of Locations I and pair it with a great pizza and let me know what song you would pair with it.  Cheers!