Quite possibly America's most perfect pasta

So I spent the day interviewing at a company in Madison. It's an awesome company and I'd really like to work there - the people are fantastic, the benefits are great and it's quirky in just the right ways! On the plane to Madison, we flew right over Lake Monona so I got to see Frank Lloyd Wright's Monona Terrace and the attached Hilton which I would be staying in. Then on the way back to Cincinnati, we flew over the airport and right over downtown I saw the ballpark, the stadium, and the big convention center thing! I tried to look for campus, but there were some clouds so I couldn't get a clear idea of the direction we were heading. But soon we were way outside of Cincinnati and all you could see in every direction was this huge flat expanse of clouds - the tops of them. The sun was shining and I was wondering how dark and dreary it was beneath those clouds. Eventually it came time to circle back and land, so we first had to break through the clouds and we were right between two cloud layers! I was like being in bed and seeing the sunlight come through the sheet over your head - it was just a little darker, but after going through two more layers of clouds, I saw the ground again and we landed. But wait, it gets better!
Rich came to pick me up and we were both starving. I only had a backpack, so it didn't make sense to drop stuff off at home before grabbing dinner. Plus Rich had someplace in mind. Actually, two places. But he wouldn't tell me what they were. We drove through downtown looking for a Sycamore Street and got up to Over the Rhine (the ghetto of Cincinnati, if you could call it that). I was a little confused. But then I saw a restaurant tucked next to the apartment buildings and remembered having ripped out an article about it and telling Rich I wanted to go there for lunch sometime. Well, it certainly wasn't lunch, but we parked and went in.
It looked like a great restaurant from the beginning - well-decorated and definately upscale. It was good I was wearing a skirt and Rich had dressed up. We sat down and the waitress struck me as very friendly. We refused the wine list and I immediately decided on the tagliatelle bolognese. Rich chose the gnocci with pesto (I'm sure it had an elegant Italian name). Our waitress brougt out a basket of impressive breads: for small, flat rolls which were slightly sweet and had a baked on slice of either tomato or zucchini, each. there were also some crispy parmesean breads that were surprisingly moist and tasty - not your usual toast. Of course, there were a couple slices of what appeared to be plain Italian bread. Then, we were brought "gifts from the chef" - something I've never experienced unless I've had a complaint! We got little pieces of toast with pâté (which reminded Rich of his grandma's liver and onions), little tomato geleés (like tomato jello) about the size of an ice cube, and shallow servings of a shimmery black calamari soup. All three were definately unique tastes that would require some getting-used-to, but it almost became an adventure to figure out which utensil to use with which dish. Finally, our meals came out. The plates were large enough to make any dish seem small, but I could only get through half the tagliatelle. Rich could have finished it. But we didn't have room for dessert in the end, that's for sure. Thankfully, they had a dish of amazing melt-in-your-mouth chocolate mints near the door, which were better than any I've had before and appeared somewhat homemade. It was a fantastic ending to a superb meal. It almost makes me regret leaving Cincinnati - almost. I think we're going to take whoever helps us move to lunch there. Now that we can afford it.