Monster Mash Part Deux

On Thursday, a few of my coworkers and I decided to go to VERO for lunch, but importantly for the Cookie Monster dessert!  I decided to do the prix-fixe lunch.  I chose the panini hot sopressata, roasted red pepper, watercress and asiago.  As you can tell from the picture below, the panini came with some olives.  My lunch also came with a side portion of the VERO chopped salad, consisting on romaine, feta, sweet onions, red peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, chick peas, currants and lemon vinaigrette.  The food was spectacular.  The panini and salad were delicious.  I actually normally ask for fresh pepper on my salad, but I didn't need it for this.  Everything was amazing, including the glass of red wine that came with my lunch.  I chose Montepulciano d'Abruzzo La Monica 2006.  It goes down like water, and at the restaurant a glass normally costs $9, but you can find a bottle for $7.  I need to find this bottle!

Now for the dessert - cookie monster is the bomb.com.  VERO changed their recipe a touch since the last time we went there for the dessert aka the dish was a lot smaller than last time to our chagrin.  The original dish would have filled the 4 of us, however we were smart and ordered 2, so we were good to go.  It basically consists of a big chocolate chip cookie topped with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and berries.  When I'm on my deathbed, I think this dish would be on my last requests list.  It feels like home, but it's also aesthetically pleasing, like something you'd expect to be served at a five star restaurant.