Paolo Martini: Live Music at Gusto

Last week my brain really started to hurt.  Simon and I have been busy looking at wedding venues and having narrowed it down to two that we love, every waking moment I found myself trying to decide between them to the point where it was making me feel a little stressed!

It was pretty clear that a change of scenery was desperately needed so on Thursday I headed off to Gusto for a girl's night out with Sam and Katie  I was keen to get their opinion on the wedding venue dilemma and thought that it may be easier to reach a decision over delicious food and fine wine.

I'm sure you all know by now that I'm no stranger to Gusto - popping along to the beautiful restaurant on the Quayside and ordering myself a Peking Pizza is becoming a bit of a regular occurrence, but this visit was a little different. 

Gusto are rather brilliant at organising special events, and this night they were playing host to tribute act "Paolo Martini".   Tickets  were a very reasonable £35.00 per person (including a 3 course meal) or £10.00 for a seat at the bar (including a glass of wine) and the restaurant was buzzing with enthusiastic diners ready for a night of tunes on the river.

First things first we headed to the bar to have a browse through the cocktail menu.  Whenever I'm eating at Gusto I always arrive a little early so I can sit at the bar and enjoy a drink.  The cocktail menu is one of Newcastle's greatest and I love sitting myself down on a bar stool for a spot of people watching with something fruity in my hand.  This time I decided to try the Cherry and  Coconut Sour and it was just what I needed after my hectic week. 

The evening's entertainment began at 7:00 pm so we made our way to our table to order our food.  I was determined to start exploring the menu more and so, for the first time, ignored the Peking Pizza and went for something different.

For starter I chose the Sweet Pepper Compote and Goats Cheese Bruschetta.  I'm not usually that fussed by starters but the Bruschetta was so delicious I'll definitely be revisiting that part of the menu again.   It had the right amount of crunch and the toppings were generous.

Managing to avoid the lure of the pizza I decided to turn my attention to the pasta menu and ordered Smoked Salmon and Dill Rigatoni which was tossed with cream, peas and spinach . The salmon was soft and flaky and so delicious, I think the Peking Pizza may have a fight on its hands!
  

Bombolini served with chocolate dipping sauce and whipped cream was the perfect end to my meal.  Deliciously sweet and indulgent, I think I made a bit of a mess dunking my homemade mini donuts into the sauce but that just added to the fun.

Paolo Martini began his set as we were tucking into our food with some nice chilled out tunes that people could enjoy whilst eating but by the time the last plate had been cleared we were all ready for a dance.  The lights were dimmed, the beats kicked in and before we knew it we were dancing away.

The restaurant was full with every seat taken and the atmosphere was fantastic as everyone came together for a boogie

With the drinks flowing it was time to make a confession.  I actually had no idea who Paolo Nutini was despite him having hit albums in the charts for the last 9 years!  Determined not to let anyone know that my days of knowing who is in the charts is long past, I did some quick research on Wikipedia before heading to Gusto, although I did become a little unstuck when I didn't know the words to any of the songs - argh!

The performance was so great and I had such a great time, the first thing I did when I got home was download the Paolo Nutini back catalogue. 

We had a fantastic time and I will definitely be first to book a seat at Gusto's next event.   Make sure you sign up to the Mailing List to keep up to date with the next event.