(photo by wm. christman)

Sometimes a restaurant hits upon a concept so brain-dead simple (in execution, at least) that it's both impressive and delicious.

Ebisu's Trattoria Il Boccalone features a parmesean risotto that is finished in a giant half-wheel of parmesean. That is, the risotto is cooked to just a moment before you would kill the heat and add cheese to finish it. Instead, Il Boccalone pours the semi-molten risotto into a small canoe-like well dug into a three foot half-wheel of parmesean. The risotto melts the cheese into itself as it is pushed around the cheesy well. Genius.

Il Boccalone may not be the first restaurant to do this but the whole spectacle is impressive. And even better, it was very delicious.