Want To Get A Sneak Peek At Townsend Wentz’s New Italian Restaurant?

Well you can. Kinda.

First, you’re going to have to clear your schedule on the night of January 13 (which is a Tuesday, so you won’t really be missing anything good on TV). Then you’re going to have to find $65 (plus tax and tip). Then you’re going to have to make reservations for this special dinner that Wentz is doing at Townsend where he and some fancy olive oil guy (actually Lorenzo Caponetti from Caponetti Olive Oil) are going to be doing a four-course dinner where Wentz will be showcasing some of the dishes that will eventually make it onto the menu at his new Fairmount restaurant, which is set to debut later this year.

Unsurprisingly, considering the company, the menu for this one-night-only preview is heavily Italian (as the new restaurant is supposed to be as well). It’ll include Barnegat Bay sea scallop crudo with sunchokes and salsa verde; campanelle with cockles, mussels and bottarga in a tomato brodo; sweetbread piccata with arugula, capers and lemon; and roasted porchetta with plum mostarda and almond pesto. It’ll finish with olive oil financier and pistachio gelato–which, really, makes it five courses, but who’s complaining?

You can call the restaurant for reservations. Chef Wentz and Caponetti are both going to be on hand to chat about things like Italian food, the olive oil business, and whether or not the chef is going to name his second restaurant Wentz so that he’ll have both Townsend and Wentz open in different parts of town–though he’ll probably only address that if someone asks him so, you know, someone really ought to ask him.

Townsend [f8b8z]