The foodie trend in 2009 was all about fancy burgers — flattened balls of ground beef dressed in truffles, rare cheeses, artisanal breads, heirloom ketchups, and fancy aioli.  And though we restaurant frequenters saw door after door sealing up for good as a result of the economy, burger joints were swinging open everywhere, adorning themselves with fancy names like Le Gourmet Burger or BQM Diner.

Now that 2010 is nearing to a close, the burgers have remained, but interest is waning, as fickle foodies suddenly have slightly more cash to spend and cravings for something more tantalizing than rare beer blanche and angus patties with gold flecks and smoked stilton.   

We are no longer in the throes of a recession, and yet its dwindling effects have left a stain of humility upon us that might make us better people, smarter spenders and, well, more discerning drinkers. Now, I'm not saying that we epicures turn our noses up at smoked stilton, but we're tired of being fooled into eating something that is pretty much meatloaf in black tie.

Oddly, the solution to this culinary conundrum comes not in the form of anything haughty or highfalutin' but rather in good ol', down home, rustic Italian.

Of course, Italian food is not exactly novel in Canada. But the proper Enoteca — an Italian concept predominantly intended to allow patrons the possibility of tasting regional wines at a reasonable fee —  is quite possibly the new trend in dining, being affordable, exciting and, touted as the thing to do in New York City (even Mario Batali has one!), having cachet to boot.  

Even established Italian restaurateurs like Salvatore Mele, who has successfully run his fine Tuscan restaurant, Capocaccia, since 2004, saw the need to open what he refers to as a "true Enoteca."  And even though trendy new hub, Quanto Basta, is literally situated within blocks of mama ristorante, Capocaccia, the 'teca needs no support.

A large part of making an enoteca "genuine" is keeping the menu simple — with rustic style small plates like cheese samplings, house cured salumi and rotating bruschetta — but more imperatively by having a lengthy (and I mean lengthy) wine list.

Mele, who has a minimum of 30 to 40 wines available by the glass, says, "we're still in a recession" and therefore cost for the consumer must be kept down.  The enomatic — a patented technology that enables a bottle of wine to be opened and protected from oxidation for up to six weeks as opposed to five days —  has solved a lot of problems for Mele when it comes to pricing.

And Mele is not the only one who feeds his business with this technology.  Daniel Clarke, part-owner of Enoteca Sociale,  says the thriving neighbourhood restaurant is heavily reliant upon the science.

Finding a "middle ground between the connoisseur and  the average person," says Enoteca Sociale's sommelier, Lesa LaPointe, "is very much the point of what we do and the technology has allowed us to invite people to taste from high-end bottles without the obligation of purchasing the whole."

Of course patrons of Enoteca Sociale are also invited to go for the whole — they do have a wine cellar in the basement, after all.  And with nearly 80 wines under $80 on the list, going for the gold is not that out of reach.  

The wine list, with its focus, on "undersung grapes," as LaPointe calls them, "rare, indigenous varietals, for the most part inaccessible at the LCBO" is meant to impact the customer the same way the food does: straight from the tongue to the heart. 

And when one considers what the Enoteca trend is really about — the love of food, frugality, and an ever-flushed cheek — how could it not be a trend that's here to stay?