A new restaurant from chef and food truck veteran Luciana Basile-Lewis and her husband, Jesse Lewis, offers a unique take on Italian food, with influences from California, Mexico and beyond. Che Buono Trattoria Pizzeria, which opened its doors on Folsom Blvd. near Bradshaw Rd. in 2020, reflects Basile-Lewis’s lifelong passion for putting a new twist on the familiar.

“Since I was little, I always was fascinated by creating things,” she says. “I used to rip out pages of magazines with food in it, anything that had different ideas of dishes. I wasn’t interested in just traditional food; I always wanted to try new things.”