Like Lady and the Tramp, we sit in a cozy, slightly downscale restaurant eating big bowls of thick, cheesy ravioli treading in red marinara. Our two-top is tucked into a corner and draped with a thread-bare red and white checked tablecloth that’s gently illuminated by a scentless white candle perched in a wicker basket Chianti bottle. We sip non-descript Italian red wine in Bàcara glasses and fall in love; with Little Italy, with each other, with Frank Sinatra playing on an old jukebox and with the unmistakable romance of an Italian restaurant. – End Scene

Though Dallas lacks an Italian cultural enclave such as New York’s Little Italy or St. Louis’s The Hill, the city is benefitting from a surge in high-quality Italian restaurants that serve authentic food without the visual sentimentality of old school restaurants such as the ones I frequented in those cities. And, that’s molto bene by me.