Spruced-up D’Amico’s in St. Paul grills up delicious new menu
D’Amico & Sons, the local casual-Italian empire, has been sprucing up locations and expanding its menu. The most recent was the St. Paul store on Grand Avenue, which closed for a short period early this year for the makeover. The St. Paul spot is the fifth to get redone, after Roseville, Edina, Golden Valley and Wayzata. You can still get soups, sa...
Zelo In Downtown Minneapolis
Standing at the corner of 9th Street and Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis, only a minor change to the awnings hint the major change inside. Zelo looks new. “Towards the end, our service and food didn’t match the décor,” said original Zelo owner Rick Webb. Webb opened Zelo in 1999, and sold it in 2008 to focus on his restaurant Ciao Bella. He o...
Wood-fired Italian coming to Stapleton from former Panzano chef
Cattivella gave us a sneak peek of its menu, and we are actually, physically trembling. The new Italian restaurant from Chef Elise Wiggins (formerly of Panzano) won’t open for another month or so, but that just means you have time to get your stomach stretched out enough to comfortably accommodate all the amazing eats coming out of her wood-fired g...
A New Favorite: Piccolo
Italian fare has always een my indulgent food of choice. The salty meats. The creamy cheeses. The freshly baked garlic bread topped with loads of melty butter. And last but certainly not least, the pasta. No words in the English language can adequately proclaim my love for pasta. That’s why when Piccolo opened in Nixa in December 2016, I eagerly aw...
Fargo's Grazies Italian restaurant to reopen with new owner
A longtime Italian restaurant that closed here about a year ago will soon reopen with a new owner and a new menu. Grazies Italian Restaurant and Grill is now owned by George Plaku, who now lives in Fargo and said he's the former owner and operator of several restaurants in Nebraska as well as an eatery in Kansas. He's now securing permits and a...
Dio Mio's Handmade Pasta Mostly Wows Despite Price Concerns
Inspiration You Can Taste: The food's authenticity draws diners to the new North Denver restaurant. 5280 Magazine's Callie Sumlin emphasizes that Italian flavors drive the menu. House-made pastas are asserted as "undoubtedly the high point of the meal." Backed by "lush sauces" and "high-end goodies" like bottarga and pancetta, delectable pastas ran...
Sneak Peek at Quality Italian, Opening in Cherry Creek
Chicken Parmiggiana in the shape of a pizza? Check. Uni-baked scampi? Check. A cocktail menu that includes a nitro-powered Negroni? Check. Quality Italian is gearing up to open the doors to its Denver outpost in the next few weeks and if the preview of the menu is any indication of what is to come, Cherry Creek diners are in for a treat. The restau...
Review: Mona's Brings an "American-Italian Joint" to the Hill
In the year Modesto opened its doors and introduced diners on the Hill to tapas, Food & Wine was touting heirloom beans and trash fish as some of the year's hottest culinary trends. Bubble tea was new to the U.S., and seemed utterly foreign. Rachael Ray made her first appearance on the Food Network. That was 2001. Which meant that by 2016, it had c...
How to get cheap, great Italian food in the Denver area (by leaving Denver)
In my five years in Denver, I’ve been on a low-key quest to find the kind of cheap, ultra-casual and delicious Italian restaurants I grew up with. It hasn’t been easy. A couple places, particularly Trattoria Stella, come close price-wise, but I was still missing a certain feeling you only get in old, family-owned joints. The kind of places where al...
Fire at Giovanni’s restaurant on the Hill
A fire at Giovanni's restaurant on the Hill has done heavy damage to the second floor. The St. Louis landmark is located in the 5200 block of Shaw. Firefighters said that two electricians were working in the building before the fire started. St. Louis Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson said that the fire seems to have been caused by an electrical wiring....
Mona's 'American-Italian' fare is different for the Hill, but not better
The one dish at Mona’s I can recommend without reservation might also be the menu’s greatest mistake. The dish is an appetizer of bacon-wrapped dates stuffed with Gorgonzola ($7.95), a two-bite haute bar snack guaranteed to win you a return invitation to the coolest Super Bowl party in town. Can you tire of the contrast from crisp to chewy to cream...
Italian American Club Prepares for Annual Spaghetti Dinner
What happens when you take 150 lbs of noodles and add 240 lbs of hamburger? You end up with a whole lot of spaghetti. That's what Duluth's Italian American Club is hoping for. Wednesday is their annual Spaghetti Dinner at American Legion, where they'll be putting on a giant Italian dinner for the public. The spaghetti sauce and real Italian m...