by Eve Hill-Agnus

Julian Barsotti's latest love letter to Italy is his most specific, fixated on a place as much as an idea, a feeling. At Carbone's, he honored his Italian-American roots. At Nonna, he ventured into the regions of Italy. Sprezza, in the emergent Maple Avenue Dining District, gives primacy to Rome.

What does it mean to open a Roman restaurant? Is it Roman because the early menu boldly featured garum, the fermented fish sauce harkening straight back to the times of Pliny the Elder? Because an illustration tucked under the "stagioni" (seasonal pastas) section of the menu depicts the famous sculpture of Romulus and Remus suckled by a she-wolf, Rome's founding myth?

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Source: http://www.dmagazine.com/