Lucky Italia Restaurant

Apparently, Americans go crazy for Italian cuisine, and we are not talking about spaghetti with meatballs and chicken parmigiana, which to call Italian is a crime, but precisely tortellini, agnolotti, half sleeves with tail sauce with Coda alla vaccinara, and round veal. According to Thrillist, the American website that has compiled the list of the 20 best and most innovative Italian restaurants in the United States, trattorias, pizzerias, family-run restaurants, and taverns are revolutionizing the American culinary landscape, both bringing dishes of Italian tradition to the stage, and revolutionizing what is the perception of Italian regional cuisine. 

Not only are these restaurants providing the latest innovations on Italian food in the West, but they are also applying the latest technology in order taking and deliveries. As the Coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage the world, restaurants are investing in delivery services and advanced mobile phone apps to stay in business while bringing more palatable foods to their customers. 

Curious to find out what these restaurants are? Here’s the full list.

1. Bestia, Los Angeles, California. Own production of cured meats, prepared directly by chef Ori Menashe, and homemade pasta is the formula that made Bestia love all over Downtown LA. Not to be missed, the lamb neck with crème fraîche with anchovies or the agnolotti alla vaccinara.

2. Bottega, Birmingham, Alabama. Opened in 1988, it continues to carry a piece of Italy in the deep south of the United States to the sound of Bolognese orecchiette and spaghetti guitar with mounted butter and black truffle.

3. Centrolina, Washington, DC. In addition to feeding Italian cuisine to the political class of the United States, chef and owner Amy Brandwein also offer a market where you can buy fresh pasta, cured meats, and other Italian products. Sitting at his table, you can try chestnut pappardelle and white ragout or lamb ragu pici.

4. City House, Nashville, Tennessee. You won’t find frico or striped ziti with mushroom sauce in the country capital unless you go to Tandy Wilson’s City House. Opened in 2007, this restaurant combines Southern cuisine with Italian tradition thanks to its chef’s combination of origins.

5. Cotogna, San Francisco, California. Just behind San Francisco’s Embarcadero, Michael Tusk’s restaurant is almost impossible to book and is famous for its plìn agnolotti and its raviolo with egg and hazelnut butter.

6. Felix Trattoria, Venice, California. The Thrillist in 2017 voted this place one of the best openings of the year. Here, Evan Funke teaches Californians to abandon their diets and taste his pasta such as orecchiette at turnip tops or malloreddus with lamb ragout and Sardinian flower.

7. Flour+water, San Francisco, California. Located in the Mission District of San Francisco, it opened in 2009 and since then competes with the best restaurants in America for its pasta: to enjoy at its best you can try the tasting menu, with 4 types of pasta plus an appetizer and a dessert.

8. Frasca Food & Wine, Boulder, Colorado. If Boulder, Colorado reminds you of anything, it’s because it’s the city of Mork & Mindy, a cult series from the 1980s. In Bobby Stuckey’s restaurant, Friuli Venezia Giulia is the master, a region where sea and mountains merge, as on Frasca’s menu.

9. Giulia, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Also in Cambridge, Massachusetts, you can eat Sardinian carasau bread. Yes, because from Giulia di Michael Pagliarini you can find this and other specialties, such as spaghetti with anchovies or culurgiones, despite the Umbrian origins of the chef.

10. Hog & Hominy, Memphis, Tennessee. Boules and Italian cuisine, this is the formula of Hog & Hominy in Memphis. Is it because the chefs studied in Calabria. On their menu pizza, bread with ‘nduja and biscuit dumplings with Bolognese ragout and ricotta.

11. Jon & Vinny’s, Los Angeles, California. How many other restaurants in the US will you find nutella canisters or pizza for breakfast? From Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo yes. Some examples? Pizza with yukon potatoes, eggs, rosemary, and red onions or pizza with burrata, tomato, basil, and olive oil.

12. La Ciccia, San Francisco, California. Massimiliano Conti and Lorella Degan bring Sardinia to San Francisco: their menu entirely in Sardinian, even the words of first, second and side dishes, ranges from casisceddu friscu and rughitta to fregua cun su nieddu de seppia, from malloreddus to Sardinian wine.

13. Le Messe, Seattle, Washington. Brian Clevener’s Messe has a characteristic, in addition to Italian cuisine of course: the kitchen in the center of the room, where you can enjoy the spectacle of the chef preparing bucatini, agnolotti, and cavatelli.

14. Lilia, Brooklyn, New York. Williamsburg has been the place to be in New York in recent years, and Missy Robbins’ restaurant is one of her spearheads: her agnolotti with sheep’s cheese, saffron, dried tomatoes, and honey seem to be an indispensable dish for pasta lovers.

15. Monteverde, Illinois. Homemade pasta and an open kitchen: these are the characteristics of chef Sarah Grueneberg’s restaurant. From the menu the typical pasta, such as spaghetti with tomato with smoked juniper ricotta, or atypical ones, such as cacio whey pepe, with Pecorino Romano, ricotta serum, and a mix of four peppers.

16. Mosca’s, Westwego, Louisiana. Where traditional Italian cuisine meets Creole cuisine: run by the same family since 1946, their specialties are Moscow oysters, A La Grande chicken or Bordeaux noodles, with oil, butter, and garlic.

17. Osteria Langhe, Chicago, Illinois. Ah, le Langhe: this Chicago local takes us on a trip to Piedmont with its menu of tuna veal, Piedmontese meat tartare, plìn, tajarin, and rabbit rollè. Even the wine list does not deviate from the regional tradition, dividing by country of origin area.

18. Osteria Morini, New York, New York. Trattoria in full Emilian style where we start from cold cuts and cheeses such as feline salami, squacquerone, or livers, to get to tagliatelle with Bolognese ragout, radcchio garganelli, and truffle butter and gramigna with sausage sauce.

19. Bartolotta Restaurant, Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. There are 4,886 miles between Italy and Wisconsin, but from the menu of Ristorante Bartolotta you would not say: gnudi of ricotta and spinach with butter and sage, sore scialatielli with clams and muggine bottarga, beef fillet with black truffle of Norcia or lamb chops with scalded, just choose.

20. Trattoria Marcella, St. Louis, Missouri.  Since 1995, Steve Komorek has been making pizza, lasagna, pappardelle, and ossobuco with polenta and enchants all of St. Louis. In addition to the menu, the wine list is also full of good examples of Italian culture such as Moscato d’Asti, Prosecco or Barbera.

Of course these restaurants are not operating at full capacity right now and most of them are probably operating at just 25% but you can always order your favorite Italian food without going to Italy!