There actually are some very good Italian restaurants to be found in Houston. These varyingly serve Italian, American-Italian, and the familiar red sauce-heavy Italian-American fare, descriptions that hopefully help explain three broad types of Italian-themed restaurants found here.
 
Restaurants that might be called Italian, I believe, try to mimic how food is prepared in Italy, or in very capable and knowing hands express the ethos of Italy, and made with Italian products when necessary. The chef or proprietor is almost always from Italy or has worked there. They know Italy and aim to serve dishes as Italian as possible, as possible as the customers and budget allow. Italian food varies tremendously by locale and region, maybe more so than other cuisines. Trattoria menus in Siena will look entirely different than one in Palermo or Verona, for example. Here, Italian restaurants rarely try to have a regional or local focus, but will usually have a menu of appealing and somewhat familiar items from around that country.
 
For me, American-Italian restaurants use contemporary ideas and products from Italy, but the food is, generally, noticeably different than it is in Italy. It is an Americanized Italian take, done in an enticing fashion. These places are often from an experienced chef who puts their spin on Italian dishes, or a notion of Italian dishes, and might use the Italian cooking philosophy as an inspiration. There is always pasta made in house; showing off kitchen skills and providing a canvas for creativity. The quality of ingredients is usually high, and sometimes expensive. Italian descriptions are often used to signify an understanding.
 
Italian-American cooking is distinct enough for those restaurants to have its own post.
 
The entrée ranges and averages shown do not include items with the increasingly popular seasonal fresh truffles or caviar service, both of which are seen at all of the pricier of these restaurants, and can add a fair amount to the final tab.
 
Below are the best dozen Italian restaurants in Houston listed in order of preference.
 
Alba – Entrées: $25 to $68, $41 average – The successor to Ristorante Cavour in the upscale Hotel Granduca is still led by the estimable Maurizio Ferrarese, and is the best Italian restaurant in Houston. The cooking is rooted in northwestern Italy, if ranging beyond the rich cuisine of its namesake Alba and the Langhe, the land of Barolo and white truffles, though there is agnolotti del plin and with shaved truffle. Ferrarese has the sensibility and creativity of a modern, top chef, but also does a wonderful job with more traditional fresh pasta preparations and no one here is better with risottos, as you might expect of a native of Vercelli, Europe's rice capital, made typically with the aged Acquerello rice. Secondos, meat and seafood, also shine. The setting is comfortable, attractive and usually staid and quiet. Also in the hotel is Giorgio’s, a more casual but quite adept, lightly trafficked option that shares a kitchen and chef with Alba that also shines with a large number of items including a sous vide octopus salad and butternut squash ravioli. Uptown Park
 
Amalfi – Entrées: $23 to $79, $40 average – Focusing largely on the cuisine of his home region in southern Italy, Salerno native Chef Giancarlo Ferrara produces dishes in this bright strip-center locale that are generally familiar but lighter and more vibrant that what you will typically find here. There are preparations with the house-made strands of scialatelli, tubes of paccheri and another pasta flavored with the colatura, the beguiling fish sauce from the Amalfi coast, among the Campanian coastal specialties. The wood-burning is put into good effect; the whole fish encrusted in rock salt and pizzas are specialties, too, serving some of the city’s best Neapolitan-style pies, which can work very well as a starter or a lunch. Save room for desserts, if possible. The dessert menu is lengthier than most and includes Pasticceria Amalfi, a delectable selection of mini Italian pastries, and a fun, Baked Alaska. Briargrove
 
Bari – Entrées: $24 to $60, $39 average – Opened in May 2023 with seasoned chef Renato De Pirro, a native of Tuscany, at the helm, this serves delicious pan-Italian cooking that tastes like Italy – likely no other local restaurant imports as much of its product from the home country – in an striking upscale trattoria-like setting with a soaring ceiling and sprawling sidewalk patio space that fits in perfectly with its high-dollar neighbors. The menu features recognizable favorites like Insalata Caprese, fritto misto, pappardelle Bolognese, spaghetti with clams, and veal scaloppine with lemon that are executed with excellent ingredients and more skill, understanding and flair than most places. A seafood tower, East Coast oysters on the half shell, and the now-days necessary caviar and truffle menu items – and tartufo bianco from namesake Alba when in season – can help make this a luxe lunch or dinner. The enticing, Italian-focused wine list has the well-known labels Gaja, Solaia, Tignanello and Ornellaia, but about a dozen nicely chosen ones by the glass for $15 and less and many selections under $75 – like a bottle of Rosso di Montalcino from star producer Casanova di Neri and a Pinot Grigio but from the Collio. Bari is both a restaurant for special occasions and one to be frequented regularly without tiring of it, especially for those who can shop often at the stores outside its doors. River Oaks District
 
Da Marco – Entrées: $24 to $75, $47 average – Intimately set in a small house with gated parking on Westheimer, Marco Wiles’s Da Marco has long served excellent fare that represents the best of many of the northern Italian regions. Da Marco is much like a very proficient, upscale trattoria whose cooking is not tethered to a particular locale. True to form, here you are expected to dine in the Italian fashion with antipasti, a first course, a meat or fish entrée, and separate sides. The fish on ice that greet you upon entrance is one of Da Marco’s highlights, but it’s all done quite well here and this has been among the best restaurants in the city for years. Along with the food, the wine list is strictly Italian, and pricey, pricier than most. Noticeably attentive service does come with the lofty prices, though. Back in 2006, Gourmet named among the top 50 restaurants (number 29) in the country and the restaurant might be better these days; there’s much more competition. Montrose
 
Tony’s – Entrées: $26 to $105, $55 average – As its website touts, fairly accurately, “Tony's presents fine dining Italian inspired by Naples, influenced by Milan and Cherished in Houston.” The pan-Italian sensibilities expressed here seek to present the best of Italy, the best of prosperous, gourmet Italy, at that, usually infused with a rich American exuberance. Namesake and legendary local restaurateur Tony Vallone passed away in September 2020, but his widow carries on very well with Kate McLean leading the kitchen for the second time, and Tony's seems more approachable and more Italian than ever. Excellent ingredients have long been the hallmark here, and that includes seasonal, fresh truffles whose aroma can pervade the dining room. Flavorful, thin, freshly made pastas – which nicely all come in first or main course size – tender Provimi veal and impeccable seafood are just some of the attractions, not to mention the excellent service, broad wine selection and gracious, modern setting punctuated with dramatic works by Rauschenberg and Jesus Moroles. There’s maybe more attention paid to caviar here than most top restaurants in case you need the tab to reach toward four digits. The wide-ranging wine list is excellent, as its been for decades, with more older vintages and many of bold-faced French names, but also many nice bottles for $75 and under. Greenway Plaza
 
Potente – Entrées: $39 to $99, $61 average – Serving American-Italian fare with a luxurious bent, this spot across from the ballpark – and sharing an owner with the perennially contending ‘Stros – has a top chef at the helm, Danny Trace formerly at Commander's Palace then the head of hometown Brennan's. It uses approachable preparations inspired from Italy with excellent ingredients to a satiating and robustly flavored, if quite expensive result. The cheapest pasta preparation is $42, for example. Authenticity is not part of the equation nor appeal here, and the preparations reflect a decadent, ingredient-heavy New Orleans heritage. Veal braised in Amarone with locally sourced mushrooms and served with a contrasting white polenta and a beetroot agrodolce, and agnolotti filled with lump crab meat, artichoke, melted leeks, bright beets and limoncello are just a couple. The wine list is lengthy, with plenty of enticements from Italy, France and California for those on expense account, but also nicely selected to appeal to most wine lovers with affordable bottles from excellent producers like Produttori di Barberesco, Pieropan, and Arpepe. Downtown
 
Ostia – Entrées: $21 to $78, $34 average – Another American-Italian, and fitting in very well in the heart of Montrose. Owner Travis McShane parlays his years with top Manhattan toque, Jonathon Waxman and his well-regarded Barbuto, to serve vibrant, well-executed and very satisfying fare from an edited array of salads, pastas, the famed roasted chicken, and other proteins that evokes a lighter, Californian-Italian tenor. It's also worthy of a visit solely for the pizzas, even one with kale, and just at lunch. Each version feature a properly enjoyable, fairly flavorful soft crust with ingredients that are noticeably higher quality and so tastier than usual. The setting is handsome, casual and inviting with an open kitchen and a pleasant patio. Montrose
 
Rosie Canonball – Entrées: $18 to $60, $31 average – Italian preparations including well-done fresh pastas and pizzas plus a few dishes ranging to other southern European spots. The second of several concepts, three currently serving food, to open in a very smart, quaint complex – acclaimed March is housed just above – this is essentially an Italian restaurant with a more than a few complementary nods to the Iberian peninsula on the short menu. There are some very well-crafted, if possibly too precious, fresh pasta preparations in the Emilian tradition, excellent pizzas, plus breads and greens and other vegetables, and a quartet of proteins including the requisite steak and seafood items. These crowd-pleasing dishes and stylish space have made it an attractive stop for lunch, business or otherwise, and a busy spot at night. The wine list is expansive and mainly Old World and fun for almost any wine lover. Montrose
 
Giacomo’s – Entrées: $15 to $35, $23 average – Lynette Hawkin’s comfortable, friendly spot near River Oaks has been easy to love since it opened in 2009. Affordably priced and featuring a big menu that includes plenty of well-rendered small plates of trattoria-style Italian dishes that often highlight Rome and Tuscany, including items like crostini with chicken livers and fine quality freshly made pastas – the best might be the tortelli di bietola, medium-sized ravioli filled with Swiss chard and soft goat cheese and topped with a sage leaves and melted butter – which are paired with a nicely assembled and extremely enticing 150-bottle or so mostly Italian wine list that has many tempting choices between $25 and $40 in a setting that is comfortable and coolly retro. Casual, welcoming, proficient and well-suited for Houston, this is a tough restaurant not to like. River Oaks
 
Poscol – Small plates: $7 to $20 – The restaurant takes its name from the name in dialect of the main thoroughfare in Udine (Via Poscolle), Wiles’ hometown in the northeastern Italian region of Friuli, can work as an all-Italian wine bar supported with enticing small plate preparations, many meant to be shared. The food has a strong northeastern Italian influence along with impeccably Italian sensibilities that have worked extremely well for Houston diners at Da Marco, not far down Westheimer. The roughly 50-item menu will be comprised of regional Italian specialties. There are risotto dishes, fresh pasta preparations, bruschette, salumi, fried items, a well-chosen selection of Italian cheeses, and seafood including shrimp and prosciutto with garlic and capers and octopus and cannellini beans. Its longtime Sunday special of porchetta, a roasted pork preparation, has even thrilled a former resident of Umbria, where the dish was born. Though a sibling of the dearly departed Dolce Vita that was a few addresses down, the pizzas here show that they miss that proper oven. Montrose
 
Davanti – Entrées: $18 to $31, $24 average – Building on the success of the counter-service Fresco on the Southwest Freeway, and the considerable publicity from an appearance on Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives in 2021, Fresco was essentially replicated as Davanti this summer, in nicer digs. Higher prices, too, but this is still casual Italian done well from the kitchen of Chef Roberto Crescini who hails from near Brescia in northern Italy and cooked professionally for years in Italy before coming to Houston. The main attractions are freshly crafted pastas made with at least a substantial portion of hard wheat flour for a toothsome texture, and the ability to be shaped. And shapes there are. If one of the tasty listed options don’t interest, in user-friendly American fashion, you can choose a shape from among a wide array: bucatini, linguine, fettuccine, pappardelle, spaghetti, conchiglie, small or large rigatoni, tagliolini, fusilli, tagliatelle, casarecce, cavatappi, and gluten-free penne; then top it with one of eight sauces, and even add a choice from a few proteins to that. A ravioli preparation, pasta with the braised lamb sauce or with an all-beef ragù bolognese – this is Texas, after all – and the thick Roman-style pizza al taglio are the highlights from an enticing menu. Also, Crescini is a certified Norcino, butcher, so be on the look out for any salumi specials. Greenway Plaza
 
Perbacco – Entrées: $18 to $30, $22 average – Lower-key, featuring very approachable, familiar Southern Italian cooking geared toward local sensibilities from a longtime restaurateur from Capri, off the coast of Naples, the fare is largely lighter and better prepared than similar dishes elsewhere. It’s set in pleasantly utilitarian fashion in the ground floor of an office building, albeit Philip Johnson and team’s landmark Pennzoil Plaza, the emphasis is on enjoyable eating rather than fine dining. Maybe not a destination restaurant, but it works admirably as a downtown lunch spot and stop pre-symphony or -theater at the end of the week There are several, somewhat hearty, baked pasta dishes such as lasagna and cannelloni, and a dozen other pasta preparations like Penne della Casa with perfectly sautéed Gulf shrimp in garlic, brandy pink sauce, and house-made potato gnocchi with eggplant in a tomato sauce. Its version of the traditional, simple linguine and clams is one of the best around. There are a fair number of protein-centric entries, too – veal Marsala, and Gulf snapper sautéed in white wine, onion, fresh tomatoes, capers and basil, aptly carrying the Snapper Napoli name. Even tripletail was a recent lunchtime fish special. Entrées are served with a small salad, helping to make this an especially nice value. Downtown

Fresh pasta with fresh truffles at Bari

The reputation of the most popular names in Italian white wine suffered even before the advent of millions of gallons of bland Pinot Grigio began flooding the market. The estimable Eric Asimov in the New York Times wrote somewhat recently, “Years ago, Gavi di Gavi was one of the best known Italian white wines, along with Soave and Frascati. The reputation of each of these sank under the weight of a profusion of insipid wines.”  Frascati, grown near Rome, was possibly the prime offender in this.
 
Katie Parla, the Rome-based food writer and tour guide wrote that “much of the zone’s vino has been mediocre at best for a couple thousand years. Rome’s proximity guaranteed a built-in market thirsty for cheap wine, while mass production from the 1970s to today saw production grow to supply foreign markets with insipid Frascati.” A wine site thought that “most producers go strictly for quantity as nothing more is wanted beyond wine to fill carafes in the big city.”
 
The entire region of Lazio where Frascati and Rome belong haven’t received much respect even through it produced the equivalent of about 16 million bottles of wine last year. A few years ago, the Gambero Rosso annual wine guide complained about Lazio that “an overall selection that featuring few interesting wines” for the past year’s releases.  Another wine guide, from Slow Food, devoted only three of its 275 wine review pages to the region.
 
I was of the same mind and had long advised friends traveling to Rome to look about Frascati to Orvieto, Friuili, Sardinia for whites while in the Eternal City.
 
But I knew that there was certainly some very good white wine produced there, as the quality throughout the country has improved and looked forward to a tasting a couple of weeks featuring Roman-area wines sponsored by the local Italy-America Chamber of Commerce at Vinology.
 
And the initial wine impressed, Roma from Principe Pallavicini, made with 100% Malvasia del Lazio, that’s also called Malvasia Puntinata, which is one of the main grapes for the Frascati blend. The dry white was slightly aromatic with hints of maybe basil and featured notes of apricot in a fairly long, mouth-filling taste with some heft courtesy of the four to five months of sur lie aging and a 13.5% alcohol. It very pleasantly surprised, a repose to the dull, forgettable Frascatis, and likely a nice match for a wide range of dishes along with being very easy to start with. And, not surprisingly, Gambero Rosso has positively reviewed vintages of Roma, including a prestigious two bicchiere for the 2016 one.
 
From the largest private estate in Frascati, these wines from an old aristocratic Roman family, are not available in the Houston area yet, but the Roma sells for about $18 elsewhere, quite a fair tariff.

The Ai Tre Scalini wine bar in Rome

That might seem to be an odd question. If you are dining at an Italian restaurant, you’ll be eating Italian food, right? Not necessarily and not often, actually. What you’ll have will usually be much more accurately described as Italian-American or an American take on Italian food.
 
Restaurants advertising Italian fare in some fashion can be placed under one of the three broad headers, I believe: Italian-American; Americanized Italian; and simply Italian, which is much closer to what is served in Italy.
 
Italian-American easily claims the largest number of restaurants and also dishes. This is what most people think of when they think of Italian food. These restaurants serve items that come largely from the Italian-American tradition. The colors on the plate are largely red and whitish with some green: fried mozzarella, linguine in clam sauce, ravioli in a tomato sauce, cannelloni, fettuccine Alfredo, lasagna with ricotta, ground meat and tomato sauce, eggplant Parmesan, Chicken Parmesan, veal Marsala and, almost always, spaghetti and meatballs. And there is usually a lot on the plate.
 
Italian-American dishes are rooted in the big wave of Italian immigration from the 1880s until 1924. The vast majority of these people came from the Italian south where the tomato has a prominent place, and about half the dishes in the Italian-American canon originate in the Naples area like long-simmered tomato sauce, pasta and clams, and that familiar-looking lasagna. These items might have antecedents in Italy but were adapted and grew with American tastes, abundance, industrialization and pace of life. The people who were eating these dishes were Americans, as the immigrants’ offspring and descendants were, plus the generations of restaurant patrons. The preparations at these restaurants, regardless of the provenance of the recipes, are generally more robustly flavored, much heartier, and cheesier than is found in Italy. Restaurants need to serve what people want, and the menus are never static. Italian-American restaurants usually have fettuccine Alfredo and maybe penne alla vodka, dishes born after the great migration and in restaurants in Italy – to serve for tourists, actually – but have become very American in practice.
 
Here in Houston, the two original Carrabba’s and Damian’s are perfect and enjoyable examples. About a dozen years ago, I took a food writer from Italy and top Sicilian chef to Carrabba’s on Kirby to experience food from a prominent Sicilian-American restaurateur. They did not recognize the food, and frequently muttered the word “barocco,” baroque. For them, it meant extravagant and somewhat strange compared to the significantly smaller more streamlined dishes in Italy they were used to.
 
Similar to the Italian-American restaurant is the newest type, what I call Americanized Italian. These do not hew to the Italian-American traditions for the most part, and use more contemporary ideas and products from Italy, but the food is, generally, noticeably different than it is in Italy. These places are often from an experienced chef who puts their spin on Italian dishes, or a notion of Italian dishes, and might use the Italian cooking philosophy as an inspiration. There is always pasta made in house; showing off kitchen skills and providing a canvas for creativity. The quality of ingredients is usually high, and sometimes expensive. Italian descriptions are often used to portray a greater sense of authenticity or understanding, at least, even if the Italian on the menu is might be mangled. The best local instances are Potente and Ostia.
 
For me, restaurants that might be called Italian try to mimic how food is prepared in Italy, or in very capable and knowing hands express the ethos of Italy, and made with Italian products when necessary. The chef is almost always from Italy or has cooked there. They know Italy.
 
Italian food varies tremendously by locale and region, maybe more so than other cuisines. Trattoria offerings in Siena will look entirely different than one in Palermo or Verona. Here, Italian restaurants rarely try to have a regional or local focus, but will usually have a menu of appealing and somewhat familiar items from around the country. Tony May of the Gruppo Ristoranti Italiani and the landmark San Domenico in New York, one of the progenitors of alta cucina – expensive, fancy Italian food – in the U.S. told me that in Italy “the products are regional, but the cuisine is Italian.” Those Italian products were tough to get here until somewhat recently. May said in 2008 that "twenty years ago it was very difficult to reproduce regional Italian cuisine…..A chef couldn't get imported Parmigiano-Reggiano or buffalo milk mozzarella, virgin olive oil, prosciutto di Parma, or balsamic vinegar. Now, everybody can buy the finest of such ingredients, and it's made a tremendous difference in the taste of the food."
 
Even with excellent and Italian products and an informed kitchen, the way we eat in this country is different than in Italy – no primo then secondo – what customers expect is not the same, and, most importantly, restaurants need to make money. "There's no point in being strictly authentic with an empty dining room," as Lidia Bastianich quipped a few decades ago. Italian restaurants here will almost always be at least a little different than any in Italy.
 
Restaurants that can truly be called Italian include Alba, Amalfi, Da Marco and the new Bari. This Italian-ness usually comes at a cost. To taste that Italian, Italian products are necessary. Chef Renato De Pirro at Bari said about 70% of his are imported from Italy, for example. But there is also Davanti that is more casual and wallet-friendly.
 
I think that it’s fun to mention, that for any of these three broad types of restaurants, including the most Italian ones, there will nearly always be a steak on the menu. We Americans love steak.

A beautiful pasta presentation at Amalfi

Updated again on September 8, 2023 – ​A passeggiata is the traditional evening promenade in Italian towns and villages. Though Italian food and restaurants in our area might have a rather undistinguished history in national terms – especially compared to New York, Los Angeles and Chicago – a meandering, somewhat selective, chronological stroll – or passeggiata – of 100-plus of its significant or interesting particulars can be entertaining, and even informative, mainly since Houston is now a top restaurant city. This is due, in part, to substantial contributions from Italian-Americans and Italians.
 
With far fewer Italians than in other cities, it took a while for Italian restaurants to shine here. Even as late as 1982 Texas Monthly, if not the most knowledgeable or critical source concerning Italian-themed restaurants over the years, opined: “Houston was slighted when the restaurant gods passed out Italian eateries.” It’s gotten much better since then, thankfully.
 
I penned the original, much shorter, version of this for My Table magazine back in 2011 and have updated several times since then. It’s an enjoyable topic that has resonated, as Italian food in most of its guises is fun and well-loved, more so than most cuisines it seems. According to a once much-quoted truism from playwright Neil Simon, “there are two laws in the universe: the law of gravity and everyone likes Italian food.”
 
1884 – The Houston Directory published for 1884-1885 lists grocers with names like Fenno, Manno, Maretti and Roco. Alexander Bergamini – the owner of the Casino saloon at 72 Congress – is, appropriately, a New Orleans native. There is also a restaurant named Delmonico; it’s not Italian, but rather named after the famous New York establishment.
 
1890s – Veal, popular with Italians of some prosperity and also central Europeans, is a fairly common item in Houston’s many German-owned meat markets in the late 19th century, but eventually became scarce. Decades later, restaurateurs Johnny Carrabba and Frankie Mandola don’t recall ever having it at home while growing up here.
 
1905 – Carrabba’s Chicken “Bryan Texas” is the most popular dish across the entire chain, and named after Bryan, 100 miles north of Houston. An Italian emigration official, Adolfo Rossi, reported that 2,500 Sicilian immigrants were working the land there in 1905. Along with two in New Jersey, it is “perhaps the largest Italian agricultural community in the United States” according to a later government report. Initially, Sicilians from different villages settled on either sides of the Brazos River, an example of campanilismo – the extreme provincialism – of most Italians at the time.
 
1906 – There seems to be a IWW French and Italian Restaurant that opened downtown at 702 Preston, possibly the city’s first restaurant serving Italian food. The IWW had formed just a year earlier in Chicago.
 
1911 – Galveston’s oldest restaurant, Gaido’s, opens in 1911. It is named after the founding Sicilian family that still owns and operates it. It is a seafood rather than an Italian restaurant, though. Eventually replicating in Houston where a New York Times reports seventy years later in an overview of Houston for visitors that “you go to dinner at Gaido's, a seafood restaurant on South Main Street eat six different kinds of oyster dishes…and then drive virtually across the street to see the rodeo at the Astrodome.”
 
1913 – Houston has two pasta factories: Houston Macaroni Manufacturing Co. and Magnolia Macaroni Manufacturing & Co.
 
1915 – An immigrant from Sicily, Joe Grasso, pioneers the Galveston shrimping industry. Through the 1920s he sold most of it as bait as not many locals ate shrimp then.
 
1920 – Houston is home to Chinese and Japanese restaurants, but seemingly no Italian restaurant. This is when the city’s population was around 140,000.
 
1930 – Houston’s first spaghetti house – and seemingly the first full-service, fully Italian restaurant – opens, Del Monico’s.
 
1944 – Massa’s opens in downtown Houston, and is in business for over seventy years. Like Gaido’s in Galveston, it carries the name of Sicilian-American owners and is also a seafood restaurant rather than an Italian one.

1947 – Joe Matranga opens up a an intimate restaurant called the "Ding-a-Ling" on Irvington north of downtown that later changes its name to Matranga’s. The garrulous, oft-crooning owner “was a character,” remembered Johnny Carrabba. It quickly becomes the favorite Italian for most Houstonians, and carries on until 1990 known for dishes like spaghetti and meatballs and veal Parmesan served with plenty of “simmering tomato sauce and garlic – lots of garlic” that resonated with customers. Matranga once admitted to a reporter that his famous sauce contained “onion and garlic and olive oil and salt, pepper and basil” along with tomato paste and was on the stove for eight hours.
 
1948 – An inexpensive Italian restaurant called Big Humphrey’s opens on Park Place in southeast Houston. It is named after owner Joe Vitale’s professional wrestling persona. It later moves to Pearland and operated until January 2020.
 
1948 – Along with her husband Mama Ninfa – later the instigator of the nationwide fajita craze – opens a tortilla and pizza dough factory on Navigation east of downtown. Pizza dough to be used at home. The Italian dough part might not have been a surprise since her husband was an Italian-American with family roots in the Naples area and from the northeast. Much later her offspring open Laurenzo's Italian Bar and Grille that lasts just three months and Bambolino's, a drive-through slice place, one of which still remains on Westheimer.
 
1950 – The Bureau of the Census publication for 1950 lists 4,195 Italians in Houston, those who were born in Italy or who have had at least one parent born there, out of a population of almost 600,000. Forty-three cities have more Italians than Houston, led by New York (684,865), Chicago (116,595), Philadelphia (115,205), Boston (53,335), Newark (49,275), Detroit (43,580), Buffalo (36,615), Rochester, NY (34,555), Providence, RI (34,370), San Francisco (32,960), and Cleveland (32,340); the reason why there was a paucity of Italian restaurants here compared to other large cities for quite a while.

1950 – Frank Sinatra’s scandalous (i.e. adulterous) affair with Ava Gardner is confirmed for the nation in late January at Italian restaurant in Houston, Vincent’s Sorrento. Sinatra is in town for a several week gig at the grand, new Shamrock Hotel. A guest of Mayor Oscar Holcombe at the restaurant – whose proprietor is a Vallone – Sinatra accosts a photographer from the Houston Post who is about to capture the couple on film.
  
1953 – In November of that year, the Sacred Heart Society of West Little York, Roman Catholic men’s group founded by Sicilian immigrants from in and around Palermo, begins its tradition of a Thursday spaghetti lunch that is inexpensive and open to the public at its home in Whitney Hall on Airline just north of Crosstimbers. With the lunches remaining popular well into the new millennium, the meat balls and long-simmered tomato sauce follow the same recipes as when the lunches began. The fresh Italian sausage is made by Society members.

1955 – Pizza finally comes to Houston with opening of Valian’s in July. The reason it took so long is that Houston lacked a critical mass of Neapolitan immigrants that were found in New York, New Haven, Boston, Philadelphia, Trenton and Chicago, each of which had pizza for decades. There are a couple of other contenders for the first pizza place in Houston, but it was certainly Valian’s that made it popular and is remembered as the local pizza pioneer. Near the Shamrock Hotel, the owner of Valian’s – like most new owners capitalizing on the exploding taste for pizza across the country – is not Italian. Armenian-American. The restaurant also serves barbecue and fried chicken.
 
1950s – The most popular place for imported Italian specialties – and about the only one – is Trapolino Import Co. Started by Frank Trapolino, a native of Bisaquino near Corleone in western Sicily. He had previously worked at the Houston Macaroni Co.
 
1960 – Pino’s opens at 3000 Cullen near the University of Houston. It is owned by Pino Farinola from coastal Brindisi in southwestern Italy and his wife. The restaurant is an old house and seats about fifty.
 
1965 – Tony’s from Tony Vallone opens as a casual Italian restaurant, known at the time as a spaghetti house, on Sage Road near where the Galleria would be constructed in a few years. It is later described as, “a place that was fun to visit, with good food and drink, dancing….”  Within a few years it would attract the well-to-do and become much more ambitious culinarily and much more French.
 
1969 – Near the eastern edge of Westheimer in January, Michelangelo opens. Maybe somewhat exotic at first, it continued in business for over four decades later, known for its comfortable Italian-American fare and vaguely romantic setting.
 
1969 – The April 19 issue of Billboard reports, “Tony Bennett Spaghetti House…the first of the restaurants is scheduled to open in Houston in early August. Five additional units will open in the same city before the end of the year, with dozens more planned in other cities for early 1970.” At least one did open, briefly, in Town & Country where, “the food was…was very bland,” recalled a rare patron. Lasting longer is, “Benedetto’s, Texas State Hotel, 720 Fannin…a supper club that features an Italian feast, cheek-to-cheek dance music and name Vegas acts,”  run by the singer’s brother, John.
 
The songs of the popular Italian-American singers interpreting the Great American Songbook after the Second World War are a requisite part of the ambiance of Italian-themed restaurants in this country. From that group, oddly, more than Tony Bennett had ties to the city. Vic Damone lived here for years after marrying an oil heiress, and two of three of Frank Sinatra’s kids were married to Houstonians (at least for short times). Nancy Sinatra married singer Tommy Sands – who attended Lanier Junior High and then Lamar High School – in 1960. Frank Sinatra, Jr. married a Houston-area lawyer in 1998. Plus, one of Dean Martin’s very best songs is his 1965 recording of “Houston.” It might be hard to envision Dino going back to Houston, though.
 
1970 – As the city moves westward, Pino’s follows. It moves to Hilcroft and Westheimer. Its success allows it to eventually grow to four times the capacity of the original.
 
1971 – Antonio’s Flying Pizza opens in 1971 by Sicilian immigrants serving pizza and assertive Italian-American red sauce classics, and proving that this formula with competent hands in the kitchen still works well after fifty-plus years.
 
1974 – With the catchphrase, “a great Italian restaurant…with a heck of an Irish bar,” Birraporetti’s opens on West Gray near River Oaks. Though hardly the former, and more accurately the latter, it’s a fun and useful place, dishing functional, familiar Italian-American items that expands to the downtown theater district, the Galleria area, and even sunny Orange County, California – that location closes in 1998 not long after losing a $2.3 million sexual harassment lawsuit brought by two former waitresses. Birraporetti’s is still around, adjacent to the Alley Theatre and with a branch down in Friendswood. The marriage of concepts is the product of a very common marriage in Roman Catholic parishes in much of the country, of the founders, Michael Horan and Shirley Gaudino, Irish- and Italian-Americans.
 
1974 – In their November issue, Texas Monthly reports that "Tony's [is]our nomination for the city's best restaurant… [with] trout Veronique… Chauteaubriand…. Souffle" as it advertises itself as serving the "Poetry of French Food."  Vallone's heart seems to remain with the vibrant culinary verse of Naples and environs, though.

1975 – Cajoled by Houston socialite Maxine Van Dusen, Sergio Ballatori, whose family had run a restaurant in Rome between the main train station and the Trevi Fountain for four decades, moves to the Bayou City to open Ballatori’s at 4215 Leeland in November in a recently occupied bank building east of downtown. Aptly aided by his wife, five children and parents, Ballatori features Roman and Italian dishes like saltimbocca alla Romana, the fresh pasta tonnarelli alla carbonara, and risotto alla Milanese along with sought-after tables set inside a spacious steel bank vault.
 
1976 – In January Star Pizza fires up its pizza oven for the first time. Its thick-crust pizzas – not really the Chicago-style deep dish as advertised – are arguably the best in the city at the time, and quickly become a favorite with the college-age customers.
 
1976 – The February issue of Texas Monthly decries that “it is disappointing that there is such a dearth of authentic offerings in the restaurants of Texas.” No kidding, though there was a dearth in most of the country then, too. The author goes on the write that “Dallasites have the best selection of good Italian restaurants in Texas,” and that “good food doesn’t seem to be a requisite for success in Houston.” The wine lists throughout also draw scorn, offering just Chianti and maybe Valpolicella, Bardolino and Soave. He does praise Renata’s at 2006 Lexington, which opened in 1974, and Matranga’s. The former is lauded for the “Chicken Renata stuffed with ham and cheese,” a dish found nowhere in Italy. He also mentions that Tony’s, which “can’t be called an Italian restaurant, does serve specialties like osso buco and the best veal piccata I’ve eaten.”
 
1976 – Jason’s Deli – founded in Beaumont, Texas in 1976 by a Sicilian-American, Joe Tortorice – eventually includes over fifteen Houston area locations. A noticeable part of its success is due to its version of the muffaletta, the sandwich invented in the French Quarter in New Orleans in 1906. The muffaletta takes its name from a somewhat unusual, dense type of loaf that originated in Piano degli Albanesi, a town home to a large ethnic Albanian community, which is about a dozen miles from the Sicilian capital of Palermo, where the bread also became quite popular.
 
1977 – Nash D’Amico – who had recently run an Italian restaurant in Huntsville, and helped significantly by his cousin Damian Mandola – opens “something new and exciting for Houston,” D’Amico’s at 2407 Westheimer east of Kirby. It is known for dishes like frutti di mare salad, fried calamari, and tortellini in a cream sauce. Several years later, still “one of the busiest restaurants in Houston,” Texas Monthly describes it as “the first sumptuous Italian restaurant in Texas.”
 
1977 – In a small house on W. Dallas – a few blocks west of an area once rife with Italian grocers – Vincent Mandola opens Nino’s, which will grow into a two-block compound over the years. Greatly inspired by the cooking of their mother, Grace, the three Mandola brothers, Vincent, Tony and Damian, will go on to open many of Houston’s most popular restaurants: Nino’s (Vincent), Tony Mandola’s Gulf Coast Kitchen (Tony), Damian’s (Damian), Carrabba’s (Damian), Vincent’s (Vincent), Pesce (Damian) and Pronto (Vincent).
 
1978 – Quaint Arno’s at 5212 Cedar in Bellaire is awarded a star by Texas Monthly in its roundup of restaurants, one of only four so accoladed in the Houston section. Praised in the magazine in the past for the “good taste to explore facets of Italian cuisines heretofore unknown in Houston,” with many Northern Italian-inspired offerings including house-made pastas, veal kidneys and pesto, one of the first here to serve it. Its known for its seafood from beyond the Gulf, including mussels, and for an appetizer of mushrooms caps stuffed with the minced stems, onion, cream cheese and dill, from a recipe in Gourmet. Whatever inconsistencies existed in the kitchen and service seemed to grow after a move to 4002 Montrose in the early 1980s and restaurant loses luster.  

1978 – Destined to become a favorite of astronauts and other NASA personnel, Frenchie’s in a dumpy strip center in Clear Lake opens by the Camera brothers from the island of Capri. Though misleading, the owners decide to keep the name of the previous establishment. Its counter service at lunch – and usually packed – while full service in the evening.
 
1978 – The faccia di vecchia dish served at Mandola’s Deli that opens near the University of Houston takes its name from its likeness to the gnarled face of an old woman. It is a version of the sfincione, a focaccia-esque dish from the Palermo area, the progenitor of the square Sicilian pizza.
 
1981 – Carmelo’s opens on Memorial near Dairy Ashford in west Houston. Carmelo Mauro, a native of the beautiful resort town of Taormina in Sicily, brings Continental-inflected and well-executed Italian-American dishes that quickly become a hit and expands to Austin in a few years, a city with a complete absence in decent Italian cooking, which I was to learn moving there a few years later.
 
1982 – In the March issue of Texas Monthly is an article about Italian dining in Texas. It lists D’Amico’s and Villani at 2907 West Alabama as two of the three best Italian restaurants in the state. The reviewer thought important to add that “it seems that Dallas doesn’t need any more Italian restaurants, it just needs a few good Italian cooks.”
 
1982 – Sonny Bono – an Italian-American singer like Tony Bennett, if without the talent – opens an Italian restaurant called Bono’s on Woodway between Post Oak and Sage. A branch of his West Hollywood original, it lasts for several years.
 
1982 – In the fall of this year Carlo Molinaro, a native of Verona, starts a quaint restaurant called La Trattoria on Westheimer just east of Voss. Serving broadly northern Italian trattoria classics along with American-friendly items like garlic bread, fettuccine Alfredo and cream-laden veal scaloppine, the restaurant is maddeningly inconsistent until its close at the end of 2010. Delighting regular patrons – including many ex-pats from Italy – it is too often indifferent in terms of both cooking and service.
 
1982 – Achille Epifani, originally from Taranto in the heel of Italy’s boot, opens Achille’s on Memorial between Wilcrest and Kirkwood. Having once cooked at the famed Giambelli’s on 50th in Manhattan – the first to have broken the $10 mark for a pasta dish in the country – he brings a customer-pleasing sense to his usually full-flavored preparations. It remains a neighborhood favorite for over fifteen years before Epifani decides to down-scale to a fast-casual operation and move west (to Eldgridge).
 
1983 – In the fall, John Flowers, originally from the Chicago area, opens Kenneally’s Irish Pub, a neighborhood Irish bar, on Shepherd north of Westheimer. It, surprisingly, serves pizza, excellent pizza – a cracker-thin-crust that’s cut into squares and vaguely Neapolitan in heritage. This was the original type of pizza served in Chicago, well before the advent of the deep-dish. Its pizza-maker trained at the acclaimed Vito & Nick’s in southwestern Chicago, a remaining bastion of this style. Though still open in 2023, the pizzas at Kenneally’s haven’t been that great in years.
 
1982 – Tony Mandola opens the self-named Gulf Coast Kitchen, his second restaurant at 1602 Shepherd. In early 1988 it moves to much nicer digs the River Oaks Shopping Center on West Gray. Best described as a regional seafood restaurant, it does serve some unique and popular items that combine Italian-American cooking with regional ingredients and flavors.
 
1982 – Antonio Mingalone, a native of Basilicata in southern Italy, opens Montesano at 6009 Beverly Hill, aptly near Richmond and Fountain View, as the restaurant features a fountain inside. Texas Monthly quickly took note and Montesano will improve and become one of the city’s top Italian restaurants with influences from around that country geared toward the local clientele.
 
1985 – Following up the popularity of D’Amico’s, Nash D’Amico’s Pasta & Clam Bar opens at 2421 in the heart of the Rice Village. Nicely tiled and adorned with glass bricks 80s-popular neons, the Italian-American offerings skew toward pastas and Gulf seafood and Texas Monthly commented that it “still draws the trendy crowd” a few years after opening. It lasts for a decade there expanding to the Galleria area, Galveston and Clear Lake.

1985 – In their April issue, Texas Monthly notes that, “Joe Matranga, Owner of Texas’ Best Spaghetti Joint, gives out free postcards of himself as a valiant Greek warrior impaled on a bloody spear,” something he has done for years – odd but eye-catching – in awarding it the Best Restaurant Postcard, a time when postcards printed by restaurants were a thing.
 
1985 – On Smith Street in what would be called Midtown, Damian, Frankie and Vincent Mandola along with Ciro Lampasas and Johnny Carrabba, Sr. open Damian’s in the fall serving more refined and better executed Italian-American cooking with a Gulf Coast touch. It is soon to become one of Houston’s best-loved restaurants.
 
1986 – Ciro Lampasas opens his eponymous restaurant, Ciro’s, on the north side of I-10 at Campbell that becomes a Spring Branch favorite.
 
1986 – Aldo Cantania opens La Strada on a dicey stretch of Westheimer in Montrose. The California-style Italian food never draws raves, but its wild Sunday brunch becomes an institution. A second location opens in 1996 in the Galleria area. A fire shutters the original in 2002. It reopens in 2004, but never regained its former popularity. Both are closed by spring 2009.
 
1986 – With proprietors Damian Mandola and his nephew Johnny Carrabba, Carrabba’s opens in the site of a former adult bookstore on Kirby north of Richmond in December and not far south from River Oaks. More casual than Damian’s, the most expensive item on the menu is $9 and the wine offerings number in the single digits. The robust, familiar southern Italian-American fare some nods to their Sicilian roots, attentive service and lively atmosphere quickly resonates with Houstonians and becoming a local favorite.
 
1987 – Backstreet Café’s Tracy Vaught invests in Prego, a failing restaurant in the Rice Village. It was one of the scores of restaurants nationwide that had used Wolfgang Puck’s Spago as its inspiration. The next year it becomes Italian-themed, more competent, and a favorite of the nearby soon-to-be-booming West University and Southampton neighborhoods.
 
1988 – In January, due to the phenomenal success of its Kirby original in the past year, Carrabba’s opens a second location near Briargrove on Voss near San Felipe.
 
1988 – Augie Vasquez, a native of Argentina who had worked with Nash D’Amico, opens Augie’s at 5901 Westheimer at Fountain View. Drawing on his Italian heritage and restaurant experience, he serves dishes found infrequently in Houston, including some of the over thirty pastas and an excellent version of mozzarella in carozza dished from an open kitchen. Though the Houston Chronicle’s review noted that “this is one of those rare Italian restaurants where the meat and fish dishes rival the pastas,” the restaurant does not last but a couple of years.
 
1988 – The November issue of Texas Monthly raves about Damian’s grilled quail on polenta and its “fettuccine in Alfredo sauce adorned with dandelions… [with] moist grilled boned chicken breast.”  It garners two stars (out of three) making it one of the top seven restaurants in the state according to the magazine.
 
1989 – Tony Vallone opens Neapolitan-spiced Grotto in January. The food is excellent; not really authentically Italian, but the execution and ingredients are top-notch. The flavors are properly distinct and vibrant, more so Italian, southern Italian, rather than typically Italian-American. The exuberant scene rivals the food. The restaurant is notable also for introducing to locals the Sardinian flatbread pane carasau as part of its copious complimentary bread basket and bellinis, that classic first concocted in the famed Harry’s Bar in Venice. Grotto is named one of the top new restaurants in the country by Esquire magazine in 1990.
 
1991 – On Lovett just off Montrose, Lynette Hawkins opens La Mora, occupying the spot of another Italian restaurant, Villa Borghese. Hawkins had lived in Florence and La Mora is the first of the area’s first Tuscan-themed restaurants that proves to strike a welcome cord among Houston diners.
 
1991 – Pino Luongo, the New York restaurateur that helped introduce and popularize Tuscan food in this country beginning in New York the 1980s, opens a restaurant in the Galleria near the pricey Barney’s spot in August. Texas Monthly wrote a few months later that, “the most sophisticated Houston Tuscan restaurant is the largely undiscovered Piccola Cucina.” Unfortunately, it remained that way and shuttered after a not-too-long tenure. It was probably the most truly Italian restaurant in Houston to that point.
 
1991 – Tony Vallone opens La Griglia on West Gray just east of River Oaks in the fall. Esquire names it a best new restaurant in the country soon after opening. Less Neapolitan and maybe less Italian than his Grotto, it is similarly boisterous and stylishly casual, and quickly becomes a place for socialites and politicians. The restaurant scene remarkably remains so, two decades, and a change of ownership later.
 
1992 – In January an unpretentious spot dedicated to well-prepared Neapolitan style pasta dishes and somewhat odd, but popular, baked casserole creations opens a corner of the Pennzoil Building downtown. Called Buca di Bacco until the chain Buca di Beppe paid owner Vittorio Preteroti, a native of the isle of Capri and related to the family that runs Frenchie’s, to change. So, it has been known as Perbacco for years.
 
1992 – The first area Romano’s Macaroni Grill from Brinker International opens at 5802 Westheimer and is a hit. The very quaffable jug wines sold on the honor is a big reason, helping it last for a couple of decades. The chain began in Leon Springs, outside of San Antonio, in 1988.
 
1992 – In December two chefs from the famous Cipriani Hotel in Venice open Torcello at 2300 Westheimer, east of Kirby. Taking the name of the island where the hotel is located, its Venetian-inspired cuisine – including Harry’s Bar classics – is some of the very best Italian food that has ever been served in Houston, and its interior wins a local design award. The restaurant lasts for about a year-and-a-half, closing in 1994. It could be the address as Armando's, Dish, Two Chefs Bistro, Beso, and most recently a’Bouzy – to name most of the ones which followed, most having abbreviated tenures.
 
1993 – In April Outback Steakhouse purchased a 50% stake in the cash flows of the two Carrabba's restaurants and entered into a 50-50 joint venture with the founders, Johnny Carrabba and Damian Mandola, to develop new locations. Houston’s version of Italian-American food and hospitality is poised to spread nationally. From soon after this, as most Houston restaurant-goers know, but it bears mentioning, the first two Carrabba’s locations – now just owned by Johnny Carrabba and family – are much better than the nationwide Carrabba’s Grill outposts.
 
1993 – The Leading Italian Restaurants of the United States by Gruppo Ristoranti Italiani, which promotes “the highest traditions of Italian cuisine” in this country, includes Tony’s, the only entry for a restaurant in Texas.
 
1993 – Del Vecchio Foods is founded in Houston and produces a line of fresh Italian sausages that can be found at Spec’s and not enough other local outlets. Its best product in 2023 might be its Spanish-style chorizo, actually.
 
1994 – Anthony’s reopens at 4007 Westheimer in Highland Village, though it is not as Italian as it once was. The oft-decadent Italian-scented veal dishes remain excellent, though.
 
1994 – Using a far cheaper and less competent designer than Anthony’s – the odd Il Dio di Vin’ opens on the 7600 block of the Katy Freeway. The stuccoed interior is meant to resemble a grotto setting, but harkens more to the caves described in the depressing Christ Stopped at Eboli. The menu is entirely in some southern Italian dialect – Neapolitan, I believe – and the food is a mix of Italian-American and Neapolitan dishes done a little differently. The wine is inexpensive; the food is moderately priced, robustly flavored and usually terrific, especially the pasta dishes.
 
1994 – Nearby, also on the Katy Freeway, Tony Mandola's Family Table. It served giant Italian-American dishes meant for several, and meant to be like “going to grandma's house for Sunday dinner,” provided she was first- or second-generation southern Italian or Sicilian. The concept did not work for Houston, and it changed into another Blue Oyster Bar, which remained until the freeway expansion chased it north.
 
1994 – If not quite new, at least renewed, Anthony’s is named a top new restaurant in the country by Esquire magazine in October.
 
1995 – In January, Johnny Carrabba and Damian Mandola purchased Outback’s shares in the original two Carrabba’s and modified the terms of the expansion agreement. The numerous Carrabba-named outlets grow to over 230 during the next fifteen years while the two initial locations remain amazingly popular.
 
1996 – Thai-born Somchai Rapesak who had cooked for La Strada for nearly a decade opens Crostini in a small house on Shepherd north of Westheimer early in the year. It grows to incorporate the then-trendy Southwestern ingredients and Thai flavors into American Italian cooking that works quite well. The restaurant has a successful dozen year run.
 
1996 – In March, two local Italian restaurant stars, Damian Mandola (Damian’s, Carrabba’s) and Lynette Hawkins (La Mora, Giacomo’s), marry, though the union doesn’t last.
 
1996 – Deep in the heat and humidity of August, Arcodoro opens in the Galleria area. The elegant spot quickly becomes regarded as one of the best Sardinian-focused restaurant in the country (not that there are too many). Its Seadas Al Miele dessert – puff pastry filled with sweetened cheese, fried and drizzled with bitter honey – is “perhaps the oldest dessert in the world” according to an Italian food authority.
 
1996 – Nash D’Amico opens D'Amico's Italian Market Café on Morningside in the Rice Village that is both a market and café, or restaurant more properly. The casual place, with red checkered tablecloths adorning tables near shelves filled with grocery items and featuring Italian-American favorites and popular restaurant items along with regional favorite, crawfish ravioli, quickly resonate with the neighborhood that misses his long-running place around the corner. It expands in 2011 to the Heights and 2013 to Katy, each for just a few years.

1996 – Villa Capri in Clear Lake – run by the family that owns nearby Frenchie’s – hosts the Italian head of state, President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, who was visiting NASA.
 
1997 – In an April 11 review in the Houston Chronicle, Alex Truex writes, “Houston is blessed, but also cursed, by its plethora of upscale Italian restaurants,” proving definitively that he is no Robb Walsh or Alison Cook.
 
1997 – The restaurant with a bank vault run by a family from Rome, Ballatori’s, closes after a two decade run.
 
1998 – In April the Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show” pokes fun at the name of the Houston restaurant Crapitto’s located on Mid Lane near Highland Village. It is the last name of the owner, by the way.
 
1998 – In the summer of 1998 Aldo El Sharif of the extravagant Aldo's – along with Marco Wiles – opens a wine bar called Osteria D'Aldo at 301 Main downtown.
 
1998 – Husband and wife Bernand and Kathy Petronella open Paulie’s, named after their son, on Westheimer across from Lanier Middle School that serves a crowd-pleasing menu long on sandwiches, hot and cold, leafy salads, Italian-American dishes and cookies in a comfortable space done via counter-service. A second location on Holcombe opens and closes in the next decade and then Camerata, one of Houston’s most serious wine bars, in the space adjacent in 2013.
 
1998 – From two cousins born in Calabria and veterans of New York City pizzerias, Romano’s Pizza opens in a retail center on West Gray near Waugh. Serving Italian-American standards like manicotti, eggplant Parmesan and chicken Francese along with the pies all via gruff counter service, this becomes a favorite of transplants from the New York area looking for a taste of pizza they grew up with.
 
1998 – With skilled Alberto Baffoni a native of the Marche in central Italy manning the kitchen, Simposio opens on Richmond and Chimney Rock. It is named as one of the top new restaurants in the country by Esquire that fall, being praised by bringing to Houston “authentic Italian cooking.”  Simposio takes its name from the Michelin-starred Symposium restaurant in Carteceto, Marche where Baffoni had worked.
 
1999 – In July of 1999 the Houston Chronicle lauds La Griglia in a review, as “Marco Wiles brings glory back to the kitchen.” It is planned as a short time gig.
 
1999 – Arcodoro is awarded three stars out of four by famed Italian journalist Luigi Veronelli and his team in the The Best Italian Restaurants in America. Barely more than twenty other Italian restaurants in the country were rated as high.
 
1999 – Also that year, another Italian publication, the magazine La Cucina Italiana has a feature article about Tony Vallone citing him as one of the Southwest's best-known Italian-food gurus.
 
2000 –In January divino on West Alabama near Dunlavy opens. Though as much a wine bar at first – and a place with intelligently chosen and well-priced wines – it can probably lay claim to being Houston’s first trattoria. It serves basic, proficient cooking that aims for true Italian sensibilities, inspired from Emilia-Romagna.
 
2000 – In March Marco Wiles – who had worked locally for Tony Vallone, Antonio Mingalone and Aldo El Sharif – opens Da Marco, which sports an unusually all-Italian wine list, and is to become the most lauded Italian restaurant in Houston’s dining history.
 
2000 – Both Tony Vallone for Tony’s, and Alberto Baffoni of Simposio have recipes featured in John Mariani’s The Italian-American Cookbook published in 2000 that highlighted Italian-American standards and broadly Italian dishes from well-known chefs like Eric Ripert, Daniel Boulud and Ming Tsai. Vallone’s recipe is Capellini with Calamari and Shrimp (page 146); Baffoni’s is Potato Gnocchi with Wild Mushroom Ragù (page 196), “one of his masterful dishes” according to the author. Future Houston restaurateur Piero Selvaggio also has a recipe, Risotto with Corn (page 217).
  
2001 – Damian Mandola and Johnny Carrabba were asked to host the fourth season of the nationally syndicated PBS series “Cucina Amore.”   It spawns the cookbook, Ciao Y’All, possibly the closest tome that describes the Italian-themed cooking here. The hosts’ ebullient and irreverent style are such a hit they film two additional series featuring the cooking of Sicily and Tuscany – and companion cookbooks – in 2003 and 2004.
 
2001 – Just a year after it opens, talented sommelier Antonio Gianola joins Da Marco. He expands and greatly improves the all-Italian wine list to include a diverse, complementary and intriguing array of finds that help make the restaurant even more commendable. Gianola later goes on to Catalan as one of the opening partners helping to turn that into one of the city’s most exciting restaurants.
 
2001 – Nino’s (and Vincent’s, Grappino di Nino and later Pronto) Vincent Mandola is featured preparing his Veal Vincent on “Food Finds” on the Food Network.

2002 – In January the restaurant in the Four Seasons hotel downtown with talented Tim Keating heading the kitchen is rechristened from the well-regarded but stale French-themed DeVille into Quattro following a reported $3 million remodel, a contemporary Italian restaurant. Keating’s recent turn at the landmark Four Seasons property in Milan makes this one of the most authentic Italian kitchens in the city. Alison Cook writes a review in the Houston Chronicle a few months after opening that “it's the best place downtown by a long shot.”

2002 – Arcodoro’s Ravioli Arcodoro wins an international ravioli competition. Remaining on the menu throughout the restaurant’s tenure, these are good-sized ravioli filled with minced shrimps and scallops and wine must and finished with a flavorful seafood reduction.
 
2003 – Formerly just a wholesaler and a gelato maker to area restaurants, Nundini’s on N. Shepherd become known also as a retail import shop, sandwich purveyor and Houston’s first notable outlet for gelato and sorbetto.
 
2003 – In November Tilman Fertitta’s Landry Group purchases La Griglia and the two Grotto restaurants from Tony Vallone. That deal seems to stipulate that Vallone divest himself all but one restaurant. The Landry organization subsequently preserves these once interesting spots into amber, but these remain popular, if with a likely less discriminating group of patrons.
 
2004 – Amici Olive Oil, produced in Tuscany and owned by a Houstonian – begins distribution and is found at outlets like Spec’s and Leibman’s plus on-line.
 
2004 – Damian’s caters the All Star game held in Houston providing Italian food for Joe Torre and others while serving Caribbean-style food to the numerous Latin ballplayers on the American League roster.
 
2005 – Appropriately relocated to the former site of Maxim’s (once “the secure haven of the River Oaks plutocracy”) and featuring contemporary artwork from likes of the acclaimed Texas-bred artists Robert Rauschenberg and Jesus Moroles, Tony’s is named among the top new restaurants in the country by Esquire magazine. The French executive chef with the tough-to-pronounce Polish last name, Olivier Ciesielski, directs a kitchen staff that is capable of creating excellent Italian food.
 
2006 – In January Marco Wiles’ Dolce Vita opens on lower Westheimer. Seemingly using Mario Batali’s Otto in Manhattan as a template, Wiles goes far beyond that with his Italian-style pizzas fired in a wood-burning oven using a range of toppings inspired throughout the peninsula. It is easily the best pizzeria in Houston and encounters no serious contenders for years, if ever, before closing.
 
2006 – In Damian Mandola founds Mandola Family Winery south of Austin focusing on Italian varietals like Vermentino, Dolcetto and Montepulciano. TABC issues arising because of his ownership in dining or retail establishments – or a fallout with his partners according to another source – cause him to sell out to his partners. He still owns the attractive Trattoria Lisina dishing out pleasing Italian-American fare next door.
 
2006 – Gourmet Sardinia, an outlet for high quality Sardinian food products, is launched by Arcodoro’s owners Efisio and Lori Farris. The online shop offers artisanal products from Farris’ homeland that are quite different than those found in the typical Italian-American pantry. Bottarga, bitter honey and saba are a few of the high-end items that also include wine and olive oils.
 
2006 – The October edition of Gourmet listed Da Marco at number 29 among their list of top 50 restaurants in the country. Only three other Italians are placed higher – Babbo in New York, Vetri in Philadelphia, and Bartolotta di Mare in Las Vegas – not bad company, at all.
 
2007 – Sweet Myrtle & Bitter Honey: The Mediterranean Flavors of Sardinia from Efisio Farris of Arcodoro is published. It is likely the first Sardinian cookbook published in English. The New York Times listed it among “25 noteworthy cookbooks published in 2007.’’
 
2007 – Late in the year Ristorante Cavour opens in developer Giorgio Borlenghi’s posh Hotel Granduca. The executive chef is a Frenchman, David Denis, of the well-regarded Le Mistral on the west side. He infuses the flavors similar to his native Provence and Liguria to create a broadly northern Italian array of very well-crafted dishes. He proves that the French culinary tradition of stock-making marries well with Milanese-style risotto. For those that don’t know much about Italian history, the restaurant takes its moniker from Baron Cavour, one of the principal architects of Italian unification in 1861; the conquest of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies and its incorporation into the Turin-based Kingdom of Sardinia.
 
2008 – In an article entitled “The Best U.S. Italian Restaurants” in the April issue of Forbes Traveler, John Mariani names Tony’s among the top dozen or so Italian eateries in the country. He writes, “in its new location, Tony's plays to a younger crowd that comes for rigorously authentic Italian regional cuisine and great wines.”
 
2008 – Also in April, Andrea Pintus, the longtime chef at lower Heights-area Patrenalla’s, and a native of Sardinia, opens his own restaurant with business partner, Luigi Campioni, on Westheimer and Dairy Ashford. Called Andrea’s is serves approachable Italian and Italian-American dishes that are a very good value. Unfortunately, Pintus dies as the result of an accident in early 2011 at the age of 55.
 
2008 – In the heat of the summer, Russo’s Coal-Fired Pizzeria from the folks at the local New York Pizzeria chain opens in northwest Houston. Houstonians can get a taste of more pizzas cooked in the more traditional early New York and New Haven fashion. These are better than regular Russo's pies, but don't resonate that much with local pizza-lovers and eventually contract to one area location in Missouri City.
 
2009 – Sicilian Village located in Friendswood begins distributing packaged olives from Sicily. These are available initially at Spec’s, Amazon.com and now HEB and elsewhere along with at SicilianVillage.com.
 
2009 – Marco Wiles opens his third truly Italian restaurant along a short stretch of Westheimer, Poscol, in March. It takes its name from the term in dialect used for a main thoroughfare (Via Poscolle) in the northeastern Italian city of Udine, the hometown of Wiles’ family. Featuring small plates and inspiration largely from Veneto and Friuli, it sports another well-chosen all-Italian wine list.
 
2009 – In September Houston hosts its first Italian Expo produced to highlight products from Italy. It is a boon to wine lovers, maybe too much so. Chicago is the only other city to host a similar event.
 
2009 – Lynette Hawkins, who ran the beloved La Mora, gets back into the game in September with her Tuscan- and  Venetian-inspired small plate spot Giacomo’s on Westheimer west of Kirby. From the start, it features a very well-chosen and well-priced all-Italian wine list that seems to cover every corner of that country. It evolves to become one of the city's most reliable and best-value dining destinations, regardless of cuisine.
 
2009 – Legendary restaurateur Piero Selvaggio – whose Santa Monica eatery Valentino was long regarded as the best Italian restaurant in the country – opens his third branch in Houston’s modern Hotel Derek near the Galleria. The restaurant is a new concept for Houston, an Italian ambition and credibility previously found elsewhere in this country just in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Las Vegas and one spot in Philadelphia. A veteran of Valentino’s Las Vegas operation, the talented Cunninghame West heads the kitchen here, doing an excellent job with an approachable version of Selvaggio’s inspired takes on pan-Italian alta cucina. James Beard Award-winning chef Luciano Pellegrini occasionally comes to town from Sin City to aid with special dinners for some added culinary power. Texas Monthly names it and Poscol on its list of best restaurants to open in the state that year.
 
2009 – Stella Sola by one of the city’s top toques, Bryan Caswell, along with partner Bill Floyd opens in the Heights in November 2009. Influenced by the meaty robustness of some northern Italian cooking, its name translates to “Lone Star” (or “Lonely Star”) in English. One of Caswell’s early cooking stints was at Damian’s. He later cooked with the talented Rocco DiSpirito well before DiSpirito’s televised Italian-American restaurant nightmare, “The Restaurant” in 2003.
 
2010 – In January, Sardinian Nico Chessa, the former chef at Arcodoro, is named executive chef of Valentino’s flagship Santa Monica location after heading one of its Las Vegas restaurants for several years. This provides some confirmation about the quality of the kitchen at Arcodoro over the years.
 
2010 – In April, Tuscan Renato De Pirro, an alumnus of Pierro Selvaggio’s Las Vegas restaurants and previously the executive chef at Osteria del Circo, the Maccioni’s family refined and well-regarded trattoria in the Bellagio Hotel and Casino, takes over the kitchen at Ristorante Cavour, bringing a more properly Italian taste to the menu at this upscale establishment.
 
2010 – Ciao Bello, another Vallone enterprise that had opened a year earlier in a space once occupied by La Strada on San Felipe, is named among “11 More Restaurants You Don't Want to Miss” by Esquire in 2010. It will become known for its zesty flavors among Roman-style thin-crust pizzas, pastas, Gulf-oriented seafood and meaty Italian-American-inflected preparations in an attractively casual and comfortable but very stylish setting that has long been a Vallone signature. Also in 2010, Vallone’s Caffe Bello takes over the original address of La Strada in Montrose, but struggles for traction in an evolving neighborhood.
 
2010 – Maurizio Ferrarese moves from a Four Seasons property in Florence to head the kitchen at Quattro, which had become less interesting after Tim Keating’s departure in 2005. The restaurant will reach new heights under Ferrarese.
 
2010 – In December Amici in Sugar Land closes. It seems competition from a recently opened Olive Garden nearby might have played a factor. This does not reflect well on Fort Bend residents.

2011 – Pizaro's opens in a strip center on Memorial in west Houston serving Neapolitan style pizza, the most truly Neapolitan that Houston has thus seen. Proprietor Bill Hutchinson puts his “Verace Pizza Napoletana” certification as a pizzaiolo to good use, and the bare-bones spots draws customers from around the area including a number of Italian ex-pats.
 
2011 – In an area deficient in quality fresh Italian sausage, you can purchase it at the two Carrabba's owned by the family, though you will likely have to call ahead. The piquant, flavorful sausage is made by Johnny Carrabba, Sr., and unusual for Italian sausage elsewhere, but consistent with Texas, it contains a fair portion of beef.
 
2012 – Valentino, likely the best Italian restaurant that ever was in Houston, cannot overcome the very difficult location in the Hotel Derek that is a curse on restaurants and shutters. A shame, as proprietor Piero Selvaggio never got to do all he wanted to with the restaurant including becoming more adventurous with the offerings and expanding its wine list to at least a substantial of his Santa Monica original that has one of top handful of wine lists in the country
 
2014 – Inspired by the Italian heritage of executive chef Ryan Pera, Coltivare opens in January on White Oak in the Heights offering seasonal American-Italian fare including distinctively bready pizzas along with pastas and larger preparations in a casual, no reservations setting that seduces most local food critics.
 
2014 – Giancarlo Ferrara, the executive chef at Arcodoro for over a decade, opens Amalfi on Westheimer west of the Galleria in the same strip center as The Palm. Highlighting the dishes and flavors of his native Salerno, down the coast from Naples, that should be familiar to most American diners along with some items and techniques from his stops in the Veneto and at a French restaurant bearing two Michelin stars, the restaurant quickly becomes one of the top Italians in the city.
 
2015 – Now sporting the descriptive phrase, “Naples Influenced. Milan Inspired. Houston Cherished,” Tony’s celebrates its fiftieth year in business.
 
2015 – Pizaro's opens a second location on Montrose and West Gray. It later expands its menu to include New York style and Detroit style pizzas. The latter, a version of the Sicilian pan pizza created in Detroit soon after the Second World War, has been trendy addition to pizza joint menus across the country.

2016 – Lira Rossa, a dairy in Moulton, about two hours due west of Houston, is founded, producing excellent Italian-style cow's milk cheeses in the style of those from Friuli where principal Andrea Cudin is from and elsewhere like mozzarella. Sold at the big Urban Farmers Market on Saturdays, the cheeses find a home at many of the city's best restaurants.

2017 – Across the street from the ballpark, Astros owner opens Potente, an upscale, expensive Italian-themed restaurant that eventually gets the skilled Danny Trace who was the executive chef at Brennan’s, and at the estimable Commander's Palace in New Orleans before that. The 'Stros also win their first World Series title in the fall, coincidentally.
 
2017 – Chef Mark Cox of Mark's fame begins consulting at Fratelli's, an Italian-American restaurant in Spring Branch that began as a franchised offshoot of the original Fratelli's on 290. His work improves the food and the restaurant's profile, which becomes a favorite of an older set of west Houston customers.

2017 – After 36 years in business, Carmelo’s closes after Christmas brunch. Owner Carmelo Mauro, a steadfast member of the Houston restaurant community was both the former president of both the Texas Restaurant Association and the Greater Houston Restaurant Association.
 
2018 – Arcodoro, the upscale Sardinian restaurant in the Galleria that drew loyal patronage from ex-pat Italians and other Europeans closes in February after nearly two decades in business.
 
2018 – In a strip center along lowest Westheimer, La Sicilia opens in March from a pastry chef originally from Sciacca on Sicily’s southwestern coast serving beautiful pastries including cannoli, of course, and also afternoon savories like sandwiches on cornettos and focaccias.
 
2018 – In April, after a very brief visit here, the Italian wine and food publication Gambero Rosso names Amalfi as the best fine dining Italian restaurant in Houston, Sud Italia, with Maurizio Ferrarese in the kitchen, as tops for traditional cuisine, the Dallas-based chain Cane Rosso for pizza (quite surprisingly, and maybe a bit grudgingly according to the person I spoke with at Gambero Rosso), and Poscol for having the best wine program among local Italian restaurants.
 
2018 – In July, J.J. Watt asked his 5 million-plus followers on Twitter for the best Italian restaurant in Houston. The clear favorite of the 2,000 or so respondents was, very oddly and depressingly, Olive Garden, of which there are over twenty locations in the Houston area, which is also depressing to learn.
 
2018 – Tanglewood’s neighborhood Italian restaurant from Tony Vallone, Ciao Bello, closes rather suddenly in August, a couple of weeks after sibling steakhouse Vallone’s does so in Spring Branch.
 
2018 – In November, chef Maurizio Ferrarese, a native of Vercelli, the rice-growing area in Piedmont, veteran of kitchens throughout Italy, and who won deserved plaudits at Quattro and Sud Italia, is hired to take over the kitchen at Ristorante Cavour.

2019 – Rosie Cannonball, the second of five planned concepts, four serving food, to open in a very smart and neat complex in the heart of Westheimer’s restaurant row directly across the street from the estimable UB Preserv, it is essentially an Italian restaurant with a more than a few nods to the Iberian peninsula on the initially short menu, which includes probably the smallest plates of pasta ever seen locally outside of a child’s menu. The crowd-pleasing dishes done well and stylish space made it an attractive stop for the ladies who lunch and a busy spot at night. In November 2022, it is the seen of a reportedly raucous early morning party celebrating the Astros victory in the World Series after the clinching Game 6 for Justin Verlander and his wife Kate Upton, who are regular diners and friends of the owners.

2020 – Patrenella's near Waugh north of Memorial, closed after nearly three decades in business. Set partially in the house where owner Sammy Patrenella grew up, this was a favorite of many, including those who get there quickly from downtown for lunch, for its approachable, comforting Italian-American dishes, even after the departure of Chef Andrea Pintus.

2020 – In the first summer of the pandemic, Fiori opens on Montrose near Richmond in the two-floor space once occupied by Brasserie Max & Julie, Artisans and several others. Meaning “flowers” in Italian, this is also, oddly, a floral boutique. With owners from Rome, the menu features the trio of classic Roman pastas plus a number of other popular dishes throughout from local chef Marcos Salazar. The saucing of pastas, significant, plays to the American expectations, though annoying patrons from Italy.

2020 – Vincent Mandola of Nino’s, Vincent’s and Pronto, and the Mandola clan of local restaurateurs, passes away at age 77. His restaurants remain open and family-run.
 
2020 – In an effort to negotiate the adverse business dynamics of the pandemic, Roma, the former Sud Italia at the edge of the Rice Village, began to host virtual wine dinners over Zoom on a weekly basis with a three-course dinner cooked by its chef from the Marche region in central Italy and paired with three wines, typically from a single Italian winery, all picked up at the restaurant just before the event. Featuring representatives from the wineries who are located in Italy but speaking English and moderated by Jeremy Parzen, a local who is also one of the region’s leading Italian wine experts, these became quite popular, with attendance regularly exceeding seventy participants.
 
2020 – Tony Vallone dies in September at the age of 75. The city’s most famous restaurateur and proprietor of Tony’s, along with Anthony’s, Caffé Bello, Ciao Bello, Grotto, La Griglia, Vallone’s, and Los Tonyos over the years, Vallone’s restaurants, especially Tony’s, garnered national acclaim and continued attention across the decades, and greatly raised the quality of dining in Houston and Italian-themed fare, in particular. His restaurants exhibited a well-known cosseting of customers and terrific sense of design style in addition to its culinary highlights. Tony’s, opened since 1965 in three locations, carries on with his widow Donna Vallone.
 
2020 – In the fall, Marco Wiles finally closed his acclaimed pizzeria Dolce Vita on lower Westheimer. Not due to the pandemic, Wiles announced he wanted to focus on his other two restaurants down the street, Poscol and Da Marco as he passed his sixtieth birthday.
 
2020 – Chef Travis McShane returned home to Houston after about a decade working for acclaimed New York chef and restaurateur – and an originator of California cuisine in the early 1980s – Jonathon Waxman that included stints at the Italian-esque Barbuto and then as the corporate chef, with Ostia in a long-empty space on Dunlavy in Montrose, opening finally in October. Featuring recognizably Mediterranean ingredients and preparations, most of the menu is Italian-inspired with bold notes, including very well-done pizzas from a wood-burning oven, seemingly well-suited for the city from a very experienced hand.
 
2020 – The folks behind the terrific contemporary bistro Nancy’s Hustle opened Tiny Champions after Thanksgiving, also in EaDo and also with an odd name. Focusing on Italian-inspired but distinctive pizzas and house-made fresh pastas, the team of Sean Jensen and baking-loving chef Jason Vaughan have introduced a much-needed top-notch new pizzeria to a pizza-deficient city.

2021 – With an emphasis on the cooking of the beautiful region of the Marche, from where the owners and chefs hail, Concura in Highland Village joins the handful of truly Italian restaurants in Houston. Small inside with a décor that blends contemporary and rustic notes in plenty of black and dark gray and a distinct Eurotrash feel, but with an attractive open kitchen that feels like a newer restaurant in Italy, as does its outdoor seating along a sidewalk. It repurposes to Dante’s in 2023 with new ownership and a new chef becoming somewhat less Italian and much less interesting but with a brighter, more inviting setting.

2021 – In September, Fresco! in a strip center on the Southwest Freeway near Kirby and its chef Roberto Crescini, originally from near Lake Garda, are featured on an episode of Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives where he makes fresh pasta, guanciale, and spaghetti alla carbona and taglietelle with lamb. Another good choice from Fieri for Houston, where he has rarely made a misstep in selections for his show. Fresco!, however, closes early the next year.

2021 – Alba, the new concept at the Hotel Granduca replacing Ristorante Cavour features an updated rich, plush, green-hued setting, but thankfully has the old chef, Maurizio Ferrarese, who might be the top Italian toque in Texas and some ways beyond. Terrific with fresh pastas and gnocchi, there is certainly no area chef that does a better job with risotto that’s on the menu a couple of times, befitting one from Vercelli that's not terribly far from the town of Alba and is the European capital of rice production.

2021 – Before the close of the year, husband and wife, Christina and Alfredo Mojica, veterans of Da Marco, open up Amore in the sliver of a space on Shepherd Drive that housed Maine-ly Sandwiches. Even with the never-ending roadway construction in front, the restaurant quickly draws patrons of nearby Da Marco for cooking that is very familiar. Well-done pizzas from a golden-tiled oven complement the usually hearty Italian preparations that ignore the seasons, except for those of truffles.

2022 - An outlet of the acclaimed Brooklyn pizza joint, Roberta's, opens in the food court that is the dining section of the Post Market in the northwest corner of downtown, finally in the spring. Joining several other cities in this now mini-chain, the Neapolitan-influenced, minimalist thin-crust pies live up to the hype and are what quality pizzeria-deficient Houston needs. Unfortunately, it closes suddenly in July 2023.

2022 - Chef Roberto Crescini is nicely not away very long as his essentially reprises Fresco! in a better location and a much nicer setting as Davanti near Greenway Plaza, if now costing a few more lire. Still counter-service, the menu is about the same as are the pastas made also with hard durum wheat for a more toothsome texture and the ability to be extruded. It also continues the American consumer-friendly mix and match of pasta shapes and sauces, and its tasty take on the Roman pizza al taglio. House-made sausages and occasional salumi reflect his training, too, as a norcino.

2022 – At the end of July, the family of Vincent Mandola close the rest of the restaurants in the compound on W. Dallas street where service began forty-five years earlier following the family's sale of the two-and-a-half acres of property where the restaurants sat. Nino's, Vincent's, Grappino di Nino and the little kiosk for gelato shutter. All of the casual, counter-service Pronto locations had closed earlier. Long-popular bastions for familiar Italian-American fare studded with Italy-inspired items like osso buco and fettuccine Alfredo along the way plus the not-so-Italian rotisserie chicken at Vincent's.
 
2022 – A couple Italian restaurants created with considerable expensive open in the Galleria area and on West Gray near River Oaks, Il Bracco and Zanti, from out of town restaurant concerns. From the Dallas area and Mexico, respectively, these are pricy, pretty and dull, and don’t enthrall too many discerning diners. Both are part of a trend of non-chef-driven multi-unit Italian concepts – margins are amazing on cacio e pepe, after all. Il Bracco is what you would expect from an Italian-themed restaurant birthed in the Park Cities of Dallas.
 
2023 – VinSanto, a smart wine bar and bottle shop with a strong Italian accent and sensibility, opens in west Houston on Memorial west of Gessner in January from Riccardo Guerrieri and Giorgio Caflisch, two local wine pros. Guerrieri, from Umbria, ran the similar Vinology on Bissonnet and Caflisch teaches Italian wine at the Texas Wine School. The casual menu, necessarily well-suited for the wines, includes oval-shaped pinsas, a Roman flatbread.
 
2023 – In May in the upscale River Oaks District center, Bari opens with the experienced Renato De Pirro heading the kitchen. The beautiful, brass-hued interior features tall ceilings and a long space for 150 that is large but surprisingly intimate plus seating for an additional hundred on the patio. Quickly popular with a noticeably expensively-attired and -coiffed crowd, the serious kitchen highlights popular, attractively plated pan-Italian trattoria fare, along with pizza, made very well and mostly with excellent foodstuffs imported from Italy. This is the best Italian restaurant to open in Houston since Alba and quickly one of the city's top Italians.
 
2023 – Elro, a slightly odd but terrific “pizzeria and crudo bar,” from Terrance Gallivan, who was one of the principals at the acclaimed Pass & Provisions, opens in June. In a big city with a deficit of quality pizzerias, the admirable individually sized pizzas are a start and a draw for many. Before arriving in Houston a decade earlier, Gallivan worked kitchens at acclaimed Italian restaurants in Manhattan that had three stars (out of four) from The New York Times, Fiamma and Alto, the last where he was executive chef. There’s noticeable Italian subtext throughout, Italian done well. The succinct, nicely chosen wine list is nearly entirely Italian, too.
 
2023 – In the summer, Nonno’s from Martin and Sara Stayer of well-regarded Nobie’s nearby is a new pizzeria offering its take on Chicago’s tavern-style pizza, Chicago’s original style, one that Houstonians might be familiar with from long-standing Kenneally’s. Thin-crust and cut into squares, its even easier to raise a drink while eating than the typical slice of pizza. Though the pizzas soon after opening aren’t at the level of Kenneally’s its heyday, Nonno’s enticing, Italian-laden wine list is much better as are its fun cocktails.



I’ve got to add that through a coincidence of fate, I was born in the Italian North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco and afterwards belonged to the same parish in Bergen County, New Jersey as the mother of Frank Sinatra, whom I was told reliably purchased kegs for church functions. A very long-time Houstonian, I was the local editor for the Zagat Survey for several years until Google did away with those positions and, possibly more pertinently, is the author of the ebook From the Antipasto to the Zabaglione: The Story of Italian Restaurants in America that is available on Amazon.

An enticing pasta preparation at the new Bari

I arrived uncharacteristically fifteen minutes early for dinner yesterday with my family at Palinuro, an Italian restaurant my brother and sister-in-law like near their house in Cinco Ranch, and so had ample time to peruse the short, simple wine list. Looking for a glass then I thought a bottle of white wine to start, as it was hot outside and we were six adults, I did a double-take when I saw Pieropan La Rocca for just $65 in the two-page booklet that was filled with mostly uninteresting choices. This Soave is a terrific wine and consistently one of Italy’s most acclaimed whites.
 
Made with entirely with Garganega grown in a single vineyard with clay and limestone soils, fermented in wood and aged for around fifteen months in 500-liter tonneaux, La Rocca offers a different, more deeply flavored expression of Soave. These are serious wines.
 
Though not indicated on the list, it turned out to be the 2021 vintage, which James Suckling gave 95 points. It was delicious. A bit of fruit on the nose and a taste that was easy and savory and very long-lasting, with a mouth-filling body. The wine worked well before dinner and throughout, especially with my very enjoyable, sturdy house-made ravioli filled with lobster and served in a light tomato, cream and crab sauce. We went through three bottles of La Rocca by the end of the meal.
 
Certainly a surprise to find it on Palinuro’s list – I keep my eye out for Pieropan having visited its dramatic new winery last summer – what was also unexpected was its price. You can find La Rocca at Total Wine for $38 now, which is almost ten dollars cheaper than elsewhere. Using the rule of thumb of a 200% to 300% markup over retail, most restaurants would price this from between $90 to $150, and it would certainly be fair.
 
I’ll wager that you won’t find a wine as good at any Houston restaurant as Pieropan La Rocca at Palinuro.

As someone with a keen interest in the history of Italian restaurants in this country – and history, generally – I happened to be curious yesterday about how demographics likely affected the location, density or paucity of Italian restaurants around the country after the Second World War, when dining out became more popular with a growing and more prosperous population.
 
I was quickly able to find what I was looking for with the 1950 census in a report about those who were born abroad or who had at least one parent who was foreign born. Then, there were 4.6 million American residents who listed as from Italy, then second highest country of origin, just behind Germany’s 4.7 million with the most people of “foreign white stock,” as the Bureau of Census phrased it back then.
 
Italian restaurants midcentury were where the Italians were, both those born in Italy and their offspring. These were the people then running Italian restaurants. The twenty cities with the most Italians in 1950 were:
 

• New York – 684,865
• Chicago – 116,595
• Philadelphia – 115,205
• Boston – 53,335
• Newark – 49,275
• Detroit – 43,580
• Buffalo – 36,615
• Rochester, NY – 34,555
• Providence – 34,370
• San Francisco – 32,960
• Cleveland – 32,340
• Pittsburgh – 31,635
• Los Angeles – 31,185
• Jersey City – 27,950
• New Haven – 26,290
• Baltimore – 16,795
• Waterbury, CT – 16,090
• Syracuse – 15,650
• New Orleans – 15,340
• Hartford, CT – 14,570

 
This might not be too surprising, but I found it interesting. These are the cities that have among the deepest Italian-rooted dining traditions.

Charles Ruggiero, clerk in a grocery store in New York's Italian section, wishes the handful of spaghetti he is breaking were Mussolini's neck. July 1942; Library of Congress

This is an update of an earlier post after doing some additional research for a presentation I gave on the subject at the Italian Cultural Center in Houston in May, 2023.
 
The sentiment about the Americanness of pizza might best be related by a comment from Gioacchino Gabbuti, General Director of the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade (ICE), in 1998: “when I visited New York as the General Director of ICE….an American friend….asked me a question that left me bewildered: excuse me, Gioacchino, how does one say ‘pizza’ in Italian?” Pizza has become much more Italian in the last quarter century since then, but pizza was long more popular in the U.S. than in Italy.
 
Pizza originated in Italy, to be sure, but it is not originally Italian. This is because pizza as we know pizza is specifically Neapolitan in origin. It’s from Naples, the big, chaotic and historic port city in southern Italy. In 1535 poet and writer Benedetto di Falco explained that “focaccia in Neapolitan is called pizza,” possibly the first written reference to pizza as a foodstuff. And by 1600 there was certainly pizza, bread dough baked in wood-fired ovens, seasoned with garlic, lard and coarse salt, or with caciocavallo cheese and basil being served in Naples.
 
But pizza actually spread more quickly throughout the U.S. than it did throughout Italy, as odd as that may initially seem. Pizza initially traveled with the immigrants from it birthplace Naples and its environs, of whom there were many to the U.S. To note, the Sicilian pizza is also fair part the pizza landscape here. Arriving later, it was derived from the sfincione served in Palermo, a type of spongy focaccia, but that’s for another tale.
 
A brief history of pizza in America until it become popular
 
One of the most important events in the gustatory history of the country seems to have begun officially in 1905 when Gennaro Lombardi, a native of Naples, opened the first licensed pizzeria in America in Manhattan’s Little Italy, Lombardi’s. He had been making versions of that Neapolitan fast food at the bakery in which he worked, which was also being done elsewhere, at least in his neighborhood, since probably a few years before the turn of the 20th century. The New York Tribune noted in 1903 in Little Italy that “apparently the Italian has invented a kind of pie. The ‘pomidore pizza,’ or tomato pie.”  These pizza pies were just the province of these Neapolitans; in Italy at the time, it was not found outside of the vicinity of Naples. “There are only two places in New York where you can get real, genuine Neapolitan pizze. One is on Spring Street and one on Grand. The rest are Americanized substitutes,” reported an informed source, “the Dago,” in a New York Sun piece in the summer of 1905.
 
These pizzas first found an audience with those recently arrived Neapolitans and quickly spread to all the Italians living in the neighborhood. Pizza has proven to be a very easy sell over the years. In the 1920s and 1930s Lombardi’s former employees, all Neapolitans, opened pizzerias in Brooklyn, East Harlem and uptown Manhattan that would be destined to become icons in their own right. But, pizzas were really an ethnic, mostly Italian, specialty until after the Second World War, even in New York City.  Also in the 1920s, pizzerias were opened by Neapolitan immigrants in the Italian neighborhoods of New Haven, Connecticut, Trenton, and Boston. Philadelphia and Chicago were two of the few other cities with Neapolitan pizzaioli and pizza before the Depression. Here is a list of the first pizzerias in various municipalities: 

• 1912 – Trenton, New Jersey
• 1914 – Utica, New York
• 1924 – Chicago
• 1925 – New Haven, Connecticut
• 1926 – Boston
• 1927 – Buffalo, New York
• 1927 – Philadelphia
• 1929 – Poughkeepsie, New York
• 1929 – Columbus, Ohio
• 1935 – San Francisco – Numerous of Ligurians, Tuscans then Sicilians but hardly any Neapolitans
• 1939 – Los Angeles
• 1943 – Washington, DC
• 1948 – Seattle
• 1955 – Houston – Not by Neapolitans or even Italian-Americans

 
Pizza spread throughout the country after the Second World War, as it began to be served well beyond the Italian neighborhoods. One item which emphasizes that is oregano consumption in the U.S. increased an incredible 5,200% between 1948 and 1956 because of the new popularity of pizza and, to a lesser extent, also Italian sandwiches. And, no, the postwar affection wasn’t because of soldiers bringing back the taste for it from Italy.
 
Starting and growing in areas with virtually no competition from pizzerias with Italian antecedents, several regional, national and international pizza companies got their start in the mid-1950s to 1960: Shakey’s in Sacramento in 1954, Pizza Hut in Wichita and Pizza Inn in Dallas in 1958, Little Caesar’s in suburban Detroit in 1959, and Domino’s in Ypsilanti, Michigan in 1960. Commercially made gas and electric pizza ovens, along with large mixers for the dough introduced in the mid-1950s, helped make the creation of the pizzas easier, far less dependent on a seasoned pizza-maker. American business know-how helped even more. The franchise system increased the number of branches and market presence quickly. Even if far from the best pizzas around – the pies usually featured doughier and blander crusts and lower-quality toppings – these pizza chains have been greatly enjoyed by millions over the years. Not incidentally, with tremendous insight, or luck, Pizza Hut, Dominos and Pizza Inn first opened right near colleges and universities whose enrollment grew tremendously with the baby boom from the 1950s on something that these chain pizza joints rode to continued success.
 
An even briefer history of pizza in Italy outside of Naples
 
“Pizza, which was unknown in north Italy before the war” recounted cookbook author Marcella Hazan in her memoir Amacord. Pizzas was difficult to find anywhere outside of the Naples region through the 1950s. Even in southern Italy beyond the greater Naples area, it was not be found. A family friend from Reggio Calabria, the city at the toe of the boot, did not have her first pizza until she arrived in New York in the late 1950s. She said that Naples was the only place in Italy to get pizza then.
 
It came to those other cities with transplanted Neapolitans who traveled north to find work in the industrial boom after the war. For example, in Hazan’s northern region, Parma, a well-to-do and university city, got its first pizzeria in 1960 started by a person from Salerno, south of Naples. Though now popular throughout Italy, pizza has taken hold the most in a city closer to Naples, Rome, which has developed a couple distinctive versions. The first was pizza tonda, a round pizza with a blistered cracker-thin crust that grew out of the Neapolitan versions. Then came pizza al taglio, a long rectangular pizza without Neapolitan antecedents, which is more like a focaccia and sold mostly in take-away places. That has become synonymous with Roman pizza outside of Rome. The Eternal City also currently boasts some excellent pizzerias making version similar to those in Naples.   
 
Mostly just in Naples and environs, then spread by Neapolitans, even slower than in the U.S. in some of its largest cities:

• Rome – 1916 or so
• Milan – 1934 or so, and with the Sicilian-style Spontini opening in 1953
• Turin – After the Second World War or maybe earlier with Pizza al Padellino (or al Tegamino), a different type of pizza that’s baked in small, round pans, “pan pizza,” that was actually from Tuscan restaurateurs
• Parma – 1960

 
It is true what Carol Helotsky wrote in her book Pizza - A Global History (2008) that “Pizza went from being strictly Neapolitan to being Italian-American and then becoming Italian.” More accurately, pizza went from Neapolitan to Neapolitan-American to Italian-American to American then to broadly Italian.

From Roberta's in Houston

We are now in the heart of rosé season in Houston, which really lasts much of the year here, and those always chilled, usually uncomplicated wines work especially well to start an evening or a meal.  The French gave the world the inspiration with the pale-colored wines from Provence and other rosés from elsewhere in southern France.  As the world of wine has gotten larger and the world warmer, rosés have become much more popular in the last fifteen years or so.  And rosé production has spread widely.
 
Italian wineries are also jumping into the fray and there are many more rosés made in Italy, mostly in places without a tradition with those wines.  As new products, most are trying to find a suitable style.  There are four long-standing areas of rosé production in Italy, only two of which were ever really found here and not terribly widespread.  But at least one is worth checking out, Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo.
 
Made with Montepulciano, the same varietal that goes into the region’s red mainstay Montepulciano d’Abruzzo and it does a similarly good of a job with rosés as does Grenache in southern France, if in making much different types of wines.  These are rosés that might be considered almost light red wines, typically featuring a deep garnet color that is many hues from the pale salmon-colored Provencal rosés and with a body matching the color.  The prominent scent of cherries are often on the nose and the smooth medium-bodied wines can be fruity in an Old World way with notes of strawberries, cherries and even orange.  These are food-friendly quenchers that are a little more serious than the usual rosé.
 
At a dinner a couple weeks ago at Davanti sponsored by a wine consortium in Abruzzo, we tried several wines not currently sold in the area, red, white and rosé. The two rosés, both Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo from Torre Dei Beati and Torre Raone, were served to accompany a ravioli in a rich, savory sauce that had a just a touch of spice.  With that, the considerable heat of the 100-degree day that made for a slightly warm dining room filled with three dozen people, and the heft of the wines, made these nice complements to the dish.  They were praised by all of the wine professionals at my table.  Easy to drink, enjoyable and with the acidity and flavors to go well with an Italian preparation.  From the prices of these wines in the UK, I would guess these would probably retail for around $20 a bottle, fair prices.
 
If you enjoy rosés or light red wines and looking for different, but traditional taste of Italy, look for Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo.

Everyone loves Italian-American food, to properly translate Neil Simon’s oft-repeated remark. All Americans, at least. Italians, those people from Italy, generally do not at all. And when you are going out for Italian food here, you are usually going out for Italian-American food. Though Italian-American is not Italian in the strictest sense, it might still be the most-loved type of food in America, many years after Simon’s observation. At these restaurants, you’ll get tomato sauce, Alfredo sauce, garlic, spaghetti and meatballs, linguine and clams, chicken parmesan, and, today, interpretations of the inexpensive-to-make pasta dishes from Rome that have swept the world – Carbonara, cacio e pepe, and all'Amatriciana – with Caesar salad and fried calamari among the starters. There will be a lot of sauce and a lot of cheese throughout.  
 
Veal is, or was, the signature preparations in Italian-American restaurants in the northeast and Midwest – and about my favorite thing as a kid – like Carbone’s Veal Parmesan that’s famous, infamous, for its $72 price tag. But veal has never really been a big thing in Houston. Sure, it’s been on menus, but it’s not been part of the local Italian-American experience here, unlike in other cities. And, these days diners seem to order it even less. Because of this, the veal often tastes grainy, like it’s been sitting in the restaurant’s freezer for an extended period. I’ve noticed this far too often at Italian-themed places in recent years, which is quite disappointing.
 
Here are the best Italian-American restaurants in Houston listed by order of preference.
 
The Best
 
Carrabba’s – These two locations, still owned and operated by co-founder, cookbook author and once PBS cooking show host Johnny Carrabba, are exceedingly popular after three decades years by serving big, flavorful dishes in a casually upscale and festive environment. The original Carrabba’s helped define the exuberant Sicilian-rooted Gulf Coast cooking that is one of the well-loved staples of the Houston dining scene. In vibe, it is the almost perfect Italian-American trattoria, if that is such a thing. There are lively salads, hefty pizzas and pastas and robust easy-to-like dishes like crab cakes with a sweet red pepper sauce, Chicken Bryan, a grilled breast of chicken with goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, basil and a lemon-butter sauce, and Stuffed Shrimp Mandola featuring a crab dressing. Not only is the original location on Kirby seemingly always packed with an always well-heeled crowd, the bar is still crowded and lively many nights of the week. Upper Kirby, Briargrove
 
Worth a Visit
 
Damian’s – ​This Midtown stalwart set in a stolid stand-alone building has been a well-worn stop for downtown diners since it opened in the early 1980s. The original slew of owners from those popular local Sicilian-American families – the extremely affable Frankie Mandola, Ciro Lampasses, Joe Butera and namesake Damian Mandola – have long exited but Damian’s carries on is satisfying fashion. It does not nearly excite as it did many years ago when Texas Monthly was lauding it as one of the top dining stops in the state, but it remains a fine-dining Houston favorite. The cooking here might be described as an upscale Gulf Coast version of the country’s beloved Southern Italian-American fare. Flavors and portions are generous. In dining rooms made cozy by low-ceilings and lights, you can enjoy specialties like filet mignon grilled and finished with the piquant herbaceous Sicilian ammoghiu sauce, plump veal chops, Shrimp Damian, and Fra Diavolo Linguine, a medley of seafood including lobster and lump crabmeat in a piquant marinara sauce. Midtown
Rosalie's – Houston has historically been tough on out-of-town restaurateurs and hotel dining, but things might have changed, as West Coast-based television chef Chris Cosentino has channeled his Italian-American roots into what has been a popular and adept smallish spot in a refurbished and now surprisingly hip hotel – the C. Baldwin was a setting for the “The Bachelor” airing in early 2022 – at the southwestern edge of downtown. Chef-created Italian-American might be the best description of the offerings here. The crab cannelloni features Sauce Americane, a French concoction featuring cream and lobster shells. Fairly rich and redolent of the sea, it’s quite tasty if not what any Italian-American family (or restaurant) makes. The menu is enticing with other pastas, spot-on sides such as roasted cherry tomatoes with garlic and breadcrumbs, and protein-centered preparations like a spicy Shrimp Fra Diavolo, a hanger steak Pizzaiolo also with peppers and capers, and a milanese with chicken – there’s no veal on the menu. There are pizzas, too. Though the crusts are not nearly flavorful nor soft enough to pull off a successful margherita, but the other toppings might work well. This cab be a fun stop, and it’s in a hotel! Downtown
Louie’s Italian American – This is a contemporary, fun interpretation of long one of the country’s most popular cuisines studded with insight from present-day Italy. There are plenty of familiar items, done a little differently. Fried calamari, meatballs in red sauce, shrimp cocktail, and an old school antipasto plate but with gruyere, too, are some of the starters. Then the pastas, which are nicely crafted here, thin and light, when either stuffed or not. The Piemontese spindly-stranded tajarin made yellowy similar as there with a surfeit of egg yolks in the dough. Heartier fare includes the ostensibly necessary Chicken Parm, redfish with the piccata treatment. and sausage and peppers. A limited, well-chosen selection of wines and an handful of cocktails that are slated to increase in number help add atmosphere to the quaint setting that manages to be both industrial and homey. And it shares a single-story mixed-use building with a few other complementary businesses including the still somewhat funky wine bar How to Survive on Land and Sea. East End
Lulu’s – Comfortable, especially for those who frequent long-standing Armando’s on the other side of the shopping center at the edge of River Oaks, this attractive spot that opened in mid-2021 serves creditable versions of contemporary takes on Italian-American fare spiked with popular dishes from Italy. Misspellings on the menu – guanchale, al’amatriciana, caccio – helps let you know that this is not serving anything like authentic Italian fare, but the approachable preparations are well-oriented to its target market, as are the portions, not so robust, befitting an older clientele. The wine list, unfortunately, is small and poorly chosen, odd for present-day Houston at its prices. Upper Kirby
Piatto – Tucked away just outside the Loop on West Alabama under the glare of the Williams Tower, this inviting family-run spot has been offering Italian-American favorites geared to the locale – plenty of Gulf shrimp preparations along with grilled meats – plus pizzas for about two decades now. Asparagus topped with lump crab meat and a lemony butter sauce is a popular way to start. Sauces for the pastas are mostly red and white, and a pink, tomato cream. You might want to avoid the gloppy, simple stuffed pastas with the Alfredo sauce, though. Chicken takes precedence over veal for the larger items, but you can still get veal scaloppini in a couple of ways. That the breads for the table are noticeably fresh and flavorful and the salads are robust and well done indicate a welcome level of care taken here. Galleria Area

The osso buco at the original Carrabba's

I was excited for a presentation and tasting for wines of Masciarelli the other week during Milano Wine Week. Yes, there was a Milano Wine Week, and it was in Houston, too, at least as a part of it, via videoconference.  I was familiar with Masciarelli as a value producer of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo.  I knew that it had some well regarded wines but I had just experienced its base wine, a very affordable rustic red that would adequately wash down a weekday dinner.  This tasting highlighted some of its best bottlings, both Montepulciano and the white Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, all of which turned out to be quite good.  That wasn’t surprising.  Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, along with Barolo, are the favorite wines of legendary restaurateur Piero Selvaggio, who won a James Beard Award for wine and whose Valentino in Santa Monica had, for decades, one of the very best wine collections in the country
 
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo ("mohn-tay-pool-chee-AHN-oh duh-BROOTZ-oh) translates to the native red Montepulciano grape from the largely mountainous Italian region of Abruzzo that is east of Rome and abuts the Adriatic in the center of the country. Both the mountains and sea give the wines its often unique character. From Burton Anderson's The Wines of Italy these are generally, "full-bodied, even robust, with a capacity to age but with a supple smoothness that can make it eminently drinkable even when young." These wines have gotten much better in the past couple of decades, especially at the higher price points. These are the ones that Selvaggio really likes. But, bargains still abound.  Eric Asimov in The New York Times had an informative piece some years ago, "For Wine Lovers on a Budget, Try Montepulciano d'Abruzzo."
 
The better Montepulciano’s from Masciarelli, from the Marina Cvetic and Villa Gemma, provide something a little different, even for those familiar with Italian wines – a leanness to the wines, a lean structure.  Still deeply rub red colored, but the rusticity, maybe the most noticeable facet of the inexpensive versions of Montepulciano, is not much in evidence in these.  There are still noticeable tannins, but are firm and smooth, but the nose in each is noticeable, exuberant for the Villa Gemma Rosso Riserva 2017. The wines are smooth and flavorful.  Delicious, especially, with the Villa Gemma, which retails for around $80. The Marina Cvetic sells for roughly $30. 
 
To note, it's not related to the similarly named Vino Nobile di Montepulciano from Tuscany. That is made with a clone of Sangiovese. These can also be very fine wines, too, and a wine label with even more syllables.

The name “Soave” doesn’t mean much to most wine drinkers.  If the name resonates at all, it doesn’t resonate well: it’s as a bland or insipid white wine, at least for those with a few vintages under their belts back when Soave was one of the most popular wines from Italy.  And, much of what was sold here under the Soave banner – from Bolla, for example – was truly bland and insipid.  However, the influential Italian wine critic James Suckling has asserted that “Soave should be your go-to dry white for food… [as a] fresh Soave pairs well with almost everything on your dinner table thanks to its approachable styles, freshness and wonderful balance that are keys to drinkability.”  That was a key take-away after recently spending nearly a week in Verona and visiting a few wineries in nearby Soave, the town, which gives its name to white wines made there and close by.
 
The cool, typically crisp, slightly fruity and balanced, surprisingly fuller flavored than anticipated Soaves, often with welcome minerality, paired extremely well with the very warm Italian summer and the Italian version of air conditioning.  Thanks to its evident acidity, these are very capable and versatile food wines, as Suckling wrote, more so we found with lighter fare.  We drank quality versions readily, as an aperitif, with the pasta course and even at the end of the evening.  
 
Soave does not feature a well-known varietal.  It is made with a minimum of 70% Garganega and a maximum 30% Trebbiano di Soave, which is Verdicchio in the Marche region, and possibly also up to 5% of Chardonnay.  Pronounced gar-GAHN-eh-guh, Garganega came to the Veneto, where it is almost solely grown, centuries ago from Sicily where its antecedent is known as Grecanico.
 
The Soaves we quite enjoyed there were: Ca’ Rugate Soave Classico 2021 San Michele; I Campi Soave Classico Campo Vulcano 2020; Le Battistelle Soave Classico 2021; Pra Otto Soave 2021; and three different expressions from Pieropan.  I was hooked, but it can take some effort to find these are similar quality Soave here.  There are seven Soaves at the closest Total Wine to me, including the terrific, mineral-laden Calvarino that regularly garners a prestigious Tre Bicchieri rating from Gambero Rosso and the richer, La Rocca that is aged for fifteen months in fairly large barrels then in 500-liter tonneaux, both that I really enjoyed both at the winery and afterwards.  The big Spec’s on Smith Street has only five, but the base bottling from Pieropan, the Soave Classico, which is still quite nice.  Be sure to check the vintage dates at Spec’s, which can’t really be trusted, especially for its Italian white wines.  From Houston for Soave, it might be easier to order from out of town.

At the new Pieropan winery in June in Soave.

You hear Frank Sinatra.  If Sinatra or any of the other notable Italian-American crooners are on the restaurant’s soundtrack, the restaurant is certainly not Italian; it is most likely Italian-American.  Sinatra was not from Italy, but from the New York area and his music was American and something that those seeking to create a genuine Italian atmosphere, usually primarily with its menu and food, will not play.  You don’t really hear Sinatra in the trattorie or ristoranti in Italy, after all.
 
His music is still great, and I am a huge fan.  It and that of fellow mid-century Italian-Americans, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Louis Prima, Bobby Darin, and even sometimes Vic Damone and the overly smooth Perry Como, have helped to provide a very enjoyable and complementary musical background to restaurants here – mostly Italian-American and steakhouses – for decades, long after they’ve stopped recording.  I’ve made note of that before.
 
I have enjoyed myself countless times when dining out with Sinatra and friends playing around.  It just wasn’t with Italian food.

Tajarin with shaved white truffles a few years ago at Ristorante San Marco in Canelli near Asti.  It wasn't bad.

“Wine was food, part of the necessary calories of the day” for those that worked here in years past said Vittorio delle Ore, the proprietor of the Villa di Maser, to our small group visiting earlier this summer.  Even the site of the villa, long called Villa Barbaro after its founders, was because the Barbaro brothers in the mid-16th century thought it was advantageous for vineyards he further explained. 
 
That statement was not surprising to me, but the juxtaposition of it with the extraordinary setting, in one of the most famous buildings designed by Andrea Palladio – “the perfect Renaissance villa,” according to a British Academy article and part of a UNESCO World Heritage site – while we were surrounded by magnificent and sometimes whimsical frescoes by Renaissance master Paolo Veronese covering its walls and ceilings, helped to emphasize just how important wine has been to Italian life over the centuries.  Though wine is luxury to many people today, where vineyards grew historically, wine was an important part of the daily diet for nearly all.
 
And in a link to its history, the vineyards here are still producing wine, now under the Villa di Maser label.  Wine remains a significant part of Italian life, maybe not as essential to everyday living but important for economic and cultural reasons, not to mention gastronomic and celebratory.  And, Villa di Maser’s wine were part of our enjoyment later.

The front of Villa di Maser, from Wikipedia

The strong smell of fish wafted by as the waiter brought a second platter with two very popular local items, baccalà and slices of prosciutto crudo, to the pair of slight college-aged women sitting nearby in the alleyway that provides the seating for the suitably small wine bar La Piccola Vineria in the medieval section of the port city of Trieste in Italy’s northeastern edge.  It’s certainly something not to be seen in wine bars in this country, an order, much less two, of reconstituted salt cod as happy hour snacks.  Nor the prices, which hovered around four euros – just four dollars these days – for most of the dozen or so likely delicious selections by the glass.  These are high quality wines that are at least $15 to $20 per glass here, if imported.  Maybe it was a little cheaper than most, but this is emblematic of the wine bars in Trieste, where high quality wine is very affordable, as the city lies quite near terrific wine areas all around, especially the Collio – which extends Brda in adjacent Slovenia – but also the Carso and Friuli Colli Orientali.
 
The wines of the Collio are generally serious but approachable, seemingly always with evident minerality, sufficient and enjoyable fruit notes, a complexity, pleasant acidity – a brightness – and nearly always balance among its white varietals from the crisp Ribolla Gialla both in still and sparkling versions; Pinot Grigio, which seems to reach its apex here; the local favorite Friuliano that seems made to accompany seafood; the rich and savory Sauvignon and Chardonnay, both tasting different than elsewhere and nearly always quite pleasurable.  And others.  I believe that it is clearly best region for white wine in Italy.  And then the wines from the small Carso appellation surrounding Trieste, lead by light and often almond-scented Vitoska, Malvasia, the unique, vivid red Terrano, can be quite nice.
 
Though it was wine that played a part in bringing me to Trieste – I had been on a trip nearby sponsored by the consortiums of Collio and Carso a decade ago – it took me a few days to discern the bars where best to discover and enjoy quality wines, as I didn’t come across signs announcing “wine bar” or its Italian counterpart “enoteca” in my walks around the city.  I miss some things.  There are certainly no shortage of places to get a glass of wine in the tourist-friendly expanse of central Trieste, though.  Cafés and restaurants both with plenty of sidewalk-facing seating abound.  Coffee might be the beverage that most would associate Trieste with.  It is home to the famed Illy brand, around 40% of Italy’s coffee comes through its port, and there are still a few grand Viennese-style cafés.  Then Trieste has culture of drinking that might be more pronounced than elsewhere in Italy due, in part, to its Austrian and Slavic influences. The enjoyment of coffee, aperitivi and wine might be on display at many of these places, often at the same time, even well before noon.
 
You can get some really good wine by the glass at many or all of these, but it really helps to do some research.  I finally did that, or remembered some, after my first few days.  My unimpressive and uncomfortably warm business hotel had a magazine guide of the city from the end of last year, and in it was a page recommending spots to drink wine from Stefano Cosma, a food and wine writer in the area.  I also found a piece online a few years earlier from the estimable Jancis Robinson and re-read a helpful “36 Hours in Trieste, Italy” from The New York Times.  I used these to track down a spots, and wines, especially where there was overlap between the articles. 
 
Here are wine bars to suggest in Trieste near the tourist heart of the city, all unpretentious, which provided some excellent white wines to help quench my summertime thirst:

• Al Ciketo – Just off the pedestrian via Cavanna that is strewn with shops and restaurants, and a stone’s throw from La Piccola Vineria, this tiny, atmospheric place with alleyway seating can be a popular happy hour stop, and it’s blackboard filled with interesting wines both local and from elsewhere in Italy and there are cicchetti, small plates, to accompany.
• Enoteca Nanut – Around for a quarter of a century tucked away in the touristic center by the Canal Grande but easy to miss, here you can explore lesser-known Italian labels along or indulge in bubbles from Champagne, and it has a kitchen, too.
• Gran Malabar – Walking by, a visitor would probably just see this as a comfortable attractive café with tables on the small piazza in front.  The chalkboard of wines by the glass is notable, enticing with about three dozen selections, mostly white and mostly regional, but also a nice collection of bubbles from Champagne and Franciorta, and items like Gaja’s Chardonnay and a Gewurztraminer from Elena Walch.  The staff might have no idea what a barrique or tonneaux is, but what they are pouring will be very enjoyable. 
• La Bottiglia Volante – A couple of blocks from the Canal Grande, this smart and contemporary space is inviting and gives off a trendier vibe with its penchant for natural wines.  
• La Piccola Vineria – Invitingly quaint and friendly, you might enjoy a Collio producer like Toros that’s not widely distributed in this country, or even a Champagne from a historic house.
• Portizza – On the busy Piazza della Borsa, this popular café sports a terrific collection of regional wines that many spritz-drinking tourists and locals might not notice.

 
Though these wine bars might be the best places to casually explore the wine regions nearby, seemingly all the local restaurants will serve quality wines for a pittance.  Along those lines, I had to stop and gaze at the wines by the glass menu – “vini alla mescita” – posted outside of a humble restaurant serving the hearty fare of Alto Adige. For between all of between three and five-a-half euros per glass was about a dozen choices including the excellent wineries Venica & Venica, Villa Russiz, Russiz Superiore and Jermman, that last with a couple wines. 
 
Trieste is a wonderful place to drink wine, especially white wines.
 
Something else to mention concerning wine and Trieste: Though it doesn’t ship to the U.S. – I tried when I was there – Enoteca Bischoff, a retail shop along the busy via Mazzini and about a block or so from Enoteca Nanut that’s been around in some form since 1777 is worth a perusal for wine lovers for its impressively curated selection of wines, mostly Italian and well beyond the region and more.

Just the white wines at Gran Malabar in Trieste in June

Something I did a dozen years ago and thought to revisit after reading a New York Times piece earlier in the month highlighting Ken Auletta’s new biography of the horrific Harvey Weinstein (one of whose lawyers I oddly happen to know).  It seems that the longtime New Yorker writer has had an obsession in finding excellent Chicken Parmesan preparations, and part of a group of guys who have been foraging the Italian-American eateries of the New York area for it.  For him, a “test of a good Southern Italian restaurant is whether their chicken or veal parmigiana had a good sauce, the breading is crisp and has not been drowned in sauce, and the chicken or veal is not so thin it tastes like cardboard.”
 
Chicken Parmesan is an American creation that grew from the eggplant parmigiana preparation from southern Italy and Sicily, with the meatier chicken substituting for the less caloric eggplant at its core.  Veal Parmesan came first, at least by the 1930s while Chicken Parmesan debuted on restaurant menus at least a couple of decades later.  Veal Parmesan is certainly a much better dish, and my favorite dish as a kid, but Chicken Parmesan is ubiquitous throughout the country, the veal version much less so.  Industrially produced, widely distributed and easily affordable, gigantic, if typically tasteless, chicken breasts are the key reason for the popularity of Chicken Parmesan along with the ease of preparation.  But, even practiced Italian-Americans like Ken Auletta might like it if done well.
 
There are at least a dozen Italian-American restaurant chains ranging from the retrenching Zio’s with a just a handful of spots to Olive Garden with 887 (!), with most have at least forty outlets.  People like Italian-American food, in even the most minor key.  Chicken Parm at these restaurants is a slice or more of chicken breast, breaded and pan-fried – if rarely pounded thin – and topped with melted mozzarella and maybe some other white-colored, Italian-inspired cheeses and served in a lot of tomato sauce with a side of pasta, usually spaghetti, also in that tomato sauce.  You know what it is.  The portion sizes for an order can range widely, though, from just 750 calories to over 1600.
 
Given the highest rate of inflation in forty years, I thought I would reprise a survey of chain Italian-American restaurants that I did some years ago, the Chicken Parm Index.  Here are the current prices at dinner: 

• Bertucci’s – $21.99, 1330 calories
  
• Biaggi’s – $18.99, 1500 calories
• Bravo! Italian Kitchen – $21.99, 1450 calories
• Bucca di Beppo – $30.00 for a portion that feeds three, 870 calories for an individual serving
• Johnny Carino’s – $19.99, 1010 calories
• Carrabba’s – $20.49, 760 calories
• Fazoli’s – $10.29, 840 calories
• Maggiano’s Little Italy – $20.50, 1290 calories
• Romano’s Macaroni Grill – $20.00, 1610 calories
• Old Spaghetti Factory – $17.75, 750 calories
• Olive Garden – $17.79, 1020 calories
• Spaghetti Warehouse – $16, 750 calories
• Zio’s – Chicken Parmigiana – $14.99, 1370 calories

 
In 2010, the Chicken Parm preparations at the chain Italian-American restaurants for dinner ranged from $12.99 to $18.95 and averaged $15.  Now these go from $10.29 to $21.99, averaging $18.10.  The cost for a Chicken Parm dinner has risen just a shade over 20% in the intervening dozen years. 
 
Chicken Parm remains a price performer at these chain Italian-American restaurants.  I don’t recommend ordering it at one of these places nor even visiting any of these, though.

The Chicken Parmesan at Maggiano's.