Recently in Italian Category

Roberto is back at one of Santa Rosa's favorite Italian trattorias -- now called Trattoria Lupo.

If the era of flashy chef-lebrity restaurants are over, no one told Michael Chiarello. The Food Network personality who's made his name hawking Napa's faux country lifestyle on television, in books and his Napa Style stores, has just opened the sprawling Bottega Restaurant in Yountville. And though myriad failed restaurants have made it easy to dismiss concepts like Bottega as overly-ambitious, personality-driven eateries, Chiarello has created a comfortable space at a reasonable (considering the location, please) price point -- a real-life interpretation of the easy-going Wine Country style that Michael makes look so effortless on television.

Historic Italian deli, Traverso's is packing up the pepperoni and pinot; the mozzarella and tortellini and leaving downtown Santa Rosa for good. After more than 30 years in its B Street location, Michael Traverso tells BiteClub that they've officially inked the deal and will be headed for Fountain Grove Village at the end of the year

Located just steps from Santi, Diavola (which means devilish in Italian) serves a selection of antipasti (a seafood plate with squid, shrimp, mussels and clams; house made burrata; local tomatoes with gorgonzola and a vegetable plate) along with nine wood-fired pizzas that range from a simple zucchini flower and buffalo mozzarella 'Margherita' to a Ligurian clam and herb pizza or caper, anchovy and hot pepper pizza. The aptly-named Diavola pizza is topped with N'duja (a spicy Calabrian salami), arugula an Stracchino cheese.

Consider me among the eager masses huddled around the front doors of Ari Rosen's new casual Italian eatery, Scopa. The shoebox-sized restaurant opened last week next to Healdsburg's Bistro Ralph (similarly shoebox-sized), featuring simple, rustic fare from the former Santi chef. The name refers to an ancient Italian card game that, like poker, requires plenty of bluffing, banter, booze and snacks to be properly played

Cursing this second strike-out at the Napa newcomer, I called in my late-afternoon safety--the one valley spot that would definitely be open, definitely be packed and almost certainly have pizza (fig or not) to console my bruised karma: Bistro Don Giovanni.