Finding a restaurant that serves authentic Italian food is a rare pleasure. Last night, we experienced that rare pleasure. We had dinner at Salute! - a new Italian restaurant in Sarasota (http://salutesarasota.com/). It was fantastic.
The owner of the restaurant, Alberto Guadagnini, also has a resort, vineyard, and winery (http://www.destinationcasali.com/) just outside Montalcino in Tuscany. We had been only 3-4 miles from that winery during our recent visit to Tuscany. Unfortunately, we were not aware of the winery at that time.
When we were seated, Signor Guadagnini presented the wine list and explained the wines from his winery. (The wine list included over 120 wines from all over the world, but we wanted to try one of his wines.) We chose a Super Tuscan, the 2005 Argante Rosso Toscano IGT, for $48. It is made with 70% cabernet sauvignon and 30% merlot. It had been aged in oak barriques for 18 months. It was served slightly chilled and was terrific.
We started our meal by sharing two appetizers - a bowl of mixed Italian olives for $4.50 and a plate of bruschette (plural of bruschetta) with tomato, onion, and basil for the same price. The plate of bruschette had four nice-sized pieces of bruschette. While our waitress was nice and attentive, she was clearly inexperienced. When we started to eat the bruschette, Signor Guadagnini came over and poured some olive oil from his estate on the bruschette. The bruschette were perfect, with very nice tomatoes.
(Here I'll mention that most Americans, including our waitress, pronounce bruschetta incorrectly. The "sch" is pronounced like the "sch" in "school," not the "sh" in "shucks.")
For our next course, we shared a plate of homemade pasta. (Most of the pastas served at Salute, except the spaghetti and the penne, are homemade by Signor Guadagnini's sister-in-law.) We chose Sacchetti al Tartufo - purse-shaped pasta filled with truffles and ricotta cheese and covered with a gorgonzola cream sauce for $15.95. This dish was fantastic!
For her next course, my wife had Vitello Piccata, sauteed veal medallions in a lemon butter caper sauce, accompanied by a few roasted potatoes and mixed vegetables for $18.95. The veal and potatoes were delicious, the vegetables - ordinary.
I had Salsiccia all'Ucceletto - homemade sausage with cannellini beans, tomatoes, onions, and rosemary for $15.95. Signor Guadagnini came over and poured olive oil from his estate on this dish. The taste of this dish was terrific. The sausage skin was a bit difficult to cut. The sausage is made by the restaurant.
For dessert, we each had zuccotto, a cake-like dessert which originated in Florence, for $7. It was delicious. However, my wife said she would probably choose tiramisu over the zuccotto. I had wanted to try this dessert since I learned about it, but had not seen it on a menu while we were in Italy. I liked it, but would choose something else next time.
The atmosphere of the restaurant was nice. Signor Guadagnini, his adult son, and another man, whom I think was his brother, were very busy watching over every aspect of the restaurant's operations.
We unknowingly picked a very busy time to go to this restaurant in downtown Sarasota. The annual Thunder by the Bay motorcycle event was underway. This charity function was very well attended, and there were hundreds of parked motorcycles on Main St.
The restaurant is located at 23 North Lemon St. Phone - 941-365-1020.
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