Cafe Bologna - Terrific, Authentic Cuisine from Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Cafe Bologna in Osprey is a very special restaurant which specializes in the cuisine of Emilia-Romagna and northern Italy. The owners and chefs are Barbara and Claudio, who are both from Bologna in Emilia-Romagna.

There are many regional cuisines in Italy, and they are different from one another and different from Italian-American cuisine. One regional cuisine is from the region of Emilia-Romagna, the Breadbasket of Italy, which is just above Tuscany. Among the region's well-known culinary cities are:
- Parma, with its Parmesan cheese and prosciutto di Parma
- Bologna, famous for Bolognese sauce
- Modena, the source of the finest balsamic vinegars.

As Cafe Bologna's web site (http://www.bolognacafe.com/) states, you will not find spaghetti and meatballs or fettucine Alfredo or chicken Parmigiana there. They also do not offer pizza, which originated in southern Italy.

The pastas they serve are traditional pastas from Emilia-Romagna, such as gnocchi, gramigna, tagliatelle, tortelli, and tortellini.

We recently had a terrific meal there with and at the suggestion of wonderful friends. Every dish was superb, and the service was excellent. It was a perfect evening.

We started with an amuse-bouche of sweet-pea soup.

That was followed by an appetizer tower of Prosciutto di Parma, homemade Mozzarella cheese, tomato, olives, and basil for four at $11 per person. (Prosciutto di Parma is one of Italy's best prosciuttos.)

Prosciutto and Mozzarella

My wife had a Bella Donna Salad with arugula, pears, walnuts, and Parmesan cheese for $17.

My wife and our friends had a special main course of risotto with artichokes finished off inside a wheel of aged Parmesan cheese for $39 each. The restaurant buys huge wheels of aged Parmesan. The date on this wheel was July of 2013.

The Parmesan Wheel with Risotto

My main course was house-made tortelli pasta with Bolognese sauce for $26. Normally, I would not order a dish with Bolognese sauce in a restaurant because it tends not to be very special. However our friends said this was a terrific Bolognese sauce which Barabara spends hours making. It was the best Bolognese sauce I've ever had - by far.

Torttelli alla Bolognese

For dessert, my wife had a Crema Catalana for $9.

I had an apple ciambella cake with vanilla gelato for $12. Barbara said it was her grandmother's recipe.

I followed dessert with an Espresso Corretto - espresso with Sambuca, an anise-flavored liqueur.

Our wine was a Poggiopiano Chianti Classico for $48 per bottle.

The wine menu offers an extensive selection of Italian wines. It only has one from Emilia-Romagna, which is not known for its wines.

Claudio is very affable and very happy to explain the dishes he makes.

Cafe Bologna also has an excellent deli counter.

Una esperienza eccezionale!