Everybody loves Italian food. Yet the idea of a single Italian cuisine took time to coalesce, if it ever really has. Even after Italy’s unification in 1861, the country remained divided in the kitchen, with each of its twenty distinctive regions clinging to their own deeply-rooted culinary traditions. The first Italian cookbook, published in Florence in 1891, included only a couple of recipes for tomato sauce, a staple in the southern provinces.1 By the early 20th century, Italian restaurants were emerging more broadly in the United States, introducing a hybrid style that became known as Italian-American cuisine. While the classic dishes of this style remain popular, Italian food in America evolved in a myriad of ways, eventually challenging French cuisine at the top tier. Over fifty menus highlight some of the people and places behind this remarkable ascent.
The Nineteenth Century
Italian cuisine was not entirely unknown in nineteenth-century America. The daily dinner menu at the better hotels almost always included one macaroni dish, then a general term for pasta. The repertoire of pasta dishes was limited to about five types that were usually finished with cream or butter and Parmesan cheese. When the large waves of Italian immigrants began arriving from Naples, Sicily, and other southern provinces in the 1880s, they brought recipes for tomato-based sauces. Food historian John Mariani writes, “With very few exceptions, almost all Italian-style restaurants in the East were opened by southern Italians who based their menus not on any Old Country restaurant models but on their own family food. For this reason, the Italian American restaurant was not a replication of any in Italy but a new kind of eating place.”2 This spirit of invention was necessary, as the vast majority of these impoverished newcomers had never eaten in a restaurant in Italy. Early Italian restaurants in the United States often began modestly, tucked into the back rooms of bars or set in the corners of small grocery stores in immigrant neighborhoods.
Italian American menus from the nineteenth century are rare. The example below was printed by the Stockton Mail, a newspaper and job shop founded in 1880. The border design was created using type ornaments introduced that same year, which places the menu in this early period.3 Listing several pasta dishes and imported Italian wines, the menu suggests a relatively prosperous immigrant clientele. The inclusion of Eastern oysters—a delicacy shipped to California by rail—reinforces this notion. One lingering curiosity is the 12½- cent price units. This odd denomination recalls the 1850s, when Californians used cut pieces of the silver Spanish real as specie.
By the twentieth century, Italian restaurants were expanding in major cities such as Boston, New York, and San Francisco, where the immigrants first settled. Aiming to attract the American-born middle class, Italian restaurateurs adopted a strategy similar to their Chinese counterparts: they relied on local ingredients, adjusted recipes to suit American tastes (often increasing the meat content), and cultivated an exotic and fun atmosphere. Both groups offered low prices, an exciting new cuisine, and familiar Anglo and French dishes for less adventurous guests. Dining out in Little Italy or Chinatown, which were often neighboring districts, became a popular urban pastime.
Italian Table d’hôtes
The new restaurants were called Italian table d’hôtes, using the French term for the fixed-price dinner they offered in addition to their à la carte menu. In the early years, this inexpensive, multi-course meal typically featured just one Italian item—a signature pasta dish. Memoirist Maria Sermolino, who grew up in her family’s small restaurant in Greenwich Village, recalled how something as simple as eating spaghetti once felt like an adventure: “Not only was its taste different than anything they had ever eaten, but so was the manner of eating it. Few could master the technique of spaghetti swirling, but they had fun trying.”4
New Italy – Boston (1904)
In 1904, the Boston Herald reported: “If you are very hungry some day when you want a good, substantial dinner, and your pocket is unfortunately low, then go to Little Italy,” which is where this restaurant was located. 5 The cover highlights its 65-cent dinner; the Italian dishes are in the center of the à la carte menu. The large selection of steaks and chops must have astonished newly-arrived immigrants who, in Italy, had only eaten meat a few days a year. For them, such a menu symbolized the abundance of America.
Carlos – New York City (1906)
Italian restaurants advertised their fixed-price dinner on cards that conveyed the festive spirit of the establishment. This small postcard from 1906 only has space for the address, as required by law. The following year the rules were changed, allowing postcards to have a divided back so messages could be written on the left half of the address side. The change ushered in the Golden Age of Postcards, or the Divided Back Period (1907-1915), when postcards were immensely popular.
By 1908, postcards were often attached to the fixed-price menu along a perforated edge. The example below shows the upstairs dining room.
Italian cuisine steadily gained traction. Interestingly, the front of this postcard features the fixed-price menu, not the comic illustration. Advertising was essential in a highly competitive business that needed volume to survive.
Bohemia – San Francisco (1910)
The menu below, which is entirely in Italian, boldly declares that Bohemia was San Francisco’s only first-class Italian restaurant, as well as its largest. In reality, it may have been Mario’s Bohemian Cigar Store Café, which was located across from Washington Square Park in North Beach.
Coppa – San Francisco (1910s)
Venice Café – Chicago (1911)
In addition to Italian and French dishes, this menu includes German, English, American, and Russian items. In the early twentieth century, menus that blended so many foreign cuisines were a distinctly American phenomenon—the melting pot at work.
Guffanti’s – New York City (Early 1910s)
This 5½- x 9¼-inch card reflects a prosperous restaurant that had expanded since 1900, when it was described in a newspaper article as an unpainted and undecorated back room of a dingy saloon on Seventh Avenue.6 In 1900, the Italian population in New York was 220,000, having doubled over the previous decade. By 1910, there were 545,000 Italians living in the city.
Jos. Guffanti Inn – New York City (1916)
Restaurateur Joe Guffanti opened a branch on Coney Island. By 1916, the price of his fixed-priced dinner had risen to one dollar due to wartime inflation.
Fior d’Italia – San Francisco (1916)
Founded in 1886 by immigrants from northwestern Italy, Fior d'Italia (“Flower of Italy”) is now the oldest Italian restaurant in the U.S. This banquet celebrated its thirtieth anniversary. The commemorative menu below highlights the four previous locations, two of which were lost to disaster: one in a fire in 1893 and another in the 1906 Great Earthquake and Fire. The bill of fare contains a nod to San Francisco’s French culinary heritage.
Little Roma – New York City (1917)
Little Roma was located on Beaver Street in lower Manhattan, only thirty paces from the two Pompeii pillars that marked the entrance to Delmonico’s. Established as a French restaurant in 1837 and regarded as the country’s first fine-dining establishment, Delmonico’s—along with upper-class hotels like the Astor House—employed Italian culinarians who arrived before the mass migration of the 1880s.
Italian restaurateurs were adept at teaching non-Italians about their cuisine. Luccioni’s even included a few recipes in the menu for its fifth-anniversary banquet.
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village was New York’s bohemia, long a magnet for artists, musicians, and writers. However, by the 1920s, it was also attracting tourists and college students drawn to its quaint tea rooms, jazz clubs, and hidden speakeasies during Prohibition. The Village was also home to numerous Italian restaurants, as the area south of Washington Square Park, previously a French enclave, was filled with Italian immigrants.
Renganeschi – New York City (1916)
Ashhcan School artist John Sloan painted Renganeschi’s Saturday Night in 1912.
The menu below contains advertisements for the Italian Swiss Colony winery in California. The wine named Tipo, which was launched ten years earlier as Tipo Chianti, came in a straw-covered bottle that later doubled as a candle holder. Indeed, a candle-dripped Chiani bottle, set on a red-checked tablecloth, came to symbolize Italian restaurants in America. Owner Giovanni Renganeschi stayed afloat during Prohibition by skirting the Volstead Act—though he was shut down for four months by authorities. In 1927, he sold the restaurant to Sicilian-born Giovanni Ballato, who renamed it John’s Old Place.
Mori – New York City (1921)
Mori opened in 1884 in a townhouse on Bleecker Street before expanding into adjacent buildings in 1920. An inscription on the back reads: “Sophie and I went to this place. It is built very quaint—very good food. Artists go here.”
Black Cat – New York City (1922)
This restaurant was a popular dancing spot. The menu below includes spaghetti Neapolitan, noodles Bolognese, and chicken à la king. Two desserts are emphasized in bold type—Italian Spumoni and Zabaione, a dessert custard made from egg yolks, sugar, and Marsala wine from Sicily. During the Prohibition era, menus commonly offered a selection of expensive soft drinks and mineral waters, which were often used as mixers by patrons who brought their own alcoholic beverages in hip flasks.
Enrico & Paglieri – New York City (1927)
Established in 1908, Enrico & Paglieri operated in an old brick and brownstone row house. From its early years, the restaurant was known as a gathering place for gays and lesbians. The founders, Enrico Fasani and his partner, Paul Paglieri, rarely changed the bill of fare, as suggested by the old-fashioned format of this lunch and dinner menu issued almost twenty years after the restaurant opened. In the 1960s, Enrico & Paglieri was acquired by the Longchamps chain which opened other locations under the same name. The original restaurant closed in 1975.
Luigi’s – New York City (mid-1930s)
Luigi’s was a speakeasy raided in 1923. This menu dates from about 1934 to 1935, shortly after Repeal, when tri-fold menus with two side panels folding inward were briefly popular. The handwritten price increases hint that the economy was starting to rebound from the Great Depression. Luigi’s return after Prohibition appears to have been short-lived.
Red-Sauce Restaurants
Italian restaurants became known as red-sauce restaurants or red-sauce joints because of their characteristic tomato-based cuisine. By the 1930s, Italian food was no longer an immigrant novelty but a mainstream staple, embraced by all kinds of restaurants and home cooks. However, while many foreign dishes were assimilated with no thought to their origin, Italian-American dishes retained their foreign identity, even though some—such as spaghetti and meatballs, chicken parmesan, and fettuccine alfredo—were actually invented in the United States, representing a fusion of Italian heritage and American innovation.Italian Canteen and Pizzeria - Boston (mid-1930s)
This restaurant opened in 1931 in Boston’s North End. It is still in business today, though the name has changed to Cantina Italiana in concert with the times, as has its menu. Veal, tripe, and soffritto, a mix of finely chopped onions, carrots, and celery slowly sautéed in oil, are no longer on the menu. Although the first licensed pizzeria, Lombardi’s, opened in New York in 1905, pizza did not become broadly popular until after World War II.
San Carlo – Chicago (1934)
San Carlo operated at the Century of Progress Exposition, the World’s Fair held in Chicago in 1933 and 1934. As shown below, chicken Tetrazzini appeared on menus for decades after its early 20th century debut. Named for the coloratura soprano Luisa Tetrazzini, this baked pasta casserole is made with diced chicken, mushrooms, and a creamy cheese sauce. The cover is signed by Sally Rand, the burlesque performer whose fan dance became a sensation at the fair.
Nello’s – Chicago (Late 1930s)
Located in Chicago’s Little Italy, this down-to-earth restaurant advertised “home cooking” on the cover. Chicken cacciatora (“huntress’s chicken”) is a rustic dish historically made with rabbit or other wild game. Tomatoes were added to the dish after becoming available in Italy in the mid-16th century.
Roma – Baltimore (Late 1930s)
Baltimore’s Little Italy, situated on the east side of the Inner Harbor, was established at about the same time as similar neighborhoods in Wilmington, South Philadelphia, Lower Manhattan, Federal Hill in Providence, and Boston’s North End, all of which have many Italian restaurants today.
Romeo’s – New York City (n.d.)
Romeo’s operated three locations in midtown Manhattan. The one at 1625 Broadway was situated next door to Jack Dempsey’s famous restaurant, just north of Times Square.
Italian Kitchen – New York City (mid-1940s)
Below is another example from one of the the low-cost “spaghetti houses” that have largely faded from memory.
Adolph’s – Chicago (1940s)
Located across Rush Street from the nightclub Mister Kelly’s in Chicago’s Gold Coast, Adolph’s was well known in its day. The menu below features risotto, veal scaloppini, and a range of pasta dishes—spaghetti, ravioli, and mostaccioli, a smooth-sided cousin of penne. Later, as Italian restaurants aimed to appear more authentic, the green noodle dishes would be given specific Italian descriptors such as tagliatelle verdi or fettuccine verdi.
Riccio’s – Miami Beach (1950)
Riccio’s was a mob hangout that made headlines for its illicit activities and associations. Gambling tables and dice were seized when the back room of the restaurant was raided in February 1950, which happens to be the date inscribed on this menu. The restaurant gained notoriety again in 1953 when it offered employment for Jewish crime boss Alex (Shondor) Birns who was awaiting an extradition hearing in Cleveland. And in 1956, it became the target of a federal investigation after it reportedly entered bankruptcy for the third time in six years.
Conformity, the dominant ideal of post-war America, is reflected in the uniformity of the cuisine shown on these 1950s menus. During this unpretentious period, there could be an odd juxtaposition of foreign words or images, such as the Spanish bull fighter on this cover.
(Mama) Leone’s – New York City (1956)
In 1906, tenor Enrico Caruso persuaded Luisa Leone to open a restaurant in the family’s living room. Following a relocation to the theatrical district, Leone’s expanded, ultimately encompassing eleven dining rooms with a capacity of 1,250 seats.7 It was the largest restaurant in New York, serving 4000 people a day at its postwar peak. Sometime after this 1956 menu, the restaurant was rebranded as Mama Leone’s, the name by which it would be remembered.7 Everything about Mama Leone’s was over the top, including the size of the menu and enormous portions of food. The décor and staff elevated the Italian atmosphere to the level of a theme restaurant. Historian Paul Freedman selected Mama Leone’s to represent Italian cuisine in his volume Ten Restaurants that Changed America, not for its culinary superiority, but rather for its cultural influence. 8
Sunny Italy – Chicago (Late 1950s)
The eclecticism of American food customs is visually evident in the above 1961 photo of West Randolph Street, where Sunny Italy was located alongside Toffenetti’s, Hoe Sai Gai, and Henrici, a Viennese-style restaurant.
Chez Vous – New York City (Late 1950s)
Chez Vous (“at your place” in French) was a small neighborhood restaurant that served basic Italian-American fare. The Italian Line provided the blank form on which this menu was printed, featuring colorful artwork on the front and an advertisement for Italian wines on the back. The entrenched clichés that constituted Italian-American cuisine varied little from coast to coast and were widely accepted across all social and economic classes. However, that was about to change.
Romeo Salta
Romeo Salta was born Romeo Saltalamacchia in 1904 in Taranto, a coastal city south of Naples. After jumping ship in New York in the 1920s, he worked in various hospitality jobs before opening his own restaurant in Los Angeles. Salta was a pioneer, elevating Italian food beyond the prevailing Abruzzese, Calabrian, and Sicilian cuisines that were the basis of Italian food in America.
Chianti – Los Angeles (mid-1940s)
The cover shows Romeo Salta preparing pasta tableside at his first restaurant, which was located on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Salta was uncompromising when it came to food. As shown on the menu below, a southern Italian baked pasta dish with a complex filling, lasagna imbottiti alla napoletana, took 40 minutes, and polenta con spezzatino di pollo, a slow-cooked chicken stew served over creamy polenta, required one hour notice. Business soared after newspaper journalist Ed Sullivan praised the restaurant in his syndicated column, “Little Old New York.” In appreciation, a chicken dish was named after Sullivan.
Mercurio – New York City (1956)
By the 1950s, Salta was living in New York City, where opened Mercurio on West 53rd Street, near the offices of the fashion magazines. Forgoing the red-checked tablecloths, Mercurio looked as stylish as the editors, designers, and models who frequented the establishment, debutant Grace Kelly among them. In 1953, he sold the restaurant to Frank Giambelli who maintained it at a high level until it closed in 1983.
Romeo Salta – New York City (Late 1950s)
Following Mercurio, Romeo Salta opened his eponymous restaurant on West 56th Street and Fifth Avenue. Like the above menu from Chez Vous, the one shown below was printed on a blank form provided courtesy of the Italian Line. However, the cuisine was vastly different. Romeo Salta was perhaps the first restaurant in Manhattan to offer elegant Northern Italian cooking, which Salta considered “more delicate,” though he was equally proud of his many Southern Italian dishes. His food was sometimes described as “modern Italian” and the prices as “astronomical.” Years later, restaurant critic Mimi Sheraton observed: “New York has never had an Italian restaurant as good as Romeo Salta was in its heyday.”
The Rise of Authenticity and Variety
In the 1960s, upper-class Americans began to seek a more refined Italian cuisine. While traditional Italian-American dishes remained popular, attention gradually shifted toward the regional cuisines of Northern Italy. This transition was slow, partly because many of the ingredients common today weren’t yet available in the U.S. Other food trends also began to influence how Italian food was perceived and prepared, leading to new dining tiers that were divided along social and economic lines.
Parioli Romanissimo - New York City (1960s)
This restaurant was first located on First Avenue at East 76th Street. Its name combined “Parioli”—an affluent residential neighborhood in Rome—and “Romanissimo”—a superlative meaning “very Roman”—implying an authentic, high-end Roman cuisine. Nevertheless, according to New York Times critic John Canaday, who awarded it four stars in 1974, the majority of entrées were “unique to the house as variations on classical recipes.” The glowing review made Parioli Romanissimo one of Manhattan’s most coveted and expensive dining spots, even as later critics were less generous. The restaurant eventually relocated to 24 East 81st Street before closing in 1999.
Italian Pavilion - New York City (Late 1960s)
The Italian Pavilion exuded class and dignity, offering its guests a choice between a formal dining room and a glass-enclosed garden. In 1977, The New York Times reported: “During the last 22 years, the Italian Pavilion on West 55th Street…has remained one of the city’s more consistently dependable restaurants, offering stylish North Italian cooking with a few southern classics for good measure.” One of the house specialties was fegato di vitello Veneziana—thin strips of calf liver lightly sautéed with onions. The format of the large menu below was similar to the ones at top French restaurants.
Named after the famous Blue Grotto in Capri, this restaurant opened in the heart of Little Italy in 1908. Situated just below street level, the modestly decorated dining room has served generations of diners. This menu dates from approximately the midpoint of the restaurant's 117-year run. While always well-regarded, Grotta Azzurra’s cuisine has evolved with the times, as have its famous guests, who ranged from Enrico Caruso to Frank Sinatra.
Josephina’s – Los Angeles (1975)
This small chain operated in Southern California in the 1970s and 80s. While the 12½- x 18-inch menu below exhibits the free-flowing design of the era, the dishes are conventional—minestrone soup, baked lasagna, chicken parmesan, and veal piccata. Josephina’s also served Chicago-style deep dish pizzas, a distinct American adaptation of an Italian dish.
Spago – Los Angeles (Late 1980s)
Spago was a celebrity hotspot from the moment it opened on the Sunset Strip in 1982. Austrian-born chef Wolfgang Puck broke new ground with his California-Italian cuisine—a fusion style that focuses on fresh, seasonal, and local ingredients. The restaurant’s open kitchen—complete with wood-fired pizza ovens—was revolutionary at the time. The pizzas were topped with expensive ingredients such as caviar, smoked salmon, or the wild mushrooms shown on the menu below. In 1997, the flagship moved from West Hollywood to Beverly Hills, as other branches opened around the world.
Tra Vigne – St. Helena, California (1991)
The success of Spago inspired others to follow. Tra Vigne (“Among the Vines”) opened in Napa Valley in 1987, featuring California-Italian cuisine and a wood-fired brick oven for its pizzas. Tra Vigne closed in 2015, and a pizzeria now operates in the space.
Spiaggia (“Beach”) was a critically acclaimed restaurant that operated from 1984 to 2021. Renowned for its fine cuisine, extensive wine list, and panoramic views of Lake Michigan, it ranked #5 on Chicago magazine’s list of the “Top 40 Chicago Restaurants Ever” in 2010.
This Chicago institution was founded in 1941 by Gene Michelotti and his partner Alfredo Federighi, nicknamed “Georgetti” after a well-known cyclist. Housed in an 1870 building in River North, the Italian American steakhouse was #24 on Chicago magazine’s “Top 40” list.
Harry Cipriani – New York City (1995)
Harry Cipriani sits inside the Sherry-Netherland Hotel on Fifth Avenue. It is nearly identical to the original Harry’s Bar in Venice, founded in 1931 by Giuseppe Cipriani, the creator of carpaccio and the Bellini cocktail made with Prosecco and peach purée. Ernest Hemingway was one of the bar’s many notable regulars. This menu includes environmental notices such as: “The use of cellular phones interferes with the preparation of the risotto.” It was a good effort, but the rule has joined the long list of noble lost causes.
The Twenty-First Century
By the turn of the Millennium, the United States had about 28,000 Italian restaurants, a figure that excludes pizzerias (which are largely dominated by major chains). Furthermore, an estimated one in eight American restaurants offered at least some Italian dishes. The examples below highlight current trends, including simplified menus, continued fusion across cuisines, and the growing divide between dining tiers based on economic class.Opened in 1998, this Tuscan-influenced trattoria in the Mission District is a proponent of California-Italian cuisine, blending a traditional Italian approach with locally sourced ingredients.
Milano – San Francisco (2004)
Tucked away on a quiet street between Nob Hill and Russian
Hill, this neighborhood restaurant served Northern Italian fare in cozy
surroundings for four decades. It was highly regarded, in particular, for its handmade
pasta.
Maialino – New York City (2010)
Maialino (“Piglet”) was a Roman-style trattoria founded by Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group. Its effort to reproduce a more authentic regional cuisine was applauded by food enthusiasts and restaurant critics. Sam Sifton of the New York Times awarded it two stars, noting the bucatini all’amatriciana, which featured a thick, spicy tomato sauce studded with guanciale. The lunch menu below also includes a tripe dish, one of Rome’s culinary treasures that has little chance of entering the mainstream canon of Italian-American cuisine.
Pō - New York City (2016)
Named after Italy’s longest river, Pō was a tiny, charming West Village restaurant co-founded by Chef Mario Batali in 1993. Known for its serious approach to food, Pō served a white bean bruschetta as a complimentary starter to whet the appetite. On this 2016 menu (the year before it closed), the linguine con vongole was made with clams, a standard choice, but a downgrade from earlier years when it featured cockles, adding a subtle, sweeter note.
Locanda Verde – New York City (2021)
Locanda Verde (“Green Inn”) is located in Tribeca, a neighborhood in lower Manhattan known for its old cast-iron architecture, cobblestone streets, and celebrity residents. The 1971 artwork on this menu was created by painter Robert De Niro Sr., father of actor Robert De Niro, who owns the restaurant. Interestingly, one of the signature dishes, My Grandmother’s Ravioli, started at the French-inspired Café Boulud, where Andrew Carmellini, now a partner at Locanda Verde, was executive chef in the early 2000s.
Vetri Cucina – Philadelphia (2022)
Upscale Italian restaurants have been able to raise their prices in part by adopting the tasting menu, or menu degustazione. Vetri Cucina opened in 1998 in a historic townhouse that once housed Le Bec-Fin, Philadelphia’s top French restaurant. Chef Marc Vetri also ran a Las Vegas outpost for a time.
Las Vegas
One way to gauge the popularity of Italian food is to look at the restaurants inside Las Vegas hotels, since the city’s tourist industry is quick to embrace both upscale and casual trends.
Lago – Las Vegas (Early 2020s)
Opened in 2015 by Madrid-born chef Julian Serrano, Lago (“Lake”) is a high-end Italian restaurant overlooking the lake and fountains at the Bellagio Hotel. Offering “a modern dining experience,” Lago serves tapas-sized portions designed for sharing.
Amalfi – Las Vegas (Early 2020s)
Celebrity chef Bobby Flay’s restaurant at Caesars Palace is said to draw inspiration from his travels along the Amalfi Coast. A central attraction is a seafood display staffed by a knowledgeable fishmonger who can explain each fish’s origin and arrival time. The menu is not especially broad, but it is large, measuring 11 by 17 inches.
Celebrity chef Bobby Flay’s restaurant at Caesars Palace is said to draw inspiration from his travels along the Amalfi Coast. A central attraction is a seafood display staffed by a knowledgeable fishmonger who can explain each fish’s origin and arrival time. The menu is not especially broad, but it is large, measuring 11 by 17 inches.
Osteria Costa – Las Vegas (Early 2020s)
This casual eatery in the Mirage Hotel served traditional Italian-American fare like spaghetti and meatballs and chicken parm. Such dishes remain popular, but have never commanded high prices.
Alta Cucina
Alta cucina refers to sophisticated, high-end Italian cooking, marked by meticulous dishes, premium ingredients, and elegant presentation. It is often rooted in regional traditions but elevated with modern technique. When reproduced in the United States, the menu is tailored for American tastes and sensibilities.
Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura – Los Angeles (2023)
Chef Massimo Bottura gained fame with his three Michelin starred Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy. In 2020, he opened his first U.S. restaurant on top of the Gucci store on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. The menu below features several of his signature dishes from Osteria Francescana, including tortellini with cream sauce and the whimsical “Oops, I broke the meringue,” a cracked disc of thin meringue decorated with a raspberry-colored pattern of leaves and flowers.
The menu also includes California-inspired dishes like the SoCal spaghetto splash works, made with rockfish tartare, crab, and caviar.9 Other influences are also evident. The Emilia burger, reportedly created with Shake Shack for the New York City Marathon, is made with Cotechino sausage and Parmigiano Reggiano from Emilia-Romagna. Altogether, the menu provides an example of how Italian influences continue to shape progressive cuisine in the United States.
Notes
1. Pellegrino Artusi. La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene (Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well), Florence: Private Printing, 1891.
2. John F. Mariani. How Italian Food Conquered the World, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
3. The type ornaments were part of a series named Combination Orient Border No. 90 (1880) designed and cut by Herman Ihlenburg at the MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan foundry in Philadelphia.
4. Maria Sermolino. Papa’s Table d’Hote [Ganfarone’s], New York, J. B. Lippincott, 1952.
5. “Where Bostonians and Aliens Mingle.” Boston Herald, 1904.
6. “Joe Guffanti’s: Restaurateur of ‘Pleasant Valley’ Draws Custom from Many Classes. His Cooking Tickles the Palates of Jaded ‘Rounders’ -- Dingy Place in Seventh Avenue.” New York Times, 1 July 1900.
7. The name on the menu seemingly changed to Mama Leone’s around 1959, the year it was acquired by Restaurants Associates. Many menus have survived, as the restaurant printed 250,000 menus every two months and gave them all away. New York Times, 19 Sept. 1987, Section 1, P. 33.
8. Paul Freedman. Ten Restaurants that Changed America, New York: Liveright, 2016.
9. A spaghetto is a single strand of spaghetti—the singular form of spaghetti.
2 comments:
Hi Henry - great work as always. Some of the earlier examples remind me of the film, "The Big Night"!
What an outstanding survey of Italian restaurant food in America.
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