One reason we like scheduling a food tour on our first day is asking a local for ‘authentic’ places to eat, hopefully within walking distance. One suggestion we TOTALLY loved and went back two more times (Eric has somewhat gotten over his rule of no repeats on vacation) but I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s talk about Cesari.
Da Cesari restaurant was born as an Osteria and wine retailer at the beginning of the 20th century.
Since 1955 the Cesari family has run this old meeting place for families in Bologna. It served a typical menu with regional cuisine. Now, we as tourists can also enjoy this wonderful family location.
Like every good meal, we started with wine. White for me, red for the other two.
We had a delicious, d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s, absolutely tasty pork product, special to that region: Culatello di Zibello DOP with S. Ilario butter.
You might have noticed in the first photo, there looked like it was two stories – yep, we were upstairs. Were we offended or unhappy? NO! First thing asked was ‘Do you have reservations?’ and we did not, but explained we came based upon a local recommendation. He went to his reservation book, and said yes, we can seat you upstairs. Great!
Eric had pasta with shaved fresh truffles – now he likes truffles – with home-made spaghetti.
Adrienne ordered Tagliatelle with classic Bolognese sauce.
I had a delicious entre: Scaloppina with cheese, parma ham and roasted potatoes.
I wish we had room for dessert, but we did not. We had stopped at another local place prior to this and filled up on their goodies. When were leaving, we (and by that I mean Eric) talked with one of the family members that was working, and he said it was his father that started it. We expressed our appreciation for the meal and that he had seated us. If you’re in Bologna – please stop there.
La Frasca – a cozy tavern and brewery in the heart of Bologna, founded thanks to their love of authentic food and hospitality.
Tradition comes to life in an environment that smells like home – their words, not mine. 🙂 But oh, so true.
We started with a few appetizers, fried olives & fries…………Okay, everybody understands the fries, but fried olives? Yep. If we see them again, they are being ordered. Eric tried to dissect them to see if he could duplicate once home. We’ll see.
The grilled veggies were a departure from the norm for us. I pretty much left them alone and ate most of the fries.
Meal selections were grilled eggplant (Eric), Bolognese pasta (Adrienne) and a toasted sandwich (me).
While I don’t have a lot to say about La Frasca, it was in the middle of the market district, down one of the alleys, really good food, we were hungry and really enjoyed our meal. Done. I do hope I see the fried olives, at the very least at home. Hon? Start working on that, please.
The place we continue to talk about and became part of the family here………L’Emporio.
L’Emporio is an emporium of wine and delicious deli foods from Bologna. They only serve the highest quality artisanal products, and you can tell the difference.
The owner, Nic makes homemade tigelle sandwiches, meat and cheese boards and other rotating specialties to enjoy with your wine. Quite frankly, he asked what we were interested in, we shared a few words and after that, we put ourselves in his hands. Yum, meat and cheese.
This wall had items that were VERY local, many of which he had visited either the vineyards, their stores or talked to the owners before incorporating them into his place.
Loved how he showcased his food case. Notice the light?
Here is Nic (sorry not the best photo). I was trying to get the meats in the photo, then he stepped in since he was working and I thought Hey! why not include him.
His father was also in the shop, working. Yes, yes, another ‘not so great’ photo. Hang tight.
He brought us his specialty that he created for the shop and his customers. Delicious!
Our second visit, more delicious meats and cheese. Yes, we were usually one of the first or only ones in the place since we were eating on ‘our time’ not Italian time.
We let him build the platter. When setting it on the table he described all of the items on there – sorry I can’t duplicate that. It was just as good as the photo shows. 🙂
He usually surprised us with a specialty, sometimes on the house. This was one. I tried it, not one off my favorites, but Eric got extra to eat.
Waited for the other two so got a quick photo of what was turning into a highlight of our time in Bologna.
On our third visit……………yes, I typed t.h.i.r.d visit, we asked him to build us anther platter. Surprised? Did we really care what each of them were? Not really, we just dove right in.
We became known as those ‘Disney’ people during our visits. We (again, I mean Eric) struck up conversation with those near us and shared stories and questions. We met a number of the ‘regulars. This is a great neighborhood place. On our last visit we got to meet his girlfriend and his brother-in-law.
We came in as tourists and left as family. I started following him in Instagram, just so I can relive all of the great foodie memories we found here and in Bologna. I’d like to tell you to go – but we don’t want it to lose its small-town, big city charm.
Darden Travels 