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Authentic Italian Cooking
Contemporary Italian, a blend of old world cooking with new world ingenuity. When asked what type or from what region, Chef Dean Cannestra stops to explain the idea of authenticity. “If you ask ten different Italians how to make a classic dish, you’ll get ten different recipes! That's authentic cooking. You put yourself into it, you interpret the dish. You take a little from this person, a little from that one, and you come up with something new — and yet part of something old at the same time.” A little old, a little new. All fresh, all fantastic.
Food and Wine: the perfect marriage of flavors…
Libiamo’s wine list is built around the food, with a heavy emphasis on the Sangiovese grape. Sangiovese is the noble grape of the Tuscany region. Many people know it through Chianti, which is predominately Sangiovese, or through Brunello, which is 100% Sangiovese. The varietal has been virtually reinvented, however, over the past decade. Many Italian producers have experimented with blending it with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah (producing a new class of wines, known as “Super-Tuscans”) and a handful of California producers have learned to grow the fickle but rewarding grape. Sangiovese’s strong acidity and light, soft, and round tannins make it a perfect wine for food.
The list offers a large selection of whites, reds, roses, and sparkling wines from Italy, California, Washington, and Oregon. Most are available by the bottle, by the half-liter, or by the glass.
