Austin

(From January 2012)

Yet another Dallas import has hit the Seconf Street District. Cool and dark, Coal Vines' interior is complemented by a wall of glass doors that open onto the street-side patio. We came for the thin-crusted pizzas cooked over hot-hot coal fires and immediately fell in love with the bolognese and bechamel versions. Branching out, we found an American-Italian penne with vodka sauce pretty predictable, but the seafood risotto cake was an addictively tasty surprise. Beer & wine.

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(From June 2012)

The latest addition to scenic Loop 360, Trento is appropriately sleek (it’s in the former Gumbo’s location), and its menu is what we Americans call “northern Italian” (i.e., red sauce deemphasized). We started with warm burrata on fresh bread with a ramekin of mostarda, then followed that with classic spaghetti alla carbonara decadent with egg and savory pecorino cheese. Our Neapolitan-style Italian sausage pizza was a little bland, but a friend’s grilled sirloin was perfectly prepared and came with a small side of gar-licky celery root purée. Bar.

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(From March 2012)

Now in its thirteenth year, having presided over the rejuvenation of South Congress (and all the tourists, food trailers, and reverse-angle parking that goes along with it), one of Austin’s favorite restaurants graciously plugs along. The kitchen is as lively as ever, the service as warm, and the elevated Italian fare just as imaginatively good. To wit, a whole Carolina flounder, stuffed with crab and roasted in the wood-burning oven. Or morsels of sea scallop, nestled in the hollow of a roasted marrow bone topped with a marrow purée, all of it anchored by a creamy, lemony risotto; it’s a dish that could have been overwhelmingly rich and was instead somehow a masterpiece of subtlety. Bar.

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