LOGAN SQUARE — Lovers of Letizia’s Fiore and Enoteca Roma can now recreate their favorite menu items at home, thanks to the addition of a pasta and wine specialty store.
Owner Fabio Sorano and his mother, Letizia, closed the front of the Logan Square restaurant in January to transform it from its former café and sandwich counter into a little shop, which opened last week at 2456 N. California Ave.
“People come and try the food and say, ‘Man, I wish I could make this at home,’ and we thought, why don’t we help them," Fabio Sorano said.
The shop will have the homemade pastas and sauces straight off the Sorano restaurants' menus, including venison bolognese, limoncello salad dressing and spicy raspberry jam for cheeses.
Wines, with pairing suggestions attached, and cheese curated by Provenance, also highlight the shop.
“I’m the wine guy, and my mom’s the pasta person,” Sorano said. “After making food for people for so many years, which we still like to do, we wanted to take it to the next level.”
In addition to providing the ingredients for the dishes, Letizia herself will also be providing the skills. Pasta-making classes in the space are expected to begin in late April.
“These are hands-on classes,” Fabio said. “Not like where you go and watch my mom make gnocchi. You learn a lot better when you’re making the gnocchi.”
Fabio will supplement the cooking classes with wine-pairing classes. All classes will cost around $30 and will be advertised to customers first, and then on Facebook.
“We’re a family-run business and people know us,” Fabio said. “It’s so amazing when we teach somebody how to make something, and they come back and say, ‘I made your gnocchi and everybody loved it.'"
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