Dear Friends,

I wanted to write you a short note on something special happening at our restaurant this Saturday.  Gaia Bucciarelli will be joining us from her Santa Giustina winery in the Emilia-Romagna region of north-central Italy.  This is not a “wine dinner” per se, but more of an opportunity to taste Gaia’s wines and to meet and chat with her about the winemaking and cuisine of her area.

I wrote recently on my blog that Emilia-Romagna “‘is pretty much holy culinary territory as Reggio (Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese), Modena (balsamic vinegar), and Bologna (Ragù Bolognese) are all within about a 15-minute drive of [one another].”  Waverly Root, the great American food writer, once wrote that “If Tuscany offers the purest of Italian cooking, Bologna la grassa offers by all odds the richest, and must be considered the gastronomic center of the north.”  Chef Paul Kulik is planning a regionally inspired menu around Gaia’s wines.

Because the cuisine of Emilia-Romagna is so famous, the wines of this rural region are sometimes unjustly overlooked.  Emilia-Romagna is home to one of my favorite wines, Lambrusco, and is capable of producing wonderful dry whites and reds from both native and international varietals.  Santa Giustina produces just over 10,000 cases of wine each year, and compared with some of California’s so-called “boutique” wineries, this is a miniscule amount.

From that tiny production, an impressive number of wines are produced, including an obscure, slightly frizzantino, dry white wine made from the Ortrugo grape variety, and also a full-bodied, dry red called “I Muri” made from a blend of Barbera and Bonarda aged in oak.  Gaia will have six of her wines on display and we’ll be offering the six-wine flight as well as chef Kulik’s special dishes together as a prix-fixe menu.

The special four-course menu with the wine pairings is $60 per person.  This is a tremendous value!

As always, our à la carte menu will be available, so the prix-fixe menu is optional.  With that said, I’m anticipating that most of you will want to take advantage of this incredible value and I hope you’ll join me in welcoming Gaia to Omaha. For reservations and instant confirmation visit: OpenTable.com or telephone Morwenna Borden at 402-916-9274.

Thank you and we look forward to seeing you this Saturday,
Jesse Becker, MS