Spicy sausage
It’s true that Ferraro’s Italian Restaurant & Wine Bar is family-friendly (it’s also family-owned and -managed, and chef Mimmo Ferraro is the son of owners Gino and Rosalba), but it’s also a very upscale environment, with Tuscan textures and colors highlighting the room.
If you are a wine connoisseur, Ferraro’s has a huge, sophisticated selection, and the waitstaff will help you if you need guidance as to your first glass. Ferraro’s cocktails are carefully crafted, including the caprese martini, so good that you’ll be tempted to have more than one.
You may start with a glass of wine, but continue with an excellent appetizer or salad. The beet salad on a bed of microgreens is not only flavorful but also beautiful, with golden and ruby red beets alternating under a sprinkling of pistachios and raspberry vinaigrette. And a spicy, grilled Italian sausage, with heat that lingers a bit, contrasts with succulent sautéed rapini.
Choose from plenty of main course options, from meat and seafood to pasta. Gnocchi pomodoro gives tender little dumplings a blanket of flavorful, fresh sauce of tomato, garlic, onion and basil—all the good things in life.
Ferraro’s makes its pasta in-house and procures grass-fed meat and Safe Harbor-certified seafood. It has earned many accolades for its osso buco, and rightly so. The meat simply falls from the bone. But don’t overlook other options, like the Sonoma, Calif., farm-grown rabbit braised with pancetta and white wine. Rabbit, if you have never had it, seems similar to chicken but with a deeper flavor. And the filet mignon is fabulously flavorful, served with roasted red potatoes and rapini.
Not as sophisticated, but incredibly tasty, are the pizzas—margherita, sausage, prosciutto and mushroom, a variety to appeal to everyone. You can get the pies gluten-free if you so desire.
The classic dessert at Italian restaurants is tiramisu, and Ferraro’s espresso-soaked delicacy does supreme justice to the sweet. After a filling meal, it might be hard to think of dessert, but ending the evening with a Nutella crêpe and an Illy espresso is worth the effort.
One of Ferraro’s biggest secrets might be in special menus available in the bar, lounge and patio: The Ora Sociale, a small bites menu available 4-7 p.m. daily, and the Mezzanotte, with small plates and a fine dining menu, 11 p.m.-2 a.m.
4480 Paradise Road, 11:30 a.m.-2 a.m. Mon.-Fri., 4 p.m.-2 a.m. Sat.-Sun., 4-9 p.m. Dec. 24-25. 702.364.5300
