Le Nonne

WHAT I LIKE-
App: Carpaccio (and seafood makes me squeamish)
Entree: Ravioli di spinci e burro e salvia
Dessert: Tiramisu

Address: 129 North 100 East, Logan

If you want a restaurant to ruin Italian restaurants for you for life, try Le Nonne. And I mean that as a compliment. Le Nonne is so good, I am now completely bored (and sometimes disgusted) by places like the Olive Garden.

I went to Le Nonne back when it used to be located on Main street in this tiny eight table sized location. Now Le Nonne has grown and is located in this charming old house near the tabernacle in Logan. I've always thought Logan has been overlooked when it comes to Utah cuisine, and that is mostly to the credit of Le Nonne. The Chef is actually from Italy and learned to cook from his Grandmother (or le nonne in Italian).

All meals begin with fresh Crumb Brothers Ciabatta bread and an olive tapenade, which is delicious. I always have to tell myself to stop eating bread and save room for the entree. They always have wonderful specials, but my favorite meal on the menu is the Ravioli di spinci e burro e salvia or Spinach ravioli with a sage butter sauce. He hand makes all his ravioli so they are just light and delicate. And then how can you go wrong with a butter sauce that has sage grown right in the front yard of the restaurant? The tiramisu is amazingly delicious. It even topped the tiramisu I had in Rome.

They have a lovely patio, where on weekends you can hear local live music. My only complaint is the tables are pretty unstable and wobbly. They don't have much of a waiting area, and Logan and get pretty cold to wait outside in. If you get a sat along the benches on the wall the bench sits pretty low. It gets pretty busy so you will most definitely have to make a reservation on weekends.

Fresco Italian Cafe

Address: 1513 S 1500 E, Salt Lake City

ES and I went to dinner to Fresco Italian Cafe the other night for the very first time. It is located near a couple of our other favorite restaurants Mazza and Paris. So we've been meaning to try it sometime. It had the loveliest outdoor patio surrounded by a vines and trees. With cute little birds popping out every now and then. A gorgeous Utah summer night serendipitously added to the ambiance. The service was impeccable, I felt like we were her only table but a little on the stuffy side. She wasn't rude by any means, but she described the food to be "gorgeous" and "brilliant". Which I took note of as I am running out of adjectives for all these blog entries.

The chef, Mikel Trapp, has a seasonal menu, so it might not help to suggest what we had, but I will anyway. ES had the Lamb in this earthy rustic sauce. The lamb was cooked so perfectly and the sauce just complemented it so well. I think I ended up eating all of his. I ordered the strip steak. Me, trying to be more sophisticated, ordered the rarest I could handle, which was a measly medium. So of course that was also cooked perfectly and of course, it then grossed me out. So after eating around all the edges, ES ended up eating the rest of mine.

The dessert seriously was the most 'brilliant' thing I have ever eaten. As usual ES and I just ordered one to share, but I was totally regretting it. It was three small desserts, one was a banana beer budino (italian pudding) with an almond creme sauce, the next was this chocolate cake with candied almonds and a cinnamon cream sauce, and the last (my favorite) was a cinnamon gelato with dark chocolate coffee crumbles. If I wasn't surrounded by all tables occupied by well-bred, higher society, I would have grabbed the cake with both my hands and rammed it in my face, and then lick the whole plate clean. It was that good.