festivore CHOICEAssaggio Ristorante
Courtesy of Assaggio web site
...come to Mauro's place and enjoy
Neighborhood: Belltown
Cuisine: Italian
(northern)
Cost: $$$$
Chef: Mauro Golmarvi
220 4th Av
Seattle, Washington, United States
(Map)
www.assaggioseattle.com/
+1 (206) 441-1399
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| Restaurant Features | ||
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| Food | artisanal food | industrial ingredients? |
| Place | nice design | |
| Service | community connection, friendly service, full bar, meet the chef, personal touch, superior service | |
| Scene | business friendly, cultural connection, fun emporium, romantic / intimate | |
| Values | local sourcing, neighborhood icon | |
From the Restaurant Site...
From the moment you enter, the atmosphere is welcoming — the walls are painted with Michelangelo-inspired art and the place buzzes with convivial chatter. You’ll find Mauro there with a smile, traveling from table to table to ensure each diner’s comfort and satisfaction. But, of course, the best reason to come to Assaggio is the food. A carefully composed menu of bold, robust central and northern Italian cuisine has received accolades since Assaggio first opened its doors.
Chef Mauro Golmarvi is focused on high quality, authentic Italian cuisine with an emphasis on the North Central Adriatic region. He goes shopping each morning at the Pike Place Market for fresh fish and takes regular trips to Italy to stock his wine collection. Golmarvi’s ultimate goal is to have the salt and pepper removed from the tables entirely; the food being left seasoned just as it is “in the old country”.
Golmarvi says his theory on creating rich, flavorful sauces is simple, “The burners in Assaggio’s kitchen are never turned off,” he says. The sauces simmer throughout the night, never heated at too high of a temperature or boiled to damper the taste.
“Food is an art, and we are the artists,” says Golmarvi, in emphasizing the importance of having respect for food in cooking. “In Italy, we truly cherish food and take cooking very seriously.”
When asked what he considers the biggest compliment to his cooking “Scarpetta!” Golmarvi proclaims. In Italy this expression means for the plate to come back to the chef completely clean. “The highest praise you can give a chef in Italy is to take a piece of bread, the size of one’s heel, and finish off any remaining sauce. Then the plate is returned to the chef with everything having been eaten,” Golmarvi explains.