Molly Martin
Audio By Carbonatix
Denver has seen no shortage of new Italian restaurants in the last few months, including Johnny Bechamel’s, a fun, modern spin on Italian American fare, and Florence Supper Club, an ode to the beloved red sauce joints of the East Coast.
But the January 29 opening of the long-awaited Dear Emilia in RiNo from the restaurant team that gave us Restaurant Olivia — chef Ty Leon, hospitality director Heather Morrison, and Austin Carson — offers a decidedly alternative view, one that looks past American borders to the land where it all began.
Dear Emilia is, at its core, a love letter to the Italian culinary paradise of the Emilia-Romagna region, home to such gastronomic capitals of Parma (Parmesan cheese, prosciutto di parma), Modena (balsamic vinegar), and of course, Bologna (ragu alla bolognese, mortadella, and too many other iconic dishes to mention in a grammatically correct fashion).
“Our many trips to Emilia-Romagna have shaped every part of this menu,” says Leon. “It is a celebration of the people we have met along the way and the connections that continue to inspire us.”
For those of us who have had the good fortune to tour this region and experience the food firsthand, Dear Emilia’s concept risks buckling under the ambition of the almost impossible standards set by a region considered the heart of Italy’s UNESCO World Heritage culinary reputation. But after one bite of the lasagna verde ($28), all such concerns disappeared, along with any sense of critical restraint or journalistic integrity. In fact, I had to fight back a tear as I was transported Ratatouille-style to my first experience of the same dish in Bologna over two years ago. It’s that good.
“This is a vastly different lasagna than what you would get at a checkered tablecloth, red sauce joint in New Jersey,” says Leon, in what is a vast understatement. There is no ricotta or mozzarella cheese. The pasta is a green spinach-based sheet rolled into a tight coil. And there’s just enough of a long-simmered meaty bolognese to balance lusciously into the creamy milk-and-Parmesan besciamella (béchamel) that serves as its base.
The dish is just one of many sharp lines Dear Emilia draws between itself and the Italian American cuisine that has emerged in this country, which will inevitably challenge and confound the expectations of many, designed to right the wrongs written across countless red-checkered tablecloths and Chianti-bottle candle holders nationwide.
Austin Carson, Dear Emilia
What we saw:
Just as a good ragu takes time to simmer and bloom, Dear Emilia has been years in the making. Housed in a brand-new space in RiNo’s the Current, and designed by Regular Architecture, the construction project was riddled with delays and unexpected complications (see next week’s cover story for the full tale).
Today, the space is an easy-on-the-eyes light tan and sandstone hue, marked by woodblock surfaces, soft curves (reminiscent of the porticoes of Bologna), and unobtrusive lighting that feels at once elegant and homey. Floor-to-ceiling windows look out into an in-development RiNo, and the open kitchen is framed in part by a six-seat chef’s table overlooking the action.
The dining area is a mix of high-backed booths and round tables with chairs between walls lined with framed pictures of Emilia-Romagna. A glass-doored wine cellar entices anyone peeking inside. The spacious, monochromatic restrooms (one a minty green, the other, pink) restrooms boast a waterfall of vertically lined subway tiles headlining an overall retro feel, made even more unique by piping in Italian audio language lessons through the speakers.
At the entrance is a glass-encased series of shelves that will soon support a “batteria” of small balsamic vinegar barrels gifted to the team from their provider in Modena, which contain the syrupy “black gold” of the region.
Molly Martin
What’s on the menu:
Dear Emilia’s menu is hyper regional in two ways, with a focus on Emilia-Romagna tradition and technique, but with ingredients from Colorado and surrounding areas. Italian cuisine, after all, is rooted in “taste of place” which is why the food there varies so greatly by region. Dear Emilia honors that spirit with the best of Colorado resources.
“Creating this menu has been a joy because it allowed us to blend those classic dishes with ingredients and ideas that feel true to Denver,” Leon says.
Among the dishes that come straight from the street of Bologna are tigelle ($19), small, round flatbreads that look like little English muffins, stuffed with a bison mortadella mousse and a smear of pistachio butter. Gnoccho fritto ($18) are airy fried “beignets” topped witg cured meats and a paired with a pear mostarda (a sort of spicy/sweet jam). The showstopper in the appetizer section, though, is a Parmesan cheese soufflé, served in a searing-hot bowl with a tableside drizzle of grape honey. ($19)
The pasta courses will likely vary by the season and inspiration, but at opening features braised beef cheek anolini covered in Parmesan cream and aged balsamic vinegar ($26), and butternut squash-filled cappellacci with a squash-miso jus and toasted pine nuts drizzled in sage oil ($25). And of course, that lasagna.
Austin Carson, Dear Emilia
But for all the luscious pastas, the leading contender for a signature dish is the maiale al latte ($36), which is pork shoulder traditionally braised in milk, served on perfectly cooked polenta with peach preserves canned by sustainability director Paula Thomas last fall.
But about two weeks before opening, Leon turned hundreds of years of tradition on its head with a new approach. “Instead of braising it in milk, I braised it in whey left over from making ricotta,” he explains. “And it ended up turning out really great, like much better than it was when it was braising in milk. I think I do my best work at the end and I have to get things on a plate. That pork dish is a perfect example. I come in the morning that we’re supposed to serve it and just completely redo it, and it ends up turning out better than it ever was.”
For sides, there’s a variety of vegetable dishes, from confit fingerling potatoes to roasted carrots in celery root puree. But perhaps the best bet is a simple mixed salad with blood orange and a delightful Roman vinaigrette spiked with a hint of anchovy.
Service is “Greek-style,” which means you order everything at once and the servers bring out each item as it’s ready.
Molly Martin
“The goal was to make it this really free flowing style of service, where if it’s ready, it comes out, making sure that you as a guest are okay with that,” says Leon. “Because if not, we can change it and then revolve it around how you would like it. Truthfully, the next two and a half hours spent at this table are yours.”
The result may be getting your main before your pasta, and that’s entirely okay. Desserts, of course will remain last. The opening lineup includes rhubarb olive oil cake and a caramelized honey gelato. But once the gelato machine the team ordered from Italy is repaired, expect a gelato-heavy dessert program that alone is worth a second look to experience.
Molly Martin
What we drank:
Keeping in line with the ode to Emilia-Romagna is a wine list that, among other things, unapologetically reintroduces diners to the woefully misunderstood and under appreciated glory of Lambrusco.
Wine director Scott Thomas — one of only 22 certified Italian wine experts in the world — has curated a wide selection of the fizzy wine representing multiple styles, flavors and textures that will banish for good the 70s-era abominations originally introduced to the American public. For the Lambrus-curious, go for the three-sample flight, featuring a mix of secco (dry) and semisecco (off-dry) examples.
By-the-glass options offer staples like Valpolicella, Barbera d’Alba, and Sangiovese in the reds, and in the whites, some more interesting opportunities like Gavi di Gavi, Soave and Greco di Tufo. But the knockout winner is a rarely found orange wine from Romagna called Albana, which is a delightful match for that pork shoulder.
“Part of the wine list will be providing some good value and some fun exploration of producers that hopefully you probably haven’t seen before,” says Thomas. “We can go the safe route, or have a little fun with it.”
Non-wine drinkers can opt for a creative mix of various cocktails, including no less than three takes on the classic Negroni (the house Negroni features both Bibamba dark chocolate and a vermouth made from, of course, Lambrusco).
Just know that for every dish and drink mentioned here, a new one may be added (or replaced) tomorrow, as the Dear Emilia team reserves the right to ideate and experiment with all aspects of the menu at will.
“You are dealing with a group of people who fly by the seat of their pants every single day,” says Leon. “No matter how much we plan, things will change on an hourly basis.”
Dear Emilia is located at 3615 Delgany Street and is opens at 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday with the last seating at 9 p.m. For more information, visit emiliadenver.com.
