Na Favola Offers a Traditional Italian Trattoria Experience in Greenwood Village

Italians have many names for restaurants.

There’s the straightforward ristorante, typically the most formal, elegant style of dining establishments. There is the osteria, which is traditionally more like a wine bar or tavern. And then there are the trattorias — family-run restaurants featuring home-style, no-frills comfort food with a distinct focus on friendly hospitality.

The recently opened Na Favola Trattoria & Pizzeria in Greenwood Village is the textbook manifestation of a trattoria on every level, serving food that is simple, straightforward and unpretentious, but most of all fun.

In the two months since it debuted in the former Cherry Crest Seafood Restaurant & Market space, Na Favola’s exuberant atmosphere, solid food and friendly staff has made it a welcome addition to the metro area’s Italian food scene. But unlike many other Italian joints in town, this spot's owners, chef and most of the staff are from Italy.

That’s not to say that non-Italians can’t make great Italian food — but there’s a big difference in the experience of visiting a well-run “Italian concept” versus a trattoria like Na Favola, run by people sharing their cuisine and culture with authenticity, honesty and infectious joy.
“A trattoria is a simple place that serves simple cuisine that warms the heart,” says Silvio Pellico, who co-owns Na Favola with his brother, Daniele, and partners Rocco Marsiglia and Giulia Del Toro, all of whom run the front of house as servers and hosts. “It’s a bustling atmosphere, people are running around, you see kids, you see grandmas, all generations. It’s casual.”

Walking into Na Favola feels less like entering a restaurant and more like joining a raucous dinner party already in progress. It can get a little hectic, but the hosts always have smiles on their faces, happily checking in on guests and asking, "Tutto bene?" ("Everything good?"). There are hugs. Smiles. Lots of waving hands.

But what you won’t find are any “fireworks,” as the team refers to modern Italian food interpretations such as Parmesan chips or fancy foams.

“We don’t believe in that,” says Daniele. “We put just three ingredients together and make them taste good. And that’s Italian cuisine for us. It’s like when you go to your grandma’s. She doesn't make any Parmesan foam. She makes you a plate of pasta maybe she woke up at 6 a.m. to make. When you taste it, you immediately feel at home. And then if you’re surrounded by people and by love and things like that, you are home.”

Both Silvio and Daniele grew up in Rome and got their start in the restaurant business working for an uncle who ran the popular E Tutto Qua ("It’s All Here”) in San Francisco's North Beach. After that eatery closed during the pandemic, the brothers decided to move to Denver and integrated themselves into the local Italian restaurant scene.

They met Del Toro while working at LoHi’s Parisi, along with chef Alessia Lucadei. After a brief partnership with Pino’s Place in Cherry Hills, they decided to strike out on their own and convinced their old friend Marsiglia to leave Las Vegas and join them.

Together they built the menu based on their shared heritage and memories of Italy. A quick glance makes it clear that this is not your run-of-the-mill pasta joint. While it features such staples as tagliatelle al ragu (thick noodles with a meaty tomato sauce) and spaghetti alle vongole (pasta with clams), there are also several dishes that may be unfamiliar to the uninitiated.

Top among them are several featuring the paccheri pasta — large, smooth tubes similar to rigatoni but wider and shorter and without the trademark ridges. The signature dish is Paccheri Golosi, featuring a porcini mushroom and truffle sauce with cream and crispy prosciutto. They brought the dish with them from E Tutto Qua; it was such a lasting hit there that former regulars from San Francisco have flown to Denver just to visit Na Favola and get their fix.
The pizza, meanwhile, is a far cry from the New York- or even Neapolitan-style pies made popular in the States. Instead, Na Favola focuses on a lesser-known Roman style of pizza known as pinsa, boasting an almost impossibly light, crispy and airy dough made with a blend of different flours. The ratio is so specific that Daniele flew back to Rome for special training on the process.

Don’t look for your standard pepperoni here. The toppings are distinctly Italian, with cheeses like fior di latte and stracciatella, meats such as mortadella, guanciale and Calabrese salame and vegetables like arugula, eggplant and zucchini.

It’s all a stark contrast to the type of Italian food you find in typical Italian American spots — especially in the southern suburbs. After all, just across the street is a chain that serves pasta by the bucket.

Perhaps that’s why Na Favola has gotten such a warm reception. Despite no advertising or marketing of any kind, 75 people showed up on the first day, and now it's packed with neighborhood regulars every night. Earlier this month, the restaurant also added lunch service.
“We realized that we were doing something right, that we had something that was missing,” says Silvio. “We saw that there was a demand for real Italian food. Traditional Italian food. This is the food that feeds us and that we like and we are proud to show to people. It feels like we’re providing to people what they actually like, and they started coming back.”

So far, the restaurant has been a dream come true for the team — a vision that they manifested from the start. After all, the literal translation of "na favola" in English is “a fairy tale," but it’s also a Roman slang expression that more accurately can be translated as “living the dream.”