New Italian restaurant on Frankfort Avenue

According to the story from business first this afternoon: The Italian Table, a new Italian restaurant that serves a communal meal for up to 10 people at a time is opening on Frankfort Avenue with its grand opening this evening. The chef, Gina Stipo certainly has some great credentials including running a cooking school in Tuscany for the last 13 years! It will certainly be interested to see how this fits into the Louisville dining scene.

I attended an Italian-themed wine tasting at The Wine Rack earlier this year and Gina was there with several appetizers. They were outstanding. I was really impressed by her life experiences. Hope she is successful.

Has anyone else tried this place? It sounds amazing!

Also, does anyone know where I can find Italian butter cookies (good ones) in Louisville? The Fresh Market used to carry some nice ones from New York, but they've changed their supplier to someone in Florida, and, while I like them well enough, my New York born and bred Italian fiance' has given them a firm thumbs down. We also don't like the packaged cookies at Lotsa Pasta. (although there are many other things there we love.)

Also, does anyone know where I can find Italian butter cookies (good ones) in Louisville? The Fresh Market used to carry some nice ones from New York, but they've changed their supplier to someone in Florida, and, while I like them well enough, my New York born and bred Italian fiance' has given them a firm thumbs down. We also don't like the packaged cookies at Lotsa Pasta. (although there are many other things there we love.)

Watching/hoping for a reply! When we got married (granted it was 12 years ago), we had them shipped in. Married to an Italian Jersey boy here!

[Robin Garr]

Also, does anyone know where I can find Italian butter cookies (good ones) in Louisville? The Fresh Market used to carry some nice ones from New York, but they've changed their supplier to someone in Florida, and, while I like them well enough, my New York born and bred Italian fiance' has given them a firm thumbs down. We also don't like the packaged cookies at Lotsa Pasta. (although there are many other things there we love.)

Lotsa Pasta would have pretty much been my only suggestion. You might check with Gina Stipo at the new place, though! I'm pretty sure she has some specialty foods in addition to the restaurant.

Responding to your question about the restaurant, it's tiny - just one table for 12, I think, by reservation only, although strangers in smaller parties can share. I haven't gotten over there yet; thought it would be good to give them a little time to settle in. Early reports have been extremely good, though. If you go, please let us know what you think!

She has removed her items for sale area in order to add another table (I think it's a six top) so she doesn't sell anything like that.

Yes, I suppose we'll have to ship some cookies in, sadly. Although I think Adrienne and Co. might sell some Italian cookies at least around the holidays.

Chef Gina Stipo of At the Italian Table does a cooking class on Tuesday evening and serves dinner (up to 18 guests) on Wednesday through Saturday. We did the cooking class last week and it was a lot of fun. All of the furniture and decorations are from Italy. That, combined with the old house venue (Frankfort at Ewing) and the equipment and many ingredients sourced from Italy, makes you feel like you've been transported to a Tuscan kitchen. The menu included Frittata di Zucchini, Spaghetti alla Chitarra all'Amatriciana, and Torti di Pesca (peach cake). We made the fresh pasta spaghetti and also some ricotta-filled ravioli. The pasta production was hands-on for the guests and many of us took part in mixing, kneading, using the hand-crank pasta machine and the chitarra, and forming the ravioli. The results were excellent and reinforced what I've always heard of Italian cooking: high quality, but few, ingredients and simple preparation. She is the real deal.

We got a lecture on the evils of Kosher salt and the benefits of sea salt. She has a short list of Italian wines by the glass and bottle - all at reasonable markups. Highly recommended. I want to go back for dinner.

http://www.attheitaliantable.com

Wait, what's wrong with kosher salt? It's so easy to measure out by hand! Is she in the pocket of big sea salt?

[Robin Garr]

Wait, what's wrong with kosher salt? It's so easy to measure out by hand! Is she in the pocket of big sea salt?

I was wondering about that, too, and guessed that she's favoring the subtle mineral flavors of the desirable impurities in sea salt. I'm not down with hating on kosher salt either, though, Iggy. Gotta love the way those sharp crystals cling to whatever you put them on.

Wait, what's wrong with kosher salt? It's so easy to measure out by hand! Is she in the pocket of big sea salt?

Well, she did concede Kosher is good for melting sidewalk ice

She offers a pretty compelling argument for sea salt in a story on the site I linked above: "What's with all the Kosher Salt in the US?"

[Robin Garr]

She offers a pretty compelling argument for sea salt in a story on the site I linked above: "What's with all the Kosher Salt in the US?"

Here's a direct link, Jay (and all):
http://www.attheitaliantable.com/?cat=128

I sort of see what she's getting at, and it's a geographical spin on the point I made above about the mineral flavors in sea salt and the absence of kosher salt in European cuisines. I feel she's a little over the top, though. I'm not ashamed of my taste buds, but I'd be hard-pressed to call the specific variety of salt used in a blind tasting. It might be fun to do that as a kitchen experiment, though. Maybe I will!

Afterthought: I wonder how much credit to give Alton Brown for the kosher salt craze? He's a big advocate and as I recall used to use it exclusively on TV.

Here's a direct link, Jay (and all)

Thanks, I tried to do that, but my "mobile device" was cranky. We can get pretty food snobby here, so I'm a little surprised at the pushback on her obvious dedication to ingredients native to the Italian regions where she's lived and learned to cook. I admire that in her. I never thought of the differences in salt, so like you, I intend to check it out.

She has another blog post on extra virgin olive oil and has found a Kirkland brand (Costco!) IGP version that suits her standards. Linky:

http://www.attheitaliantable.com/?p=2821

[Robin Garr]

I'm a little surprised at the pushback on her obvious dedication to ingredients native to the Italian regions where she's lived and learned to cook. I admire that in her.

Me too, Jay. I think I had some knee-jerk reaction to an extended dissertation on the critical difference in salt, but I could see where she was coming from and look forward to doing a test. I'm not sure I have any quality sea salt on hand right now, and I'm not sure that I want to do it with Morton's.

I'm finding Hymalaian Pink salt everywhere at reasonable pricing but the chrystals are large and when put in a salt mill they seem to crush to a power or super fine flake (no matter how I adjust the grinder.) I've given up trying to use it.