NOT-TO-MISS DISH
Albona's Pasta Strudel By Susan Reynolds
A restaurant doesn’t survive 20 years off the beaten path without a tasty, unique menu, and the strudel con pasta fatta in casa (strudel with homemade pasta) at Albona restaurant is as sure a testament to this as any dish in the Northside. Beloved owner Bruno Viscovi recently retired and passed the torch to his trusted chef of 10 years, Samuel Hernandez, and Michael Bruno, his nephew who has run the front of the house for the past five years. Hernandez and Bruno will likely bring a touch of the new generation to Albona, but they are also smart enough not to mess with a good thing – specialties hailing from Viscovi’s Istrian upbringing in Albona, a hillside town located southeast of Trieste and bordered by Slovenia, Croatia, and Italy. The pasta strudel is a perfect example of why Albona is still packed night after night: jelly roll-shaped fresh pasta filled with thin slices of baked prosciutto and Lappi (a semisoft semisweet cheese from Finland), baked bubbling hot in a casserole with toasted bread crumbs and a creamy béchamel tomato sauce. It’s one of those rich, rustic pasta dishes (like the Beggar’s Purse at Vivande) that as one regular told me, elicits “cravings that have to be answered.” I have no doubt I’ll be answering mine again soon.
Albona Ristorante: 545 Francisco St. (at Mason); dinner Tue.-Sat.
from 5 p.m.; 415-441-1040, www.albonarestaurant.com
A restaurant doesn’t survive 20 years off the beaten path without a tasty, unique menu, and the strudel con pasta fatta in casa (strudel with homemade pasta) at Albona restaurant is as sure a testament to this as any dish in the Northside. Beloved owner Bruno Viscovi recently retired and passed the torch to his trusted chef of 10 years, Samuel Hernandez, and Michael Bruno, his nephew who has run the front of the house for the past five years. Hernandez and Bruno will likely bring a touch of the new generation to Albona, but they are also smart enough not to mess with a good thing – specialties hailing from Viscovi’s Istrian upbringing in Albona, a hillside town located southeast of Trieste and bordered by Slovenia, Croatia, and Italy. The pasta strudel is a perfect example of why Albona is still packed night after night: jelly roll-shaped fresh pasta filled with thin slices of baked prosciutto and Lappi (a semisoft semisweet cheese from Finland), baked bubbling hot in a casserole with toasted bread crumbs and a creamy béchamel tomato sauce. It’s one of those rich, rustic pasta dishes (like the Beggar’s Purse at Vivande) that as one regular told me, elicits “cravings that have to be answered.” I have no doubt I’ll be answering mine again soon.
