Saturday, June 30, 2012

Lino's Italian in Speedway

178/366

I'm not normally one who rants and raves and reviews on a new restaurant, but Tuesday Mom and I went and tried a new one in Speedway, Lino's.  It just opened up in this new building.  My mother in law read this article in the Star, and it got her curious.  So when we found ourselves in the area, we gave it a go! 

I am so glad we did.  I'm sure I sound like a commercial, but you Must give it a try! At first I was a little weirded out by the extreme amounts of stainless steel, and the menu where I couldn't pronounce a thing, and the portions were a bit smaller than I was used to, but this place had Something.  Something that enchanted me.  

This place is Italian.  It's not your local Starbucks coffee shop.   In fact, it makes Starbucks look like McDonald's.    I could totally see myself almost at a little cafe in Italy while I was here.Mom got a salad, topped with parma ham, eggplant, feta, scrumptious.  The ham was thin and smoky like fatless proscuitto.  It was light and fresh tasting.  We ate 1/3 of it, before we realized there was no dressing, when we asked, they handed us bottles of balsamic and olive oil, one of my favorite simple combinations.  When the ingredients are pure and good quality, you don't need a bunch of fancy frufru.  These ingredients were Good.  


I got a ham sandwich.  

But not just your everyday in the week ham sandwich, this was the Parma ham, thin sliced, with arugula and fresh mozzerella.  Sam stole a bite, and kept on stealing.  Until I had to cut him off.  I had gotten him a croissant, flaky and buttery, and he crumbled it everywhere, he liked my sandwich better. 



Mom and I got a couple of coffees.  And they were almost too pretty to drink.  Almost.  



This place was simply perfect for lunch.  And as many of you know, Doing Lunch is my favorite sport.  Unfortunately, the food is not Huge portions, but it is reasonably priced, and at first I thought I may have chosen unwisely only getting a sandwich, but surprisingly afterwards I was not still hungry. My hubs would probably do multiple courses, but eh, isn't that what the real Italians do?! And they had a tempting cheese and meat sampler plate, and pastas, that were really calling to me.  Something to try next time!  I was talking to a gal there, who was sweeping up, she was the co-owner.  She was really nice, answering my questions.    Apparently, the race shop, Dallara, next door requested Lino's move in to their building.  This is the first one this side of the Atlantic, they are a chain in Italy, with a few other stores in Europe.  I was complimenting the authentic tastes, and she said, oh yes, we imported as much as we could, this is as close to Real Italian as you can get without getting on a plane.

And since I can't hop a plane, I will be back.  Oh yes, I will be back!

1 comments:

Seestor said...

1. You're insane, that sandwich looked HUGE! 2. You only THINK portions are small there because America super-sizes everything and they are not an American restaurant. 3. Whatever those coffee drinks were, I MUST try them!!!