Photograph by George Sakkestad
Vincenzo Gelsomino, who with his partner Aldo Maresca became a new owner of La Strada, enjoys the fruits of his labors in the kitchen.
By Suzanne Cristallo
Italian food enthusiasts should brush up on their Mama mias! and Molto benes! before going to La Strada in Los Gatos, which had a grand opening three weeks ago. New co-owners Vincenzo Gelsomino and Aldo Maresca are bursting with Italian expressions and Old World hospitality that includes a warm handshake and perhaps a kiss on the cheek.
"Yes, we like to say, 'Buona sera' and greet people personally," Maresca says. "We want people to feel like they are in Italy."
Both Gelsomino, 32, who runs the kitchen, and Maresca, 28, who runs the front of the house, have been in the United States for three years. They met soon after their arrival in San Francisco at a restaurant where they both worked.
Gelsomino, who was born in the Adriatic town of Bari, has been cooking for 16 years. He studied for three years at Parco de Orance, a culinary school in Vieste in southern Italy. He cooked his way from Rome to Milan, then Belgium to Paris, before coming to America under the sponsorship of the owner of San Francisco's Via Veneto restaurant, who had heard of his culinary style through a friend.
Maresca comes from Sorrento, where he waited tables in the major hotels. "I wanted to see America, to see how the people think, to experience a totally different life," he says. After nearly three years of working with Gelsomino, he knew they shared a philosophy that could be given life in their own restaurant. The opportunity came when they discovered that the previous owner, Los Gatan Diane Ogilvie, wanted to relinquish her interest in the Italian restaurant. The deal was closed with the provision that the name La Strada, meaning "the street," be kept. It will be the name that Ogilvie uses for the European-style hotel and retail shops she plans to develop on the property surrounding the restaurant.
Diners may enjoy La Strada's large selection of antipasti along with pastas from penne, rigatoni, tortellini, tagliatelle and spaghetti, to special ravioli or risotto and gnocchi. Scaloppine in white wine with herbs or in a brandy cream sauce is offered, along with New York steak, chicken dishes with eggplant, artichokes or porcini mushrooms, and calamari, prawns and fresh fish.
Desserts include tiramisu, crepes, poached pears filled with ice cream, and truffles made of gianduia and zabaglione ice cream covered with praline nuts and cocoa powder.
La Strada, 210 E. Main St., Los Gatos. Lunch: Mon.-Sat., 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Dinner: Mon.-Sun., 5-10 p.m. 395-5704.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, January 8, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.