That Time We Ate Lunch in Ravenna

This is a companion post to our visit to Ravenna, so be sure to check that one out as well. This post is focused specifically on our lunch in Ravenna because everything about that experience deserves its own post...

When you're in a completely new city in a country you don't really know, how do you decide where to eat? Lisa Shannon's answer is to write down some suggestions you find in the guide book, so we just marched ourselves toward suggestion #1 which, as we approached its dark doors, we weren't even sure was open. The windows and door were, however, covered with Michelin stickers for many, many years in a row, so apparently we were heading into a Michelin star restaurant without a reservation. Not only were they open, but they seated us!

More specifically, they seated us below a Bob Dylan book and between Italian translations of Chimimanda Adichie's Americanah and Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend, even though it took us the whole meal to figure out which Ward book it was because the Italian title translation was hard to figure out. Turns out that Jesmyn Ward book takes some inspiration from Dante Alighieri whose tomb is in the town of Ravenna--in fact, we'd just gone to see it not long before wandering into this restaurant. Lou Reed, Credence Clearwater Revival, and Neil Young played over the loudspeakers.

We proceeded to eat the most amazing food ever consumed: a delicate hummus with focaccia, a pulled pork bun that is unparalleled and unlike any pulled pork bun you've ever eaten, sea-bass stuffed pasta dumplings in a delicate broth, and spaghettoni with smoked swordfish and blistered cherry tomatoes in an egg-based sauce that was a genius-level twist on spaghetti carbonara. Plus some delicious white whine, a cannoli with mascarpone cream and an intensely coffee-infused chocolate, and a hot beverage. 

At some point we stopped taking photos. To top it all off, however, this exquisite Michelin-star restaurant charged $16 for an entree. The entire meal was about 1/4 of what the same meal would cost in San Francisco or a comparable East Bay dining establishment.

Conclusions: 1) go to Ravenna if you can, 2) don't underestimate the guide books, 3) read a lot, and 4) hang out with Lisa Shannon as much as possible.