il fornaio

palo alto, ca

website

this is another restaurant that derek and i frequently pass by. the atmosphere looked a little too formal for us. finally, it was a special occasion (which might have been that we were both out of the office at dinner time) and we decided to celebrate by dining at "fancy" il fornaio. turns out, there's a lovely patio area in the back with very effective heat lamps where the atmosphere is much more casual. looking at the menu, we realized that this restaurant is part of a chain and we had been to the seattle location before. the menu's specials periodically change to highlight a different region of italy.

i didn't recognize any of the wines listed on the menu, so i just picked whatever was reasonably priced. our server (who was extremely attentive and friendly, by the way) apologized because they ran out of that wine, but recommended another that was "more frizzante." i shrugged and said okay. it ended up being a red sparkling wine, which was weird but not unpleasant. anyway, now i know what "frizzante" means. the food was very good - derek is still raving about his bacon salad and my butternut squash ravioli was delicious.