The Zenari restaurant family unveils latest eatery
Elisa Zenari is finally able to exhale. Not only because she's at long last thrown open the doors to her family's latest restaurant, Dalla Tavola Zenari, but there's also the matter of all that extra space to exhale in.
“It's amazing,” she laughs. “I look up at these 20-foot ceilings and there's so much air.”
It's been something of a journey for Zenari, her husband Ran Huget and brother Giancarlo, who shut down their family's beloved lunch spot in Manulife Place in June of 2019 after 35 years in the same location.
The intent was to reopen as a full service restaurant named Dalla Tavola Zenari (which translates roughly from Italian to “from the Zenari's table.”) on Rice Howard
Way back in March of this year, with Giancarlo running the kitchen. You can probably guess why that didn't happen; or can you?
“It actually wasn't COVID,” remarks Zenari, in the midst of ironing out the kinks during Dalla's soft opening at the beginning of the week.
“We had construction issues that needed to be worked on, and then the pandemic hit.
“When the lockdown happened we realized we were lucky to not have opened at all, considering what happened to some of our peers and friends in the business.”
Dalla Tavola Zenari is still looking at a few potentially lean months before things get back to some semblance of normality, but Zenari can at least count on the goodwill of former customers. They trickled in all day during the soft opening, exclaiming at the new space, buying a hot chocolate or takeout meal, reaffirming their loyalty to the family.
Zenari knows almost all of them, if not by name then by face, and she knows that many are looking for a bit of comfort in a chaotic world.
“That's one of the reasons why we've kept a few of the old menu items,” she says. “Like the spinach risotto and the breakfast bagel. People are very territorial about those items, and we have zero intention of removing them.”
It won't be a complete clone of the old Zenari's, however; with so much more kitchen space to work in there'll be plenty of new dishes to check out.
“I'm excited to expand into more Italian comfort foods,” Zenari says, “sort of small plates and large plates, things that I grew up
eating. Moving into next week we'll be adding more things as we find our way around, like Bolito Misto, which is a boiled meat sort of stew that's traditional in Northern Italy.”
Under current regulations the restaurant is able to seat 40, but Zenari knows that for the moment many people will be grabbing their meals to go.
For that reason they're quickly
setting up an online ordering platform, and offering curbside pickup service.
For those who choose to eat in sommelier Sasha Mccauley is taking care of the wine choices, and there'll be a full cocktail menu plus beer on tap, a first for the Zenaris.
“It's all been a bit of a blur,” says Zenari, “and I know we have a ways to go, but right now I'm excited to see what happens next.”