​F-M dining scene welcomes new Italian restaurants

By Rick Gion

rickgion@gmail.com

There seems to be a renaissance in Italian restaurants in the Fargo-Moorhead metro area. It’s a welcome change from just sporting an Olive Garden as a lone option. No offense to Marilyn Hagerty’s favorite spot, but Olive Garden just doesn’t please a traveled palate. The two additional restaurants of celebration here now are Spaghetti Western and Ziti’s Italian American. Lately, time has been spent at both.

Spaghetti Western does take the top cannoli for me. It’s a small, bistro-style restaurant located at 6th Avenue North and Broadway in Downtown Fargo. For those familiar, it’s similar to many neighborhood Italian restaurants which fill Brooklyn or the north side of Boston with the scent of garlic and olive oil in the evenings.

Spaghetti Western’s co-owner, Fabrizio Di Gianni, is actually Italian and cooks authentic cuisine. It’s the real deal and so is his accent. His expertise lives in the back of the house and his wife, Brighid Maguire, manages the front of the house. The service at Spaghetti Western is also top tier. This couple knows what they’re doing. They’re restaurant veterans and it shows.

At Spaghetti Western, I recently tried the gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce and walnuts and the shrimp risotto. These dishes were both perfectly cooked and absolutely delicious. As a starter, the freshly made focaccia bread was also delicious and heavy on the good olive oil, the way it should be. This bread goes well with the accompanied tapenade. It’s a good idea to order a glass bottle of San Pellegrino to wash everything down. It’s great poured in a water glass and served over ice with a lemon wedge.

A suggestion for eating at Spaghetti Western is to attend a supper session with four people or more, go through the courses like a traditional Italian would, share the food and split a bottle of wine or two. Be sure to get dessert. The cannoli, panna cotta and tiramisu are all wonderful. Tiramisu is normally not a sweet treat of choice, but Fabrizio’s authentic, old-country recipe brings the flavor. Be sure to let him tell you the story about the recipe.

In the former Tati’s Mediterranean Cuisine space over in The Lights in West Fargo, sits a fun new restaurant called Ziti’s Italian American. This establishment is owned and managed by local restaurant veterans Pat Lipsiea and Gabby Metzger. The restaurant has big city charm. The numerous black and white photographs on the walls set a New York frame of mind. Hanging all these photos must have been a literal pain in the neck, though. There’s also old-school Italian music playing over the sound system. Ziti’s has charm and the large lunch crowd proved it.

The lunch fare recently ordered at Ziti’s was a Caesar salad and Sunday gravy tossed with pappardelle pasta. This dish was supposed to come with penne pasta, but I grew tired of penne a while back. Pappardelle was a good replacement. The flavor of the salad was quite good, but the croutons needed improvement. The pasta course was quite good and the amount of meat in the sauce was sufficient. Sunday gravy needs plenty of braised beef, pork and Italian sausage. There was some disappointment regarding the availability of San Pellegrino sparkling water, but it was assured to soon be offered. Next trip, trying dessert will be a priority. The ultimate sweet treat test will be ordering and eating cannoli.

Two former area Italian restaurants much missed are Luigi’s and Paisano's. When Luigi’s was located in the upper levels of the Stone Building in Downtown Fargo, it was a gem and ahead of its time. It’s the first place that I tried fried calamari. In the late 1990s, this was exotic fare for Fargo. This restaurant shined in the music conservatory setting. The food and service were always great. In a former roadside motel in Dilworth, Paisano's carried on community Italian tradition. Although the atmosphere wasn’t extraordinary, the food definitely was.

Other former Italian-themed restaurants worth mentioning are Johnny Carino’s, Grazie’s, Isabella, Speak Easy, Stella’s, and Valentino’s. The first five restaurants passed muster. However, Valentino’s was an establishment not worth frequenting. The overcooked pasta and generic sauces were not worth the trip or money. Johnny Carino’s was a place to get an eggplant parmesan fix. One of my grandmas is Italian and well-made eggplant parmesan is comfort food to me. I also greatly miss the eggplant chips at Speak Easy. I’m surely not alone in that assessment. Additionally, Grazie’s was always dependable for good pizza.

Some former Italian restaurants are missed and some are not. However, the new Italian restaurants in the area are very much welcomed. If authentic Italian is what you’re after, go try Spaghetti Western. If Italian-American is your vibe, be sure to try Ziti’s in The Lights. Mangia!

Rick Gion administers a Facebook food group called “Fargo-Moorhead Eats” that’s dedicated to the area’s great cooks and cuisine. The page now has over 41,000 followers. Check it out, join, and feel free to post items about your local culinary adventures and home cooking. And, while you’re at it, also join the Instagram and TikTok pages. Rick is also a featured guest on Prairie Public Radio’s “Main Street.” His weekly segment about food called “Prairie Plates” airs between 3 and 4 p.m. every Wednesday.