In the recent surge of new restaurant openings in Portland, Italian cuisine has not been a strong contender. One exception is the highly regarded Piccolo, with its powerhouse menu of regional Italian cuisine inspired by the cooking of central and southern Italy that chefs and co-owners Damian Sansonetti and Ilma Lopez do so well. Otherwise, our city has glided past the great reign of red-sauce houses and trendy trattorias. That is until now, with the debut of Solo Italiano, in the cavernous space formerly occupied by Ebb and Flow. Here the menu presents Northern Italian cuisine, a broad label that can mean a lot of things.
The entry leads to the great central bar
