Phil Your Glass: Cafe Arnone adds slice of Italy with new pizzeria, wine room
Cafe Arnone is adding another little slice of Italy to its Fairlawn shop.
"We’ve had the coffee shop for three years now and we just opened the pizzeria and wine room,” said co-owner Rocco Larose.
The wine room features a small-but-mighty all-Italian wine list with glass pours ranging in price from $6 for a 187ml split of Ca' Furlan Prosecco to a $24 Fratelli Ferrero Barolo.
The focus will be on educating people about Italian wines.
“We want to get people as excited and as passionate as we are,” said Larose as he stood next to a white Vespa scooter filled with Italian specialty items sold at the shop.
The huge old school family photos hanging on the walls are an added charm to the wine room in addition to the smell of fresh-baked pizza. I sat with friends under a 1961 wedding photo of childhood cousins attending Tony Arnone’s wedding. There was a 4-foot panoramic photo of co-owner Michael Maghes and Tina Teresi’s wedding party with the skyline of Florence, Italy, behind them. There was even a photo from the old Nino’s bar on North Main Street from back in the day.
I always like starting off with bubbles, so I decided to try a $6 split of the Ca' Furlan Prosecco. They serve their sparkling wines in nifty old-school coupe glasses.The Prosecco paired nicely with the $16 charcuterie. The Calabrese salami was exceptional.
I chose a glass of the $12 Etna Rosso, one of Italy’s hottest wine regions, to go with my pizza. The opportunity to try a glass of the Cottanera Barbazzalle Etna Rosso what one of the reasons for stopping. It didn’t disappoint. Each person in our group of four decided to order a different pizza and share. So we all got to taste the thick Sicilian square pizza with sausage and parmesan along with the $12 10-inch Margherita, and the Calabrese pizza on regular ($15) and cauliflower crust ($19) for those who are watching their carbs. Couldn’t ask for a better pie. All the dough is made from scratch daily.
Maghes stopped by the table to tempt us with a $8 gelato sampler. My knees were already buckled after enjoying the pizzas, so of course we gave in to the delectable dolce. The four scoops were racquetball-sized and came in flavors of freshly made espresso, chocolate pecan, egg nog, and peppermint.
"We use Hartzler Family Dairy in Wooster as our base,” Maghes said. It’s a Non-GMO Grass-Fed dairy.
"It just brings you back to Italy. That’s the fun part about it."
Send me an email at philyourglass@gmail.com with any wine questions and follow me on Instagram @pmasturzo_philyourglass.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Phil Your Glass: Cafe Arnone in Fairlawn adds pizzeria, Italian wines
