Above: Osteria Mamma owner Filippo Cortivo. The menu at his popular Hollywood restaurant is a homage to his mother, whose cooking inspired him to go into the restaurant business.
“When it comes to a lot of Proseccos,” said Los Angeles-based restaurateur Filippo Cortivo when the Villa Sandi USA blog spoke to him by phone yesterday, “you generally just drink one glass and move on. But with Villa Sandi, it’s easy to drink the wines throughout the entire meal. That’s why I love them so much.”
Filippo first tasted Villa Sandi’s wines 14 years ago, he told us.
“Back then you couldn’t give Prosecco away,” he remembered. As a Veneto native who grew up not far Prosecco wine country, he knew the wines well. But his customers didn’t.
“I would pour a free glass for all my guests when they arrived,” he explained. “Today, they can’t get enough of it!”
The cuisine at Osteria Mamma is Veneto-focused. But it also includes classic dishes from other Italian regions as well.
Originally from Padua (Padova) about an hour south of Valdobbiadene where the Villa Sandi estate is located, his family opened their highly popular Osteria Mamma in 2010. The restaurant has always focused on Veneto cuisine, a homage to the family’s roots.
It’s one of the few places in California where you can find classic Veneto dishes like bigoli in salsa (handmade country-style long noodles tossed in sautéed onions and cured anchovies) and baccalà con polenta (slow-cooked salted cod served with creamy polenta) — both classic pairings for Prosecco.
But the restaurant’s menu, which changes every season, also includes favorite dishes from other regions of Italy “with a modern flair,” he said.
“When I first visited Villa Sandi,” he told us, “I was amazed by their passion for the wines and for their land. And it shows in how good the wines are.”
Osteria Mamma is a winner of the Wine Spectator award of Excellence.
Osteria Mamma features Villa Sandi Prosecco DOCG by the glass. And the wines are available as well at his newly opened wine bar Vino Bistro, also in Hollywood.
Osteria Mamma
5732 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles CA 90004
(323) 284-7060
Google map
Vino Bistro
6266 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90028
(323) 943-0267
Google map
Images via the Osteria Mamma Facebook.
CAMPAGNA FINANZIATA AI SENSI DEL REG. UE N. 1308/2013
CAMPAIGN FINANCED ACCORDING TO EU REG. N. 1308/2013