Northern Italian Food and Aperitivo Culture Arrive in Knoxville

In New York City, every variation of Italian cuisine imaginable is conveniently accessible. Within a three-block radius of my apartment are six Italian restaurants, one aperitivo bar, and pizzerias galore. It's easy to forget not every city is flush with countless dining options. Only five Italian restaurants exist in Knoxville, Tennessee's third-largest city, where the culinary tastes skew toward Southern barbeque and soul food. Most establishments are family-owned and have been around for decades. Yet that is changing. Last month, aperitivo bar Brother Wolf and Osteria Stella brought Northern Italian cuisine to the region for the first time.

"We wanted to give our city the experience that any person would have if they walked into any restaurant or osteria in Italy," says Jessica King, who, along with her business partner and fiancé Aaron Thompson, dreamed of this possibility during a five-week European vacation three years ago. The couple, beloved longtime fixtures of the Knoxville food and drink industry, most recently owned and operated the award-winning upscale Sapphire bar and restaurant. (Sapphire is currently closed as the building where it's located is being renovated.)

Thompson fondly recalls the distinct feeling he experienced during that trip, his first time in Italy, sitting al fresco with King at Bar Basso in Milan, the wind blowing as they sipped on an Americano and Negroni Sbagliato and ate a bowl of cacio e pepe. "It was something special," he says. The couple then visited Bologna, Florence, and Rome, King's favorite city, taking copious notes about the cocktail culture in each place. Discovering ultrahip Roman bar Freni e Frizioni was a seminal moment. "Freni was the place that lit our fire for an aperitivo bar in Knoxville," says Thompson.

Importing authentic Italian cuisine and aperitivo fare to their hometown was set in motion once they found a space to accommodate a separate cocktail venue and restaurant. Unfortunately, returning to Italy to recruit a chef to work for them in Knoxville wasn't meant to happen. Covid-19 was rampant there last March. Upon arrival in New York City, the couple canceled their overseas flight 24 hours before takeoff.

But sometimes, the stars align. After returning home, Thompson mentioned their dilemma about finding an Italian-born chef to a friend in the hospitality business. Ironically, the friend knew of a chef from Milan who had just relocated to Knoxville. "It absolutely could not have been more serendipitous. It fell into place," says King.

They met Chef Amalia Brusati, trained at Milan’s Food Genius Academy, and hired her as a consultant. "What she does is simple food, unremarkable in most kitchens in Italy, but very remarkable for our market because there's no one doing what she does," says King.

Chef Brusati designed a menu based on her family recipes. One of her biggest challenges was replicating dishes to taste like those she grew up eating using fresh ingredients and meat sourced locally in the Southeast. It was a challenge, but delays caused by the global pandemic proved to be an unusual blessing. She set up her test kitchen at Sapphire during lockdown, then another commercial kitchen the couple rented, using the time fine-tuning her fare.

Before hiring chef de cuisine Salvador Sanchez, previously with Nico Osteria in Chicago, the couple had him cook a meal together with Chef Brusati at their home to witness their kitchen chemistry. The spread: ossobuco, arancini, and focaccia, items now served at their eateries. "It was perfect," says Thompson.

Seasonal menus at Osteria Stella feature housemade pasta and bread plus imported Italian cheeses like Parmigiano Reggiano, Grana Padano, and Gorgonzola Dolce. Although King and Thompson are hands-off in the kitchen, they shared one request with their chef: the menu must include cacio e pepe, arancini, and traditional lasagna with bechamel, not ricotta and mozzarella. "We were very worried about the perception when people found out that our lasagna dish was not what an American would typically consider to be lasagna,” King admits. Turns out, it's the top-selling pasta. Other specialties include risotto with bone marrow butter, cotoletta alla Milanese, and desserts such as tiramisu and affogato al caffe.

No authentic Italian dining experience is complete without wine. Thompson, who earned a certification from the Court of Master Sommeliers, curated an impressive list of small family-owned producers spanning all 20 regions of Italy. "I'm getting people to drink Aglianico del Vulture from Basilicata and wines from Molise and Pinot Noir from Valle d’Aosta. They are never going to taste those things anywhere else in Knoxville," he says. "I hope that changes."

And so, at the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, the Italian spirit King and Thompson hoped to emulate seems to be thriving. Patrons are embracing aperitivo at Brother Wolf, including 11 types of Negronis, spritzes, and other versions of classics developed by King, an award-winning mixologist. Separated by a leather curtain, tables at Osteria Stella, the contrasting intimate space, are booked for weeks in advance. Hanging on the walls are three floral paintings with empowering phrases in Italian, a love letter to their one-year-old daughter, Stella, the restaurant's namesake. The budding foodie's favorite dish on the menu? "Cacio," her proud mom shares.