Confession: I have a secret fantasy where I have my own little Italian grandma cook just for me. She'd only use the best, freshest ingredients and make every sauce from scratch. She'd handmade pasta like tagliatelle, rigatoni, and lasagna. She'd hammer out perfect chicken cutlets, bread them and fry them into savory chicken parmigiana. She'd bake me amazing Neapolitan-style pizzas with imported buffalo mozzarella and prosciutto which had a light, airy crust. She'd press gorgeous panini sandwiches for me made with crispy, Tuscan bread. And in fact, if I am taking the fantasy all the way, she'd make so much amazing food that she'd even package it to-go if I wanted. And she'd do it with love.
Well she may not be my exclusive
cook nor my grandma but "Nonna" (Italian for grandmother) Anna is an honest-to-goodness
Italian grandma making artisan-quality Italian food at Nonna's Family Kitchen out a tiny
space in the PREP Commercial Kitchen complex
near Spaghetti Junction. And she's all yours—all you have to do is go
see her.
The recipes are from Anna's mom and her son, Rick Herbst, a successful actor for years (including a long stint on General Hospital) runs the business side of the operation to bring nonna's recipes to the world.
Rick's sons are also in the mix, making the restaurant a multi-generational
effort with the family obsessing over every morsel they serve. Back behind a small counter, the family kneads
the pizza dough, rolls the pasta, stirs the sauces—all with Nonna
lovingly directing the operation. I tried
the tagliatelle pasta (fresh ribbons of buttery pasta), angel hair pasta (thin,
delicate spaghetti) pork meatballs, the Caprese panini, prosciutto pizza and chicken parmigiana. It
was "amore" all the way. But don't expect much for a fine dining atmosphere--there
are no tables except a couple outside the space under the overhang…it's more like fine dining Italian
without the white table cloth.
If you haven't been to the PREP campus
yet, set your GPS and go. Besides a
multitude of ghost kitchens and good truck commissaries, the campus features wonderful
hidden gems for artisan-quality restaurants operating out of the proverbial hole
in the wall. Hot Chick Peas, Java Saga, Raul's Latin Kitchen, and The Little Farmhouse Café are all
top-tier spots and with Nonna's, it's becoming its own mini Buford Highway of top-shelf international cuisine.
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