5 minute read
The Party Continues... A Tavola Bar & Trattoria
Written by Bridget Williams / Photography by Andrew Kung
“We were making pizza with fresh vegetables from our garden before it was the cool thing to do,” said Jared Wayne, owner of A Tavola Bar and Trattoria, which recently opened at 1220 Vine Street in Over-the-Rhine. The constant along Wayne’s journey from home gourmand to restaurateur has been his commitment to quality and attention to detail.
A passion for cooking began during his formative years. Wayne fondly recalls summertime neighborhood gatherings (which included his business partner and childhood next-door neighbor Sam Ginocchio) centered on flavorful food and drinks that incorporated the best of what was fresh from the garden. After moving to Los Angeles, Wayne would frequent the nearby farmers’ market, returning with his bounty to make pizzas on the porch over charcoal fires. Word of his weekly Thursday ritual quickly spread, and before long, his place was packed with friends clamoring for a taste of his pizza.
After returning to Cincinnati for a brief stint working in real estate, Wayne connected with a friend who owned the lunch-only Take the Cake in Northside. Relaying stories of his LA pizza nights, she recommended that he revive the tradition by taking over her place one night a week. Now the stuff of legends, the underground-style gatherings were a huge hit that convinced Wayne he was on to something. Along the way, he picked up a pair of business partners also drawn to the allure of the craft: childhood friend Sam Ginocchio and Bill Draznik.
“The whole thing evolved rather organically,” said Wayne. Fortified by his pizza night following, he began visiting top-notch wood-fired pizza restaurants in New York and on the West Coast to study their equipment, menus, and modus operandi. After visiting Motorino in New York’s East Village, he was set on acquiring a version of their Neapolitan-made oven by Acunto. After discovering they were not UL listed, he resumed his search and was happy to discover Uno Forno, a US-based distributor of ovens made by the Ferrara family of Naples. Custom-made and considered among the most reliable and authentic Neapolitan brick ovens in the world, there are only a few examples in the United States, one of which is owned by Mario Batali. “I feel lucky to be among such a rarified group,” said Wayne. Weighing in at 5,500 pounds and custom-tiled with the A Tavola logo, it serves as a piece of functional art and a centerpiece of the restaurant’s rustic chic décor.
Bill Draznik also possesses a background in real estate with a specialization in revitalizing urban neighborhoods. He suggested the Over-the-Rhine location, to which all of the partners quickly agreed.
Wayne, Ginocchio, and Draznik make an ideal team as each has a distinct area of expertise. Wayne spearheaded the interior design, crafting many of the tables himself as well as handling the finish carpentry. A fan of tables by George Nakashima, Wayne hand-selected wood from the same lumber yard in the Berkshire Mountains as Nakashima to build A Tavola’s irregular-edge bar height tables, which are surrounded by Tolix stools in gunmetal grey.
Ginocchio mans the bar, and his creative concoctions – with names like Stefano Comes to America and Ginger Beer Me – were no doubt inspired by the unique cocktails made by his mother. The from-scratch difference is easily discernable, as with the latter, a combination of house-made ginger beer, fresh lime and a choice of rum, vodka, bourbon or tequila.
Draznik oversees the front of the house, presiding over staff with ample experience in high-volume restaurants. “We made sure to hire people who knew more about the business than we did,” said Wayne. Ben Strum, formerly director of service at Boca, also helps to keep things running like a well-oiled machine, as was the case during our recent visit, a little more than two weeks after the restaurant opened.
Loosely translated, “A Tavola” is something you may hear a nonna call out, meaning “Come on, everybody! It’s time for dinner!” The wafting aroma of garlic was all the hearkening I needed. The menu is straightforward, organized into pizza, bruschetta, antipasti, and dessert. We started off our meat-centric meal with an order of dates stuffed with house sausage and wrapped with house-cured bacon. Anything wrapped in bacon is OK by me, and there were no complaints with this presentation!
Pizza selections include versions simply dressed with the traditional (house bacon and sausage) to the unique (egg, fig jam, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower, to name a few). We opted for the non-traditional route, choosing a pie topped with fig jam, prosciutto, fontina, and arugula. Arriving at our table with lightning-fast speed, the crust had just enough char to lend charcoal coloring to the fingers of those who opted to forgo a fork and knife. The wood-firing imparts a wonderful depth of flavor to the crust that simply cannot be reproduced by other cooking methods. The sweetness of the jam was tempered by the saltiness of the prosciutto and fontina, creating the perfect balance of opposing tastes. Other unique ingredients such as boquerones (imported white anchovies) are scheduled to make special appearances from time to time as available.
Dessert options at the moment are limited to two choices: grilled peaches with vanilla lavender whipped cream and vanilla gelato finished with a shot of espresso.
It is clear from the lively crowd assembled during our visit that A Tavola has lived up to Wayne’s expectations. “From the onset, my goal was to create an extension of my house parties.”
