Fresh Italian Our

Fresh Italian

By Tom Worgo | Photography by Stephen Buchanan

Lino Chiaro knows you can’t stay static in the restaurant business. That’s one reason he dined in fine establishments in different places around the world last year in search of new dishes for his menu. And that’s why first-time and returning customers will find some intriguing surprises next time they eat at Bella Italia Annapolis.

Chiaro gets excited talking about the three new items on the menu, as of this past January: arancini, tagliolini, and saccottini. More specialty dishes and pastas are coming. The restaurant will roll out more than a half dozen as the year goes on. “I think we needed some new stuff,” says Chiaro, an Arnold resident. “The new items give customers more choices.” Chiaro hopes these dishes could become as popular as other customer favorites like pizza, pasta, and salads.

The 46-year-old Chiaro, who owns Bella Italia with his wife’s brother Luca Assande, is carrying on the tradition of cooking the old-fashioned way that goes back three generations to his Italian grandmother. She taught him how to cook. “Every time she cooked, it was like a beautiful dish and something special,” Chiaro says. Later, he worked 10 years as a chef in Italy and another three at restaurants in New Jersey and, finally, Maryland. We recently talked to Chiaro about the reasons for the menu changes, the Naval Academy community as his prime customer base, the ingredients he imports from Italy, and how the pandemic has affected his restaurant.

Why did you decide to update the menu?

Customers can buy something different than the same old thing. You can’t always have the same things. And I try to make dishes you can’t get at other places. The things that are not selling anymore I can remove from the menu. I want some dishes that are (popular) for other customers.

Can you explain how eating in restaurants overseas has helped you come up with plans for new items?

If I go to a restaurant, see something I like, I take the ideas and figure out a dish. When I was in the Caribbean, I found a nice dish made with rice that I want to incorporate into my restaurant, and make some changes.

There are a lot of Italian restaurants in the area. How do you keep the customers coming back? What separates Bella Italia from others?

If the food is good, they will keep coming back. We always try to improve the food. If we find something

better, I change my old way of doing something to a different way. If I have to spend more money to buy better ingredients, I do it. For example: chicken. For every salad, I don’t just get chicken breasts. I get chicken tenderloins that cost more than double than breasts. It’s better, juicer, and doesn’t dry out.

Can you talk about the ingredients and products you purchase from overseas?

The tomatoes we buy are very, very expensive. We make the pizza and pasta sauce from them. We probably pay 60 percent more than for other tomatoes. We get them from Italy. We also get prosciutto from Italy for sandwiches and appetizers and shredded parmesan cheese. Our cannoli come from a bakery in Sicily.

The Naval Academy is within walking distance to Bella Italia. Talk about the customers who come from there and how big a part of this is your business.

We get the midshipmen, teachers, contractors, and the other people who work over there. Everybody from there comes to our restaurant. We get big catering orders from the sports teams. Football, lacrosse, basketball, and many other sports teams. The catering business has grown a lot over the years and it’s a huge part of our business. We work with everybody. Schools, hospitals, and offices. It’s about 30 percent of our business.

How did the pandemic affect your business and what changes did you make to keep sales up? Did you make an effort to retain your employees?

I would say business last year was very good. I try to keep my workers forever. I don’t try to let anybody leave and make it comfortable in this place for them. It’s easier to work with people when they have been around for a long time. I have great relations with my employees. That’s why they never leave. Most of them have been here for years. It’s always been busy with the carryout during the pandemic. It’s the thing that keeps us going. During the pandemic, carry out was 90 percent of our business.