Forget About
Nonna’s Sunday Gravy
Cinghiale
822 Lancaster St., Baltimore
410-547-8282; cinghiale-osteria.com
When a town’s food scene is known
for Italian-American red sauces coming out of its Little Italy, it’s a hard sell to
convince people authentic Northern Italian
cuisine is worth the diversion. With Cinghiale,
which means wild boar in Italian, chef Cindy Wolf and
husband and co-owner Tony Foreman have done just that.
Their modern, two-pronged approach to Italian cuisine—an osteria with
white tablecloths and mahogany on one side of the restaurant; an enoteca with
cheeses, salami and 40 wines by the glass on the other—has taken the city by
surprise—and for good reason. Fried artichokes with basil mayonnaise. Risotto
with pears and Parmesan. Housemade sausage tucked into half-moon ravioli
and anointed with sage and butter. And of course, the eponymous cinghiale,
which is served over gnocchi with lavender oil.
