Justin Fox Burks
Owner Sabine Bachmann, pictured left with her sons, Chef Armando Gagliano and manager John Paul Gagliano, also operates Ecco on Overton Park.
On a Thursday evening, just before 6, we settle into Libro, Sabine Bachmann’s new restaurant inside the newly opened Novel bookstore in Laurelwood, and order chickpea bruschetta and happy-hour specials: $3 Bud Lights and a $20 bottle of Pinot gris. Although Libro — the Italian word for book — opened in mid-September, this is our first visit, so we take a few minutes to admire the restaurant’s contemporary leanings. Tables quickly fill up.
Bachmann’s son, John Paul Gagliano, manages Libro, and its new American menu is similar in spirit to Ecco, the family’s other restaurant on Overton Park. Head chef Armando Gagliano, also Bachmann’s son, directs both kitchens, but keeps specific dishes unique to each location. “The restaurants have somewhat the same style because we make our own pasta, and we make our own bread,” Backmann explains. “But we have to tweak; At Libro, we have many more requests for gluten-free.”
A self-taught chef, Gagliano cooked at Sweet Grass before Ecco opened in 2014. In January, he attended the Italian Culinary Institute in southern Italy, where he learned, among other things, how to make gelato and traditional charcuterie. Expect house-cured meats and artisan gelato on upcoming Libro menus.
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Justin Fox Burks
Craft cocktails take cues from their literary surroundings at Novel bookstore, where Libro at Laurelwood is located.
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Justin Fox Burks
Craft cocktails take cues from their literary surroundings at Novel bookstore, where Libro at Laurelwood is located.
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Pumpkin soup topped with toasted nuts and micro-greens
Already, Gagliano’s love for Italian cooking manifests in stylish dishes like ravioli stuffed with baked pumpkin and butternut squash whipped together with Ladyfinger cookies and ricotta cheese. House-made Italian sausage rests on cannellini beans, seasoned with Mediterranean barbecue sauce, and for dessert, boozy tiramisu and excellent bread pudding made with cranberries, cherries, and leftover biscuits from Sunday brunch.
Brunch at Libro also features French toast with cinnamon butter, and salmon, house-cured with salt, sugar, and spices and served with red onion, fried capers, and dill mascarpone. Salads, such as arugula and fennel with braised chicken thigh, straddle dinner and lunch, as do pastas like spaghetti carbonara studded with guanciale, a bacon-like meat made from pig cheek. The dish — the best carbonara in the city and Gagliano’s favorite — is lighter than most. Bachmann explains, “We put a little cream with the egg, add it to the pasta, and zoom it all around the pan until it cooks.”
(Libro at Laurelwood, 387 Perkins Ave.,901-800-2656 $$)
