Where to: La Padrona, an Italian restaurant from chef Jody Adams, located at the Raffles hotel.
Why: You miss Rialto. You love a grand, buzzy new restaurant. You can’t resist grilled artichokes, herb ricotta ravioli, porchetta, and a perfectly balanced Negroni.
The backstory: Adams has plenty of experience serving Italian cuisine in a luxe hotel. One of the area’s best-known chefs, she spent more than 20 years at the acclaimed Rialto in the Charles Hotel before it closed in 2016. Other restaurants include Porto, Saloniki, and Trade, which she operates with A Street Hospitality partners Eric Papachristos and Jon Mendez. La Padrona opened last month, with Amarilys Colon as executive chef.
What to eat: Start with bread service, which means you don’t have to choose among breadsticks studded with fennel seed, focaccia dusted in pecorino snow, and an excellent Tuscan flatbread. You can have them all. La Padrona does vegetables justice, with dishes such as charred cabbage with anchovy butter, spring vegetable fritto misto, and a salad of roasted beets with chicory, walnuts, and mint. Mortadella and stracciatella cheese are served in leaves of Bibb, Italian-style lettuce wraps. The menu’s star is the handmade pasta, from a lush, creamy tagliatelle with aged balsamic to the handkerchief-shaped fazzoletti with milk-braised rabbit and roast sunchokes. Seared black cod is served with braised tomatoes, nettle pesto, lemon, and basil for a springy-feeling dish — or share a roasted rack of lamb with your table. The dessert menu brings brioche gelato sandwiches, a trio filled with different flavors — pistachio, strawberry mascarpone, and brown butter ginger — and sweet with lemon glaze. There’s chocolate budino, strawberry rum cake, and more, but don’t miss the cannoli, slender cigars of whipped ricotta inside shells of Florentine lace cookies.
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What to drink: The cocktail program is strong, with signatures like the Rhubarbarella, made with sotol, rhubarb cordial, and sherry, and a potent tiki tribute called Sophia Loren on the Beach. Try a Pomodoro Martini, which is made with tomato water and comes with a side dish of pickled vegetables, one of the many Negroni riffs, or a low- or no-alcohol offering. There are also Italian sodas, beer, and a list of reserve wines by the glass that speaks with an Italian accent.
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The takeaway: Ascend the grand staircase, curl up in a cushioned circular nook, and take in the swank, rich-hued space inspired by Italian cinema. La Padrona is bustling, and Adams’s Italian cuisine is back.
38 Trinity Place, Back Bay, Boston, 617-898-0010, www.lapadronaboston.com. Appetizers $12-$28, pasta and risotto $28-$48, main dishes $42-$60, dessert $14-$18, cocktails $18-$24.
Devra First can be reached at devra.first@globe.com. Follow her @devrafirst.