Faves: Villa Ravenna

The dining room is cool and pleasant, its wood-paneled walls a soft, aquatic green reminiscent of the sea that washes the shores of the owners’ home town of Ravenna, Italy. Look toward the ceiling and you’ll see a row of splashy exotic glass vases hand-blown in Murano, small islands near Venice. Each is one of a kind, the product of many hours of painstaking labor, made by skilled artisans using techniques handed down from generation to generation. Every dish served at Villa Ravenna is like that, too. “My grandparents owned a restaurant near Ravenna,” says Sergio Orioli, “and so we have been in business for three generations. We do the same thing the same way as many years ago.” The food here is not Italian-American, but Italian. The Fettucine al Nero di Seppia could be served in a beachside trattoria in Ravenna’s sun-kissed marina. Homemade pasta made with squid ink imported from Spain accents a vibrant mix of seafood and spice. For the less adventurous, the menu offers zesty versions of familiar dishes found throughout Italy: chicken cacciatore, spaghetti carbonara. But Villa Ravenna also, Orioli says with pride, “has items no one else in Oklahoma has.” These aren’t on the menu. They are seasonal. Fresh figs topped with gorgonzola and prosciutto. Irresistibly tender osso buco made from wild boar. Aged venison filet in Grand Marnier sauce. Enormous grilled shrimp, each one half a pound. 6526 A E. 51st St., Tulsa. www.villaravenna.com