Where to: Olivia’s Kitchen in Ball Square, Somerville, a 34-seat spot with nine bar seats that formerly housed Taco Party.
Why: For a nice mix of Italian homespun and regional specialties made with top-quality ingredients presented with flair.
The backstory: Chef Simona Sbano and her husband, Stefano Feffin, ran Emporio Bakery and Emporio Bistrot in Stoughton, which they sold recently. Both are from Turin, in the Piedmont region of Italy. Among her other jobs, Sbano opened a bakery in Turin in 2012 called Miss Cake, which served American-style pastries, bagels, and brunch. She ran it for seven years. During COVID, she came to the US to work at Pasta Beach, an Italian restaurant in Providence (another location is in Newport, R.I.).
Chef Simona Sbano, right, with her husband, Stefano Feffin, at Olivia’s Kitchen in Somerville.Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
What to eat: Many of the dishes here will seem familiar — the bread salad called panzanella, homemade pasta with Bolognese, seafood stew, branzino (sea bass). But there are surprises, too. Fave e cicoria, fava bean puree topped with lemony chicory greens and a true aged balsamic vinegar, is an unusual, delightful combination. Sbano’s grandmother made the dish in her home region of Puglia. Pork cutlets, rolled up with a sharp, cow’s milk cheese and guanciale (pork cheek), called bombette Pugliesi, are delicious chubby rolls. For dessert, try the flourless chocolate-almond cake, whose name is Caprese (unrelated to the dish of tomatoes and mozzarella). Sbano tells me it’s typical in Naples. It comes with vanilla gelato; the dessert is sublime.
What to drink: Olivia’s Kitchen has a full liquor license. The wine list is 100 percent Italian, as you might expect, affordable and attuned to the menu, but limited. There are eight reds, three available by the glass; six whites, all offered as glass pours. The bar stirs up a handful of cocktails.
The takeaway: Service is European, which is to say, the waiter is paying attention (but not too much attention) and wants you to be happy. Eventually, the couple wants to turn the storefront into a bakery by day and restaurant at night. Now, they offer weekend brunch. The restaurant is named for Olivia, the couple’s dog, a Shepherd mix (with four or five other breeds, says Feffin), who came with them from Italy. Her likeness is on the logo. Her owners are devoted to her. They also seem to be devoted to pleasing their clientele and sending out their adaptations of the good food they were raised on.
711 Broadway, Ball Square, Somerville, 781-957-6061, www.olivias-kitchen.com. Appetizers and salads $17-$27. Pasta, main courses $25-$45.
Bombette Pugliesi, pork rolls stuffed with cheese.Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
Sheryl Julian can be reached at sheryl.julian@globe.com.
Dining and Cooking