Dining Italian from Siena to Seattle.

SEATTLE–Well, first there was the disappointment of not having a parlor car on the Coast Starlight coming up from Oakland. Now there is the disappointment of realizing that Assaggio’s, my favorite restaurant here in Seattle, where I was planning to have dinner tonight, is closed on Sundays.
 
I discovered Assaggio Ristoranti by accident probably 15 years ago when I came to Seattle on business. Quite randomly, I picked a hotel that happened to be right next door to the restaurant. That’s the reason I chose the hotel where I’m staying on this trip.
 
TulioPhoto.app_ 
All is not lost, however, because Tulio’s (above photo) is another superb Italian restaurant here, and It is open today. It means a short cab ride, but I will certainly plan to have dinner there tonight. And, since I’m not leaving Seattle until 4:40 p.m. tomorrow when the Empire Builder departs, that leaves plenty of time for lunch at Assaggio’s.
 
This past June, during my two weeks in Italy, I chose restaurants pretty much by looking over the posted menu at the front door and peering in to see what the interior looked like. A number of the meals were rather disappointing. Finally, in Siena, and quite by accident, I stumbled on what proved to be a better way to pick a really good restaurant.
 
I had struck up a friendly rapport with Aldo, one of the waiters in the restaurant at the hotel where I was staying, and at breakfast one morning, I asked him where he would take his wife out to eat for her birthday. Aldo gave me the name of a small restaurant nearby and I had several meals there while I was in Siena. In fact, I had an almost instant rapport with the owner of the place because he had vacationed in Hawaii several years earlier.
 
On my second visit there, I mentioned that my favorite pasta dish, carbonara, was not on his menu. “You want carbonara?” he said. “Why not!” And he disappeared into the kitchen to prepare a wonderful carbonara just for me. And he wished me aloha when I left.
 
Grazie, Aldo!