Don't judge a book by its cover. But do judge a restaurant by its vegetables. Or its silverware. Or its check presenters — which, at Sorella, are actual small vintage books.
"Check presenters are so ugly," owner Lauren Blumenthal says, referring to the flimsy clipboards or long vinyl folders that are usually dropped off at the end of a meal. "When they're stacked up around the restaurant, they just don't look nice."
But a stack of books, she realized, is gorgeous, cozy and just as useful.
It's hard to pinpoint what exactly makes Sorella feel like a different world as soon as you step inside, but the books are a clue. Sorella, which opened in Kendall Yards last spring, takes every opportunity to be beautiful, thoughtful and surprising, especially in moments that would otherwise be overlooked.
Signing the check, for example, can be the least enjoyable part of the meal. But at Sorella, it's a delight. When you open the front cover to fish out the receipt, you discover handwritten notes on inside pages commemorating anniversaries, birthdays, first dates and old friends. You can add your own, if you like. It's an impromptu guest book that makes you feel a part of the family instead of a vulnerable bank account.Or take the carrots ($14). Yes, the Italian restaurant is famous for its meatballs ($14), which are bafflingly delicate and soft, or for its perfect pastas and high-end New York steak ($56). But to see how much a restaurant really cares about its food, consider how much love it gives to its sides, not its stars.
Not many restaurants would include a pile of carrots on an elevated menu. What's more, Blumenthal grew up hating cooked carrots. There were so many reasons to serve anything else. But instead, Blumenthal took her disapproval as a challenge.
"I said, 'OK, I'm gonna make a dish that is going to make every person who has ever not liked carrots, like carrots,'" she says.
She roasted the carrots for texture, then added goat cheese for creaminess, hazelnuts for just the right amount of crunch, honey for sweetness and parsley for an Italian theme. The final result was a dish that changed her mind and basically everyone else's.
"Everyone loves them," Blumenthal says. "They're one of my pride and joys."
If that's the amount of time, thought and effort put into a side of veggies, imagine the care poured into the risotto ($26), Parmigiana ($34), or pasta alla Gricia ($28), a profound marriage of carbonara and cacio e pepe that hangs on the perfect balance of just pecorino, pepper and guanciale.
Although there are picture windows framing the outside world, Sorella feels like a place set apart. It's fresh but also familiar, thanks to thrifted china and glassware.
"Everyone who comes in here is like, 'Oh, my grandma had that.' I'm like, 'Yeah, so did mine,'" Blumenthal says. "Obviously, some of this stuff is new, but it's still very cozy and relaxed and has an old school feel. That was the best way that I could meld those two things together — if the walls are brand new, then silverware has to be old."
Creating a restaurant is a lot like creating a movie set. To make the world feel real, you've got to get every detail right — definitely the details that people notice, like pasta and glassware. But maybe more importantly, the details that people may not even notice.
1122 W. Summit Pkwy.
Open Tue-Sat from 4:45-9 pm (Fri-Sat until 10 pm)
sorellaspokane.com, 509-443-4023
"This is bothering me because the knife is not turned out properly," Blumenthal says, subtly flipping the silverware laid out on her table. "Little things like that. I'm going around, I'm flipping every knife."
Blumenthal is in the dining room before almost every service, doing the little tasks she would never pester her staff with. Like flipping knives so they're facing the right way, or switching plates so they're perfectly mismatched. She's also the one mopping floors and wiping down booths.
"I will never, ever, ever ask someone to do something that I am not willing to do myself, which is why I clean the restaurant," she says.
And maybe therein lies the most intimate, intangible, important detail of them all. Blumenthal wants to be at Sorella. Her staff want to be at Sorella. Guests want to be at Sorella. The glowing aura of the restaurant is fueled by the passionate desire between host and chef and guest and server to be together in this specific place at this specific moment in time.
It's a crucial detail that's easy to overlook. But once you experience it, it's hard to forget. ♦
