Northern Italian style restaurant blends 400-year-old recipes with interactive dining

Dinner & a show at Scarpino's Classic Italian

At Scarpino's Classic Italian, chefs bring their scratch-made pastas and wood-fired pizzas to life with their "experiential dining." FOX 13 photojournalist Jason Wright takes us inside Scarpino's to see how they are working to bring the community together one plate at a time.

LUTZ, Fla. - A Lutz Italian restaurant is bringing authentic Northern Italian flavors and interactive tableside dining experiences to the local community. 

Scarpino's Classic Italian balances a bright, upscale atmosphere with casual, large-portion comfort food.

Restaurant has a community focus

What we know:

Scarpino's Classic Italian operates two locations in the Tampa Bay Area; in Lutz and in Bradenton. They offer a menu filled with recipes that trace back centuries to the Piedmont region of Northern Italy. 

"We've got 400-year-old recipes that are being served, where, hopefully, when you come here, you can feel at home," said co-owner Nate Calvert. "So, when you walk in, it feels upscale. We've done a lot of work, our interior decorator coming together to create a space that is warm, it's inviting, it's bright."

Calvert noted that the restaurant is a scratch kitchen where pastas are made fresh daily. That’s just one of several personal touches that they do intentionally to ‘set the table’ for their customers.

"When you come down, and you get to the table and you get ready to eat, the menu is very approachable," he said. "Something that we try to be very intentionally unpretentious with (is) our food, so, you're getting classic flavor that just it feels like you're sitting down eating with Nonna."

Their intent is to build lasting relationships within the neighborhood. Calvert explained that the restaurant fixates on its guests with a goal to help families build core memories around the dinner table.

What’s hot on the menu

What they're saying:

The dining experience emphasizes interactive elements, featuring smoked drinks and tableside flambé dishes making it dinner and a show. 

One of those flambé items is where servers bring a Parmesan cheese wheel to the table to add a savory flavor to the fettuccine for their Cacio e pepe dish. 

"We do a lot of things that are flambé table-side, so you get to enjoy some of that fire right there at the table… Our Cacio e pepe is a highlight," admitted Calvert. "We bring the entire cheese wheel to the table side, and we're flambéing the fettuccine table side in that Parmesan wheel, and you're getting that incredible flavor right in front of you."

Their chef is a master pizzaiolo who trained in Northern Italy for over 20 years. He creates handcrafted Piemontese-style pizzas.

"So, our menu is very straightforward. A lot of local favorites, a lot of favorites from the Northern Italy region. So, we serve Piemontese wood-fired pizza here at our Lutz location," he said. 

It’s not all savory, as Scarpino’s brings sweets as well. For dessert options, they have cannoli and tiramisu. The server can also bring a tableside affogato as an after-dinner treat. 

"One of the things that we really enjoy is we do serve affogatos," said Calvert. "So, as you get the espresso and some vanilla ice cream right at the table and you're pouring the espresso over that, the flavor's incredible. Kind of caramelizes within the ice cream."

What you can do:

Scarpino’s Classic Italian is located in Lutz at 6062 Van Dyke Road. They are open at 11am seven days a week, serving lunch and dinner.