So this gent orders the lasagna at the Capitol Hill Via Tribunali last week and LOVES it. Oh, says the waitress, we buy that from Sorrentino.
Dude promptly finds out where Sorrentino is located (top of Queen Anne) and gets over there yesterday afternoon, is amazed to discover it's run by Mamma Enza, whom he met years ago when she was cooking at La Vita è Bella in Belltown. Big hugs all around. That amazing lasagna, could he get a double-order to go? Sure can.
As it happens, I'm behind the bar, so I pour the man a Prosecco and a glass of Montepulciano for his wife. We chat about the Sorrentino clan's restaurants (after Belltown, opening Mondello in Magnolia, Divino Wine Bar on Ballard Ave, then her own place), while Enza packs up their order. (Instructions for the lasagna? Fifteen minutes in a 350-degree oven.) He takes a copy of the menu (the lasagna's $15 at dinner) and gives me his card, which I swipe through the Dinerware computer: SCHULTZ/HOWARD.
Forty million customers walk into a Starbucks every week; that's a lot of coffee. The Starbucks ceo walking into Sorrentino, that we can handle. We don't have to shut down for retraining, either. But Howard, just don't expect free refills..
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