Chefs prepare appetizers.

Stasera Trattoria

There are many restaurants that allow guests to bring their own bottles of wine. Stasera Trattoria, an Italian restaurant in Seoul Financial Center, central Seoul, goes far beyond that service ― if guests bring their own bottle of wine to a business dinner, the sommelier would tailor the food menu to that wine.

For Stasera, wine makes an important part of a meal.

“Customers usually choose a dish first and add a glass of wine that suits the food, but for some wine lovers, wine comes first, definitely,” Sergio Hong, a sommelier of Stasera, says.

“We serve home-made style meals that go best with wine. Italian wine is highly recommended, as the wine that goes best with Italian cuisine is Italian wine.”

In addition to its passion for wine, Stasera is authentically Italian in every way.

While its interiors resembling a local bistro in Europe sets a cozy atmosphere for businesspersons, the restaurant serves various Italian homemade style dishes from different regions in Italy.

Stasera chooses a different region of Italy each month and create a menu consisting of appetizers, pastas and main dishes from that region. For instance, Liguria, a coastal region in northwestern Italy known as a popular tour site for its beautiful beaches and copious seafood dishes, is the region of this month.

Stasera chooses a different region of Italy month by month, and creates menu including appetizers, pasta, and main dishes. Spaghetti allo scampo, cooked with delectable spiny lobster sauce and stir-fried fresh shrimps, is the pasta of this month,

Many ingredients including wheat flour, prosciutto, dry-cured ham usually served with fruits as an appetizer are imported from Italy.

“’Home-cooked style dishes’ may sound too much informal at first, but the concept of Stasera is offering customers comfort food in a snug ambience,” says Hong.

Customers can order almost all kind of pastas or main dishes even if they are not on the menu.

“The traditional idea of a ‘home-cooked restaurant’ is not offering a menu table,” Hong said.