DINING FEATURE Patrizi’s Experience an authentic made- from-scratch Italian dinner N ic Patrizi opened Patrizi’s, a counter service Italian restaurant, with his cousin Matt Patrizi after the family’s food truck at the Vortex saw years of success. Setting Patrizi’s apart from other restaurants is its simple yet complex made-from-scratch authentic Italian menu. “Our whole shtick is we make everything from scratch,” Nic said. “We make all of our own pasta; we make [most of] our own cheeses and use fresh milks; we cure all of our own meats. Our pancetta is like a three-week process to cure and smoke.” Nic said the eatery o ers only six pasta selections, which are served after 4 p.m. The lunch menu features salads, sandwiches and focaccia—all made from scratch, including the focaccia bread, using mostly locally sourced produce. One of Patrizi’s signature dishes is the cacio pepe. Though the dish is made with only cheese, pepper and fettuccine pasta, it is anything but a simple dish, Nic said. “We’re using four di erent types of peppercorns that we’re toasting rst and then grinding,” he said. “We’re using grana padano cheese, which is a 2-year- old aged cheese imported from Italy.” The dish also features the hand-pulled pasta the restaurant makes daily, an eight-hour process. “It sounds like a very simple dish, like three ingredients, but it’s like two weeks in the making, and that’s really beautiful,” Nic said. Nic said Patrizi’s makes its own spirits, including amaros, co ee liqueurs, cognacs and limoncellos. They also make their own campari - a type of Italian bitters - using ground-up cochineal beetles, aptly named Beetle Juice. More than the food and spirits, Nic said coming to Patrizi’s is about the experience. He encourages people “to stay a little longer, have one more drink … and try to escape from reality for a little while.” BY APRIL KELLEY
PATRIZI'S PASTA
Patrizi’s makes fresh hand-pulled pasta daily for its dinner menu, a process that takes approximately eight hours.
STEP 2: The dough gets at and becomes a sheet, and the pasta is pushed through dies at di erent speeds and widths to create the shape.
STEP 1: A mixture of semolina our, salt and nutmeg along with an egg and water mixture is added to the hopper for mixing and aeration.
STEP 3: Around 2,000 portions of pasta are placed on a tray to be served for the dinner menu.
Owner Nic Patrizi makes the restaurant’s signature Beetle Juice spirit by grinding up cochineal beetles.
The house salad is the most ordered thing on the Patrizi’s menu.
EMMA LONG METROPOLITAN PARK
Patrizi’s 1705 Cuernavaca Drive N., Austin 346-241-1350 www.patrizis.com Hours: Tue.-Fri. 8 a.m.-10 p.m., Sat.-Sun. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., closed Mon.
CUERNAVACA DR. N.
RIVER HILLS RD.
Patrizi’s on Cuernavaca celebrated its one-year anniversary May 12.
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LAKE TRAVIS WESTLAKE EDITION • MAY 2023
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