The Restaurant

Welcome | Sean Pramuk Owner/Manager | Giovanni Guerrera Owner/Chef | Scully Ranch

Owner/Chef, Giovanni Guerrera, has been in the Italian restaurant business for most of his life. In 1969, a few years after their arrival in the U.S. from Puglia, Italy, Giovanni’s parents opened their first restaurant in Napa, CA. They served pizza, homemade pastas, soups and salads. The truly regional dishes were reserved for their family dinners as it was assumed that people weren’t too adventurous with their dining at that time. His cooking education began there, Italian home cooking based on garden-fresh, seasonal vegetables. The cooking of Puglia and Southern Italy is shaped largely by the land’s arid climate and economic poverty: wild greens collected on hillsides, cured meats and fish, and oil from century-old olive trees.

In 2000, Giovanni moved to Rome to rediscover Italian culture, food and wine. While there, he worked in a small trattoria and wine bar. He was searching for that same Italian home cooking he grew up with, “cucina casareccia” as it is sometimes called; home-cooked soul-satifying meals without the pretense of haute dining. He also attended numerous Slow Food events such as wine and food tours, cooking courses and foreign journalist information seminars on Italian wine and artisanal foods. After a year, he was inspired to return to his hometown of Napa and open a trattoria that could turn people on to the new renaissance in Southern Italian wines as well as “la cucina casareccia” – its simple, honest, fresh, hearty fare.