The Blessing of the Ovens

Today my wife, our friend Alice, and I stopped by for a few minutes at Il Fornaio ("The Baker") Italian restaurant in Reston. It will not open until Monday, but today was the Blessing of the Ovens. By the time I picked up Alice and my wife, we got there 15 minutes late and the blessing part was over. Too bad; I was hoping that while blessing the ovens, the priest might have aimed wrong and blessed me instead (haha). This is the first Il Fornaio east of Colorado. They started as a baking school in Lombardia, Italy, and today have 23 restaurants.

There was free food and wine. The food was excellent (and the wine too!). I don't know about prices yet but I don't think it's a cheap place. I also don't think it's a real expensive place.

We talked at length with the Italian cooks you see in the photos here. I also spoke with the president and CEO of the company, Michael J. Beatrice, who lives in Boston and was a very nice guy. I didn't know who he was at first, outside a guy in a suit who offered me wine. He didn't seem stuck up at all.

We've been looking for a really good Italian restaurant in this area for a long time. Maybe we've finally found one. We'll be back and then we'll know for sure. Buon appetito!

Their website is http://www.ilfornaio.com/.