Cacio e pepe
Tonnarelli, Pecorino Romano, black pepper finished tableside in the Sicilian shepherd's-cheese tradition. Eight ingredients, none of them cream.
Sera — Italian wine bar in Old City, Philadelphia
Where energy meets soul. Bottles, plates, and a turntable that's almost always playing something Sicilian.
§ 01 — A taste of the menu
Three things worth coming for
Wed–Thu 5pm–11pm
Fri–Sat 5pm–12am
Sun 4pm–10pm
Mon–Tue Closed
§ 02 — The wine
Bottles you won't find at the state store.
42 bottles on the list. Every one direct-imported from a producer making fewer than 50,000 bottles a year. Mostly Italian — Etna, Friuli, Piedmont — with a few French ringers from the Loire and Jura when something good shows up.
Take a bottle home — pickup at the bar or local delivery within 5 miles. Pennsylvania caps to-go wine at 4 bottles per transaction (Act 39); the cart enforces it. Must be 21+.
§ 03 — The story
Leo Figueroa cooked at Lilia in Brooklyn for six years. Then his nonna died, and he came home to Sicily for a summer.
He came back with three notebooks of recipes, a stake in a small Etna winery, and an idea for a place in Philadelphia where the wine list is the menu and the menu is mostly his nonna's.
Read the rest →