CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Tastes of Italy can be found close to the Queen City!

  • Specialty: Pappardelle bolognese
  • Guests can watch chefs work in the kitchen
  • Chef Cranmer used his family recipes to open the restaurant 

Zinicola chef & owner Richard Cranmer began his training under his nonna and madre.

“My mother cooked every day,” Cranmer said. “That’s just a typical Italian mother.”

 

His family traveled to Italy every summer watching his grandmother make family meals from scratch and brining recipes back with them.

“Its where my passion and love comes from,” Cranmer said.

Cranmer has used those recipes and passion to open Zinicola.

“It’s my interpretation of Italian cuisine,” Cranmer said. “I try to make it as much as something you would get in Italy as I can.”

 

 

It's where chefs make the pasta by hand, just like Cranmer’s nonna.

“Everything is house made; the deserts, the pastas, the sauces. And nothing is store bought,” Zinicola general manager Joel Mallette said.

 

 

Because at Zinocolas, food isn’t something you taste, it’s something you feel. It’s not just cooking, it’s an act of love.

Zinicola is open 7 days a week in the Ballantyne Village shopping center, off US 521.

Address:14835 BALLANTYNE VILLAGE WAY SUITE 140; Charlotte, NC 28277

Hours: Mon-Thu, 4pm-10pm; Fri-Sat, 4pm-12am; Sun, 4pm-10pm