Ristorante Bernardi

Just keep your mobile phone on the table while you eat

ristorante barnardi risotto — Ristorante Barnardi Risotto with Sausage and Mushrooms.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. The picture above these words, that’s my cuisine. I mean, of course, it’s the cuisine of my chosen people, the Luniginese. It’s simple: rice, broth, sausage, mushrooms, stir. That’s the recipe. You can add cheese. Nevertheless, It still looks like a pile of something. There’s not a dusting of anything green and eye-catching. It’s just food. Darned good food. Unadorned, like the women below.

I’m ok with that. So was this guy:

So now you know. You walk into the Bernardi and if you are a regular you grab a carafe of wine off the bar and you walk into the dining room, turning around unobtrusively to pay your respects to the art and the women frolicking gaily in it, and then you sit wherever you like. The waiter comes over and recites the menu. You pick a pasta, a second, some vegetables, and perhaps ask him where the sausage comes from and maybe how his kid did in calcio.

My friend under the ~~art~~ frolicking babes liked the rice. I know because he rammed his forefinger into his cheek and made like he was trying to screw a hole in his guancale. That means it passed the test. He had tried the fish pasta earlier and only ate half of it. This was better.

Martha herself had the fish pasta. Even with two of us hanging on to the waiter’s every word we couldn’t figure out what the fish was that was crumbled into the pasta sauce. So I asked mister art guy. He didn’t have a clue either, even though he had discussed it with the waiter for quite some time. I like when that happens. It’s like my limited vocabulary is the same as that possessed by everyone in the room. Bonding time!

But then he leaned over and told me to get the damn cell phone outta my pocket because it would explode my heart or something. Now I felt like a fool again. I didn’t know that. I thought it messed with your brain.

Anyway, the second course had arrived. Martha’s fried chicken was crispy on the outside and juicy inside. There were roast potatoes and a small salad. I had porchetta and potatoes. It was all good. So was the cost. 10 euro. With wine and water and coffee—and tax and tip. Try that in the US.

They say the Sunday lunch is spectacular. We will have to try it sometime. I wonder if it would beat the one we got just up the street at Trattoria Zino this past Sunday.

There’s always food to try around here. You should come.

Ristorante Bernardi
Località Tassonarla, 21, 54012 Tresana MS

Here’s a little video about the restaurant

Afterwards we found a new walking path, the greenway fiume magra that uses the old railway right of way so that you can make your way along either side of the Magra river without traipsing around in people’s back yards. Here’s the map. I made it even though it might be just a bit too small for you to read. Another reason you might come to this neck of the northern Tuscany woods.