For the tiny space and a light touch at Piccolo

For authentic southern Italian cooking, elegantly and simply prepared, Piccolo offers an outstanding dining experience in a small, casual café setting.

Everything–from the ricotta to the lardo, the pasta, the sausages–is house-made, southern Italian…and favoloso.

Chef Damian Sansonetti is way beyond being just another rising young star in Portland.

The menu "evokes real Italian flavors," Sansonetti says. A number of products are sourced from Italy, like the house olive oil, which comes from Abruzzi. Right after talking with us, Sansonetti was headed back to the kitchen to tend to sardines from the Mediterranean that had arrived at Logan Airport just a few hours earlier.