Caffe Firenze - “Firenze” is “Florence” in Italian - is a new restaurant in Florence, Montana, whose owners and chef have fallen in love with the Mediterranean flavors of Florence, Italy.
“Italians put so much heart and character into their food,” said Savahna Galanti, the chef at Caffe Firenze who studied Italian cooking in northern Italy.
Galanti and her aunt and uncle, Patti and John Stevens, are all Montana natives. They've designed and built Caffe Firenze on the Eastside Highway, hoping to attract patrons interested in good food, fast.
They also hope Missoula residents are willing to drive a ways for a meal, and that Bitterrooters will become regulars as they drive past, morning or night.
The cafe's ambiance is fast-food clean, urban meets old. It has tables for a sit-down meal inside, and wine and beer, too.
But it also has a drive-up window where, instead of a 99-cent hamburger, you'll find a roasted ham, mozzarella, tomato and egg breakfast sandwich, a quick grilled Italian panini for lunch, or your called-ahead order for a full, gourmet dinner from a changing dinner menu.
Galanti, just 22, grew up in the food business, working in her family's good-eating, comfort-food restaurant, Café Jax, in Eureka. She married into an Italian family and strengthened her kitchen passion in a 14th century castle at the Italian Culinary Institute for Foreigners, a nonprofit program in northern Italy aimed at safeguarding and improving the image of Italian cuisine and products among food professionals around the world.
Her Italian internship was at a restaurant in Italy that earned its first Michelin star - one of the most coveted and influential culinary ratings in Europe - while she was there.
“Savahna's emphasis is on Italian flavors, on food prepared quickly, for people on the go, but using fresh ingredients and quality ingredients,” said co-owner Patti Stevens, who grew up in the Bitterroot. “She really knows how to put tastes together.”
Homemade gelato, the Italian version of ice cream; scratch-made desserts; unusual breakfast sandwiches; quiches; puff-pastry calzones; fresh salads; an assortment of pastries that includes a Tuscan apple-yogurt cake; soups; grilled Italian sandwiches; and a nongrilled sandwich called The Monk, with roast turkey and fresh veggies, are selections for breakfast and lunch.
Galanti comes up with a new dinner menu every week, posted at the restaurant and on the café's Web site. This week's offerings - aside from a multicourse, $40-a-plate Valentine's Day special - included multicolored pasta with prosciutto, kalamata olives and tomatoes sauteed in a white wine-lemon butter caper sauce; vegetarian or sausage lasagna with mozzarella, ricotta cheese, artichoke hearts, spinach and tomatoes; a Cajun-style baked chicken with fresh green beans, purple onions, zucchini, yellow squash and rice infused with garlic; or a pumpkin and apple bisque soup with a side salad of grapes, grilled asparagus and dried cranberries.
Inspired by a vegan friend, she has a vegetarian or vegan option each week. It's taken off, she said: She guessed she'd sell 15 stuffed mushrooms but had to fix 30 more to satisfy orders.
The menu at Caffe Firenze is meant to be a fusion of Americans' busy, hectic, juggle-10-things lives and Italians' love for color, wholesome food, full flavors and quality ingredients, said the three restaurateurs.
But the menu can't be so exotic or challenging that it drives people away, said Patti Stevens. The trick is to find food that is comforting, familiar, interesting and surprising, all at the same time.
Important to all three is the price. “We're trying to keep the menu affordable,” said John. Most dinners run $9 to $14, “big flavor for a moderate price,” he said.
“This is really about healthful foods - we don't have a deep fryer in the kitchen - prepared in a fresh way,” said John, who said he and Patti traveled the country for 20 years for his telecommunications job, “but we knew when we got our two kids through high school we'd want to move back to this area.”
Caffe Firenze is the quick-food, bistro part of a larger development planned for the site, called “Il Villaggio” - Italian for “The Village.” Eventually, they said, they want to add several boutiques, a second, formal, high-end restaurant, and a landscaped park that could be used for jazz concerts, community gatherings, wedding banquets and family picnics.
Building Caffe Firenze was a collaboration. John oversaw the construction. Patti, an interior designer, coordinated the colors and style. Galanti, the chef, is also an artist: Her renditions of streets, apartment, Florence's famous church baptistry, and other scenes of northern Italy are centerpiece murals inside the restaurant.
One coup was finding church pews for inside the restaurant for bench seating, to add a touch of old inside the new. Patti, a consummate Googler, found them in Hardin, where a Lutheran minister had purchased a Baptist church to renovate.
“They're 95 years old and solid oak,” Patti said. “What we wanted to create in here was a certain appeal - when you come in, it's warm and friendly and unique.”
“In America, we're rush, rush, rushing,” said Savahna. “We're always trying to get something done, and we don't have time for our families.
“What we want here is a place for families to come for good, healthy food and interesting flavors - all for a good price.”
About Caffe Firenze
Location: 281 Rodeo Drive, Florence. (Turn east on Eastside Highway in Florence; the restaurant is on the south side of the highway.)
Hours: Monday through Thursday, 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday, 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Dinner starts at 5 p.m. ; Telephone: 273-2923; On the Web: www.caffefirenze.com
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