For those who love Abruzzo cuisine, eating it locally is a plus: Font’Artana is a restaurant in Picciano, in the province of Pescara, and its dishes are well presented, genuine and flavorful, really good. Kudos to the Di Giovacchino family.
I recently went on a two-day wine-making event in Abruzzo, straddling the border between the provinces of Pescare and Teramo. The producer who had invited us took us to dinner in Picciano, a small town unknown to me. And right in Picciano you find Font’Artana, an Abruzzese cuisine restaurant, awarded the Chiocciola by Slow Food, which will offer you strictly traditional dishes and some just barely revisited.
For example, we started with a very varied and interesting mixed appetizer: Fiadone; Rustic with misticanza; Tartlet with apple, sweet and sour peppers and onion; Savory cannoli with sheep ricotta and basil; Neola (similar to a wafer) with hen, misticanza and curry mayonnaise; Sulmona red garlic talli with quail egg; Mashed sweet potato and asparagus; then the one that literally made me jump on my chair so good: Fried sage twig with acacia honey.
Good and accurate cooking
How first a homemade water-and-flour pasta: Tajarill assutt (dry noodles) with knife-cut goose and fried eggplant. Then, as seconds, barbecued Igp lamb chop with ash-roasted new potatoes and Tagliata di Galletto with ciabotto. We closed with a delicious spoon dessert: Luisa grass ice cream with chocolate crumble. Each dish well presented, at the very least very good, tasty and genuine. Really good and thorough cooking.
The restaurant is very nice, well decorated, warm, on two levels. We, being the middle of summer, ate in the beautiful outdoor veranda, overlooking a small valley below, from which a nice, refreshing breeze was rising.
The Di Giovacchino family has been running the place for three generations now, with absolute dedication and a lot of hard work, if you consider that many vegetables come directly from their own garden.
Thorough room service, sociable, easygoing, smiling, almost like home. Between us, we had a great time and a good relationship was immediately established with them as well.
Fairly extensive wine list, only featuring wineries from Abruzzo, the result of careful selection.
They also have a nice b&b: https://www.fontartana.it/bb-don-pasquale/
