Viva North Italia! I recently had a great meal wit...

Viva North Italia! I recently had a great meal with an old friend at the intersection of 1st and Clayton in Cherry Creek North. I remember this space most recently being called North.

For one of the few eateries in Cherry Creek North that doesn't have at least three dollar signs, I would highly recommend this place.

I got to the restaurant a little early, and enjoyed a cocktail called Rosemary and Lime. They offer a couple of interesting cocktails that are available by the pitcher!

We started with the arancini with scamorza cheese and red sauce. They had a little heat to them, but were pretty amazing!

The menu offers the traditional multi-course selections (piatti); however, we both felt we would have been satiated from only ordering a pasta dish.

My friend ordered the squid ink pasta with shrimp, calamari, mint, fennel pollen, and calabrian chili. I didn't try it, but it looked amazing! I ordered a pasta dish with short ribs. It was tossed with parmesan cream, fresh horseradish, wilted arugula, and herbed bread crumbs. There was a hidden zest to the dish that made it really extra-fresh too. I'm excited to introduce this dish to others. The pieces of short rib were extremely tender.

The street parking is very limited and time- strained. I parked in the Clayton parking lot, which is the underground parking structure underneath Crate & Barrel. One of the waitresses told me that I should go buy something at Crate & Barrel so they would validate my parking, but I didn't. Luckily there was something wrong with my parking ticket, so the attendant let me out for free.