Imagine a restaurant steeped in theme park illusion that becomes the quintessence of authentic Italian cuisine. Now imagine it’s called Terralina. In 1988, Portobello Yacht Club was a stylish eatery at Disney’s newly opened Pleasure Island entertainment complex, with Americanized dishes and one of the first wood-fired ovens in the area.
The fictional home of the Pleasure Island founders, it became simply Portobello when James Beard Award-winning chef Tony Mantuano started advising the kitchen 10 years ago. “For many years Portobello was the only Italian restaurant around,” Mantuano says. “I think we have to try a little bit harder now.” That effort has been transformed into the just-opened Terralina Crafted Italian, styled as a trattoria in the Lake District of northern Italy.
