By George Mahe   Alex Donley called dibs on this a while ago. Before Sauce on the Side ever considered moving from its original downtown location at 903 Pine, Alex Donley, owner of Gioia's Deli (and the popular Gioia's "Hot Salami on Wheels" food truck) expressed interest in the site.   "Having a bustling deli crowd located right...

by Rob Lovitt   Violating the first rule of visiting a museum — look but don't touch the art — an American tourist in Italy has generated shock and outrage by snapping the finger off a 600-year-old statue at a museum in Florence.   According to the Italian newspaper, Corriere Fiorentino, the snap heard around the art world took place...

Today we honor Jasper Mirabile, Sr. of Jasper's Restaurant & Marco Polo's Italian Market. Please read the following hisory of Jasper's taken from www.JaspersKC.com. In 1954, a small neighborhood Italian restaurant and bar was opened in Kansas City by Leonardo Mirabile and his son, Jasper. The restaurant, named Jasper's, quickly became a popula...

by Jill Wendholt Silva   "What's up?" Italian-born chef Lidia Bastianich asks the rooster that lightly pecks at her sandals. "You know, you'd make a good sauce!" At the start of the week she was cooking risotto for Pope Francis and by the end hosting her third annual benefit dinner at the Boys Grow Farm in Grandview.   Bastianich...

Rich LoRusso grew up on the Hill, just a block away from the tiny Texaco gas station on the corner of Macklind and Bischoff avenues. It's no surprise that he and his wife, Terri, ended up as restaurateurs: They met as teenagers working at the same small Italian restaurant. She was a busgirl; he was a cook.   What neither expected, however, i...

The Vice Consulate of Italy in Kansas City together with the Kansas City Chapter of UNICO National will again be organizing the Italian Motorsports Show at the 2015 Festa Italiana at Zona Rosa. This fourth installment of "Motori in Piazza" will be held on Sunday, May 31, Noon to 3pm. Here is the flyer. As with Festa Italiana, admission is free. &n...

Porano Pasta, the new Italian fast casual from James Beard–winning chef Gerard Craft ("Best Chef: Midwest" in 2015), opened today in St. Louis, Missouri. The new concept, Craft's fifth restaurant under Niche Food Group and first with counter service, lets customers build their own bowls using a variety of authentic Italian ingredients. Porano...

By Nathan Ellgren   St. Joseph's il Lazzarone pizzeria is about to be on magazine pages and TV screens across the Midwest. The authentic Italian restaurant on Frederick Avenue, which is about to celebrate its two-year anniversary, will soon be featured in Feast magazine and on its Emmy award winning TV show.   On Tuesday, camera...

By Stephen Deere   In a scene reminiscent of a free-agent signing ceremony, one of the world's top chess players stood amid a small crowd at the St. Louis Chess Club, a few feet from where his performance last year left commentators searching for superlatives. But instead of outmaneuvering opponents, Fabiano Caruana was shaking hands wi...

By Dick Kaegel   KANSAS CITY -- The Royals have agreed to terms with 16-year-old shortstop Marten Gasparini, considered by some experts to be the most promising European prospect ever. Gasparini, from Cervignano, Italy, reportedly will receive a signing bonus of $1.3 million -- highest ever for a European, eclipsing the previous mark of...