Valentino’s Pasta and Wine is located at 104 W. Main St. Ottawa Il, 61350. They are open Mon-Thurs from 4 pm to 9 pm, Fri/Sat 11 am to 10 pm, and Sun from 11 am to 8 pm. You can find more information on their official website, or on their Facebook page.

Restaurant Weeks began on March 8th and run until March 21st, a two-week celebration of creative cuisine in the Middle of Everywhere. Learn more at the event description, or check out the special menu options. Our series of bite-sized interviews continues, this time with Joe Porreta, from Valentino’s Pasta and Wine.

We dove right into what you can expect at Valentino’s during Restaurant Weeks! Plus, we even got to hear a little about the plans for Harbor House by Valentino’s at Heritage Harbor.

“I can tell you a couple things that I want to highlight, one’s called a frizzelle. It’s fried, and it’s a southern Italian dish, kind of like a bruschetta. But it’s from Sicily,” Joe explained.

“It’s really cool looking, so it’s kind of done like a bruschetta, but it’s kind of huge. It’s made with a cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, extra virgin olive oil, a touch of pesto sauce and then it’s finished with a balsamic glaze. So that is an appetizer, but a lot of people order it for dinner too. 

Next, Joe told us about Valentino’s Country Rigatoni dish. It is made with fresh rigatoni, “pancetta and ground sausage, and fennel, and there’s a touch of cream in there, San Marzano tomatoes. It’s a really awesome dish! That’s one of my favorite dishes,” Joe explained.

“And then one of the house specialties that we do is a sausage and chicken Giambotta. It’s a Italian sausage, chicken breast, roasted peppers and onions, and there’s white wine, there’s crispy potatoes in there,” Joe said. “It’s huge. It’s a massive dish, finished with white wine and some chicken stock.”

And for those of us with a sweet tooth, we asked about Valentino’s dessert options. We think you’ll like what Joe had to say!

“We make all our desserts in-house. Our tiramisu’s homemade, along with our cheesecake. And the tiramisu, I really recommend. So, ours are a different style. It’s a Southern style tiramisu. We have different types of coffee liqueurs in, Mascarpone cheese, and sweetened with vanilla and some espresso.”

We hope something you’ve read in this blog might inspire your next order at Valentino’s. There are plenty of delicious options. But did you know that the owners of Valentino’s will also be opening up a new location at Heritage Harbor? Joe gave us some information on what to expect from the Harbor House.

“We [Valentino’s] opened end of June. The town’s just been so amazing. I’ve owned different restaurants with other partners, but this one’s just my wife and I, and we’re going around to over here at Harbor House. This is not going to be an Italian theme, this is going to be more of a upscale-bar type setting. We’ll have some higher end items on there. But yeah, we’ve been there going out a year now, And it’s just been awesome.” 

We are so excited to see what sorts of great things will be coming from the Harbor House by Valentino’s. No official opening date as of yet, but be sure to follow their socials for more updates!

Finally, we decided to ask Joe about his favorite part of being in Ottawa’s restaurant scene.

“I love the action. Every day, we have lots of regulars that we love seeing. A lot of bar regulars and a lot of just people that sit down in the dining room,” Joe said. “We also have a speak easy upstairs. So, we have a bourbon wine bar upstairs, which, people love that. It’s more of a private setting. Can book a lot of private parties up there, but overall, they’ve been so welcoming to us.”

We are so happy to hear that Valentino’s has felt welcomed by Ottawa. Many thanks to Joe for inviting us out to see the Harbor House! Make sure to follow along with our socials, and the participating locations, for more updates and information as Ottawa’s Restaurant Weeks continue!