In a small hilltop town in southern Tuscany, often overlooked by American travelers, two restaurants have perfected the art of the Italian lunch experience, in very different ways.

The town? Montalcino.

The places? Il Gallo Stuzzicheria and Locanda Demetra.

Readers of this column know that Team Let’s Go Eat regularly decamps to Italy — working, of course.

And people often ask us which restaurants they should try during their own visits to Italy.

Our answer is consistent: Go to Montalcino.

The views of the Orcia River Valley (Val d’Orcia) alone make it worth it.

The famous Brunello di Montalcino wine alone would be enough.

Combine those with fantastic local food and you have the quintessential Italian countryside experience, your Nonna’s Italy circa 1950s.

Especially when you share a meal in one of these two restaurants.

(Author’s note: both interviews were conducted partially/mostly in Italian, author’s translation.)

Il Gallo Stuzzicheria

For a casual, no-reservations-required lunch or merenda (late afternoon snack), Il Gallo Stuzzicheria is our go-to. 

In the middle of town, and run by owner Rino Minelli and his wife, Marta, Il Gallo (named after Minelli’s collection of rooster knick-knacks) specializes in Crostone (sort of an open-faced sandwich) and other sandwich-like creations.

All the bread is made fresh daily in house.

“We specialize in one product only,” Minelli said. “We make the menu only in Italian, and display everything we make here in the front case. I want people to ask questions.”

Minelli got his start in theater, but followed his father’s footsteps into the food world, and eventually owned his own Osteria in nearby Pienza.

“That’s where I met my wife Marta,” Minelli said. “She started as a cook for me.

“But owning an Osteria is a lot of work. Here, it’s a calmer environment. We have four tables, open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., 5 to 8 p.m., and take two months off every winter.”

Their house is 200 meters from the restaurant.

They make their special dark bread every day by hand.

“Twenty years ago I found this kind of wheat, and started baking bread in the Osteria,” Minelli shared.

And customers loved it, probably because unlike normal Tuscan bread (baked without any salt), this bread tastes really good.

The other ingredients (cheeses, prosciutto, salamis, guanciale, produce, etc.) are all locally sourced, and seasonal.

“In the summer, fresh tomatoes,” Minelli said. “In the autumn, black cabbage, chicory, broccoli.”

Minelli and Marta create all the food together, but Marta handles the cookie-making (Ciambelline, made with wine).

You can spend 20 minutes here for a quick snack, or linger with a great glass of wine (or two).

“Food offers a moment to relax,” Minelli said. “If you hurry through lunch, it’s not good.”

Minelli chooses all the wine, which he offers on a rotating basis.

“In this area, we have the possibility to try many great wines,” he noted in the understatement of the week.

It’s clear that Minelli (who speaks English quite well, BTW) does this in no small part because he enjoys talking with people.

“If you want something different than what you see here, just ask,” he said. “If we can make it, we will.

“And ask which wines will go best with what you ordered,” he added with a smile. “For us, it’s great to make our customers happy.”

Il Gallo Stuzzicheria is located at Via Giacomo Matteotti 16 in Montalcino. Click here for more information.

Locanda Demetra/Montalcino Cooking School

On the other end of the lunch spectrum, just a half-kilometer up the road is Locanda Demetra, our favorite place for that long lunch. As in, start at 1 p.m., wrap up maybe around 5 p.m.

Sitting on a bluff with a 180-degree view of the Val d’Orcia and the town of Montalcino, Locanda Demetra is not only a farm-to-table restaurant, but also home to the Montalcino Cooking School.

And home to an amazing garden that provides most of its produce.

The restaurant seating is outside on the back patio, every seat with a great view. It is a singular location that carries emotional impact.

Recently Team Let’s Go Eat met some first-time Locanda visitors there from Santa Barbara.

One of the young women was standing in the garden, enjoying the view with tears in her eyes.

“Why are you crying?” we asked.

“Because,” she said, “all my life I’ve dreamed of traveling to Italy, and in my dreams it always looked like this.”

Gulp.

Owned by siblings Giovanni, Marta and Alessandro Paris, Locanda Demetra is a dream itself.

It was realized when they renovated an old farmhouse and opened in 2016, but began when big brother Giovanni first came to visit here 20 years ago and fell in love with the area.

And a girl of course.

While the whole family helps out, the stars of this show are younger brother Alessandro, Ale for short, who has formal hospitality schooling and experience, and his wife, Emanuelle (Manu), who originally trained to be a nurse before switching to food.

Manu runs the kitchen, Ale runs front-of-house and the cooking school.

And the food here is exceptional.

There’s an expression in Italian that goes, “Even the eye wants its part,” meaning: presentation is just as important as flavor. Manu elevates this to an art form we’ve not seen elsewhere.

“Manu never went to culinary school,” Ale explained. “For her, it’s just passion.”

“I get my ideas from books, other chefs and the garden,” Manu explained. Plus her Nonna’s recipes.

Speaking of stars, word has definitely gotten out since celebrity chefs Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis came through town a couple of years ago and featured Locanda Demetra in Episode Four of Bobby and Giada In Italy.

Lest you be concerned that fame has gone to their heads, and this will be a stuffy formal experience, relax.

“We prepare food here and welcome people like in my home,” Ale told us. “Like my family used to do.”

“During the winter (when the restaurant is closed),” Manu added, “we look for the best ingredients from all around Italy. We want to use the products where I know there is love inside.

“But we don’t tell the guests that,” she said. “I can’t ask the servers to talk for hours about each ingredient. I’m worried people might think we’re trying to seem important.”

Our culinary couple met while they were both working in New Zealand after finishing schooling.

“When I quit my job there to come back home to Italy,” Ale recalled, “Manu cooked an amazing farewell dinner. I say to her, why you never think to do this as a career, and she say, I don’t know but I would love to.”

So they returned home together and came to Montalcino in the spring of 2015. In the mornings they did cooking classes at private homes and wineries, and in the afternoons fixed up the farmhouse.

They finally opened Easter 2016, and Team LGE was lucky enough to discover them shortly thereafter. We’ve been in love ever since.

We’ve sent dozens of friends to the Montalcino Cooking School, and the comment we get back most often is, “This was the best thing we did during our entire trip to Italy.”

We asked Ale about plans for the future.

“Here I have my family, can go outside and enjoy the vineyards, the garden, do what I love while meeting people from all over the world,” he replied. “Why would I change that?”

Why indeed.

Locanda Demetra/Montalcino Cooking School is located at Podere La Buca 221 in Montalcino. Click here for more information or email info@montalcinocookingschool.com.

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