The original Bugatti Ristorante has been serving Dallasites American-Italian food since the 1980s. Trattoria Bugatti, which opened last month about 10 miles away, is not doing anything like that. “We’re serving rustic Italian,” chef Erin Willis says. The menu is inspired by a trip to Italy she took some 20 years ago to shadow a chef, with recipes pulled from an old journal she kept while traveling through Rome, Florence, and smaller cities across Tuscany, learning to make Italian food the way Italians make it.
Willis, who previously owned the lauded RM 12:20 Bistro in North Oak Cliff, says the breakout hit on the menu is fettuccine Alfredo, made with butter rather than cream sauce. She first had it at a restaurant called Alfredo’s in Rome, owned by a man named Alfredo (of course). The chef there told her Americans ruin the dish by adding cream. “[It is served] how I learned to make it; just butter, garlic, pasta water, and Parmesan cheese. That’s it. They just keep whipping it,” Willis says. It has already become a best-seller.
The pasta itself comes from Fresh Pasta Delights in Plano, which has been making pasta for DFW since 1984. Willis says the restaurant ran out during opening week and had to have pasta guru Jack Rayome hand-deliver an additional 10 to 20 pounds just to keep up.
Collaborating with local chefs and businesses is a big part of Willis’s approach to the menu. Focaccia, used for dinner bread service and sandwiches at lunch, comes from Andrea Lubkin of Lubbie’s Bagels. The chicken Milanese sandwich is an ideal pairing for the bread, where the crunch of a crispy fried chicken breast meets soft, herbaceous focaccia with just a schmear of earthy basil pesto and a few vegetables in between.
Lubkin also makes the restaurant’s sourdough pizza crust, a Neapolitan-style dough served during lunch daily and available for takeout at dinner. Willis says Lubkin’s expertise with bread made her a natural fit for the project. “She’s so talented when it comes to breadmaking,” Willis says.
There are a duo of American-style dishes on the menu for now: cacio e pepe chicken wings served with béchamel or tomato dipping sauce, and a trattoria burger made with a tri-blend of beef, Fontina cheese, and a side of fries. Willis says the fettuccine, gnocchi bolognese, and steak salmoriglio sourced from Allen Brothers are the dishes diners can’t stop ordering.
The wine list leans heavily on Italian and French bottles, with a few West Coast options mixed in (you can’t serve steak in Dallas without a California Cabernet available; it might be a law now). The cocktail menu, developed by Chris Henley of Betty Cocktail, features a few Italian classics, including an Aperol spritz and sbagliato, along with three takes on the espresso martini. There’s also one cocktail clocking in at $48 for the big spenders, made with ultra-premium Beluga Gold Line vodka.
Dessert options include another collaboration, this time with beloved local gelateria Botolino Gelato. “[Owner] Carlo Gattini doesn’t usually do restaurants,” Willis says. “So I went in and begged him.”
As wonderful as the gelato is, Willis’s take on tiramisu is also worth trying. It is infused with limoncello and served with pistachio cookie bits inside — a lighter, deconstructed version of the dish with lots of Southern Italian flavors. And for the hardcore Italiophiles, affogato is also on the menu.
For Willis, Trattoria Bugatti is less about reinventing Italian food and more about returning to the simple, rustic dishes she first fell in love with in Italy decades ago. Trattoria Bugatti is now open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Trattoria Bugatti, 3850 W. Northwest Hwy. #1190, Dallas, trattoriabugatti.com
