Antonio’s La Fiamma

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, it’s Antonio’s La Fiamma.

by Gabriella Allen

Located aside the beautiful and romantic Lake Lily in Maitland sits Antonio’s La Fiamma Ristorante. It’s a small “Little Italy” located right here in central Florida. What constitutes a “Little Italy” you ask? In my opinion, it’s when an Italian cafe expands itself from only a casual dining room to include a deli, a bakery, an import marketplace, a wine shop, and a fine dining restaurant (located on the upper floor). It can’t possibly just be called a restaurant when the authenticity of Italian is evident with so many facets of its motherland’s cuisine.

The lower cafe is a full service restaurant that serves homemade wood-fired pizza’s, calzones, salads, pasta dishes, and entrees. The tables are set up around the market, along shelving units that stock the store with imported Italian goods such as cookies, dry pastas, jared sauces, canned truffles, packaged candies, bottled oils and an entire section dedicated to wine. Along the perimeter lies a fresh bakery with bread, desserts, and pastries. A deli with meats, cheeses, salads, and olives. A refrigerated section with imported meats, cheese, desserts, liquors, beer, and sodas.

I have yet to venture upstairs but I can vouch for the lower cafe. I’ve enjoyed the fresh and homemade minestrone soup, it tastes just like my late italian grandma Filomena Gallina’s. The wood-fired pizza is on the thin and crispy side, made with fresh and gourmet ingredients. Superbly delicious and cooked to perfection. I’ve tried the Margherita and the Pollomatch: roasted chicken with spicy barbecue sauce, fresh tomato slices, chopped scallions and fresh mozzarella cheese. Finishing off any good ol’ Italian meal without a cannoli is a sin, so you better believe I had one, and it was worth the weight. Yes, I mean “weight.”

Although the upstairs restaurant is fine dining and assumingly perfect for a date, the lower cafe fills up on weeknights with families, friends, and lovers enjoying delicious food in a quaint and unique setting unlike any other in central florida. After your meal take a walk around Lake Lily and perhaps catch an indie-flick at the Enzian Theatre ( www.enzian.org ) located within walking distance.

The cafe menu prices range from $5-$15. The upper-restaurant menu prices range from $11-35. To learn more visit www.antoniosonline.com