Today’s post is the second in a series on my favorite places to eat in Bra (Cuneo province, Piedmont) during my seminars at the Slow Food University of Gastronomic Sciences in (my) Bra. The toponym Bra comes from the late Latin braida, meaning a suburban field for farming.

Early in my career in wine, trips to Piedmont revolved around press junkets and visits to high-profile wineries that my clients, generally importers, hired me to write about for their websites and promotional materials. Those visits and tastings were often followed by meals at marquee restaurants.

But my gig teaching at Slow Food U has given me the opportunity to break out on my own and with my friends to discover some of Piedmont’s lower profile but equally delicious dining destinations.

One of those restaurants is the SUPER old school Trattoria Gallinaccia in Bra.

I ate there alone on my first full day and night in town in May when I was there to for my food communications grad seminars.

In Piedmont, restaurants like these generally have the same traditional menu, from appetizer to dessert. You won’t find any creative cuisine or colorful interpretations of classic dishes. Gallinaccia is so traditional that they don’t even recommend adding grated Parmigiano Reggiano to their tajarin al ragù (below).

Although not my favorite, Gallinaccia is solid. The staff is friendly. And the interior evokes a between-the-wars ambiance.

I liked it a lot.

One of the coolest things is that the wine prices at places like this are ridiculously low for Americans. I ordered a bottle of Dolcetto because I always start my Piedmont stay with the region’s de rigueur gastronomic wine (a personal tradition of mine).

It wasn’t a night to go “big.” But had it been, I would have gone with the Giacomo Fenocchio 2015 Barolo Bussia for €52. Yes, just €52! Can you imagine what that bottle costs at a restaurant, let alone retail, in California or New York? You can’t even find Fenocchio, one of my all-time favorite Nebbiolo growers, in Texas.

The next night I went to a similarly old school place and did go big… and it was worth every penny. Stay tuned.

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Image via the Marenco winery Facebook. Marenco will be pouring its single-vineyard Moscato d’Asti for the guided tasting I’ll be leading on June 16 in Dallas. Their Albarossa will be served at the lunch following the seminar.

A few years ago, the Moscato d’Asti Consortium asked me to lead a seminar and tasting of top wines from the appellation here in Houston.

The resulting talk — “What’s so sexy about Moscato d’Asti?” — was so well received that they asked me to give the same presentation earlier this year for another group of Houston wine professionals.

On Thursday, June 16, I’ll be giving the same talk at the legendary Hotel ZaZa in Dallas.

Click here to register for the 11 a.m. event.

Did you know that Moscato d’Asti is one of the world’s few wines made to sparkle using only the grape’s natural sugar?

Did you know that Moscato d’Asti, despite how many perceive the wines, is grown entirely on small, family-owned and run farms?

Did you know that Moscato d’Asti, despite its undeserved reputation, is one of Italy’s most terroir-driven wines?

Every time we put on this seminar, it’s amazing to watch even seasoned tasters be blown away by the diversity and personality of these wines.

The other thing that I love about this seminar is that we talk about how Moscato d’Asti is the one and only Italian wine that has become part of the extra-Italian culinary canon in the southeastern U.S. There is a whole swath of people who drink Moscato d’Asti regularly but remain ignored by the wine trade. We’re going to talk about that, too.

Our tasting will be followed by a lunch where Coppo will be pouring its Nizza Barbera, Marenco will be pouring its Albarossa (attention wine geeks!), and there will even be a Barbaresco among many other top Piedmont wines.

I hope you can join us. And word has it that the Bubbleista might join us. Tracie and the girls will be with me that day as well.

Here’s a Texas Tribune post on how to give to victims’ families in Uvalde. Please consider also giving to Unicef’s Ukraine child refugee fund. This link takes you straight to the donation page.