Convivium

Antinè is located in the center of Barbaresco, an excellence of Italian viticulture, right next to the headquarters of Cantine Gaja. The restaurant, owned by Chef Manuel Bouchard, is now an attractive "gastronomic bistro" of regional cuisine. The wide staircase with stone slab steps leads you to the restaurant room on the second floor, past a dramatic lamp-sculpture. The setting is minimalist: gray tile floors, clear walls with no pictures, designer hanging lamps, and a few well-spaced tables. A stop at Antinè is always worth a special trip thanks to a cuisine that fully repays expectations. Manuel Bouchard's hand is, yes, hooked on tradition, but it is at the same time modern, thanks to research conducted without exasperations of technique or leaps toward the avant-garde: you will find there a few notes of the Orient, clean, precise and distinguishable flavors, well-thought-out textures and cooking, and a few "divertissements," all accompanied by an uncom...