Forza Storico — Restaurant in Atlanta

Forza Storico (same owners as Storico Fresco) is a new Roman Italian restaurant located at Westside Provisions District, and it’s a hidden gem. It literally feels like Italy!

Me and some friends met here for dinner, and it was quite tricky to find the place. This restaurant is located right beneath RedBird, inside the same building as Jeni’s Ice Creams.

They have a large Wine selection, about 60 to be exact, and lots of Italian beers (about 35 different ones) which I’ve never seen anywhere else before. I’m not really a big fan of wine, so I ordered the Forza Martini, and it was amazing.

Their menu is very simple, they have some appetizer, and salad options but the protagonist of the night is the pasta!

Pastas are served on time sensitivity, so they suggest you “forget your manners, and eat immediately”

I was told Roman culture is big on fried food, and since I was feeling very Italian I ordered the “Fritto Misto Di Mare” which comes with fried calamari, shrimp, and Orata seasoned with lemon salt.

All the pasta options seemed amazing, but I wanted to go more traditional and ordered the Carbonara. Oh. My. God. It was literal heaven.

The carbonara is a house made tortellini, served with house cured guanciale (pig cheeks), egg yolk, and pecorino.

Some other stuff they have on the menu includes cacio e pepe pasta, squash blossoms, and octopus. I’ll definitely give it a chance next time.

Portions are not huge, but enough to fill you up, and the pasta was actually heavier than I thought.

The place in general is beautiful, and they have a full bar as well. The wall paintings are so funny. I found a “Super Pope”, and “Tic Tac Toe Pope” and those were amazing.

ESPAÑOL

Forza Storico (de los mismos propietarios que Storico Fresco) es un nuevo restaurante italiano romano ubicado en el distrito de provisiones de Westside, y es una joya escondida. ¡Literalmente se siente como Italia!

Unas amigas y yo nos reunimos aquí para cenar, y fue bastante difícil encontrar el lugar. Este restaurante está ubicado justo debajo de RedBird, dentro del mismo edificio que Jeni’s Ice Creams.

Tienen una gran selección de vinos y algunos cócteles. No soy realmente muy fan del vino, así que pedí el Forza Martini, y fue increíble.

Su menú es muy simple, tienen un aperitivo y opciones de ensalada, ¡pero el protagonista de la noche es la pasta!

Las pastas se sirven en función del tiempo, por lo que sugieren que "olvide sus modales y coma de inmediato"

Me dijeron que la cultura romana es grande en la comida frita, y como me sentía muy italiana pedí el "Fritto Misto Di Mare" que viene con calamares fritos, camarones y Orata sazonados con sal de limón.

Todas las opciones de pasta parecían increíbles, pero quería ir más tradicional y pedí la Carbonara. Dios mío, era literalmente el cielo.

La carbonara es un tortellini hecho en casa, servido con guanciale curado en casa (mejillas de cerdo), yema de huevo y queso de oveja.

Algunas otras cosas que tienen en el menú incluyen pasta de cacio e pepe, flores de calabaza y pulpo. Definitivamente le daré una oportunidad la próxima vez.

Las porciones no son enormes, pero son suficientes para llenarlo, y la pasta en realidad era más pesada de lo que pensaba.

El lugar en general es hermoso, y también tienen un bar completo. Las pinturas murales son muy divertidas. Encontré un "Súper Papa" y un "Papa de tres en raya" y esos...

A friend text me on a Friday evening to see if I wanted to go to dinner. She knows that I love a good meal, and rarely turn down and offer to eat!! Is that bad??

Anyway!!!- She picked this spot out because she wanted pasta. Admittedly, I rarely go to Italian restaurants. I am just not a big pasta eater. However, I will accompany my friends to the places they want to try.

This spot is located in a very interesting corner of a busy plaza off of Howell Mill road. Per the website the location is as follows: “lower level of the West Side Provisions District - north end, beneath Jenni's Ice Cream and Redbird. “ We honestly just stumbled upon the place by following another couple that we assumed were going to the same place!! Lucky for us, they were. Parking is in the main parking lot. The restaurant will have a code for you to use to cover your parking cost at the host stand. This code validated 2 hours of parking!

We did not have reservations, but were seated promptly. We had a cute two person table directly in front of a window. It was perfect. I will say that this spot must be pretty popular because it was crowded.

We decided to try several items. We started with the bread service (worth the extra cost), the grilled octopus( so good), and the tonno crudo ( this was not my favorite dish, but my friend loved it!). We each had a cocktail. I ordered the Expresso martini, and my friend had the hibiscus Margarita. The drinks were tasty !

For our main dishes I opted for the Cappelletti Spinaci, ( braised spinach, smoked ricotta, pecorino, mozzarella filled cappelletti, toasted almonds, brown butter, sage, grana ) , and my friend had the Bertu.( cotechino, sweet italian sausage, and ricotta filled mezzaluna pasta, guanciale, pecorino) When I tell you that these dishes were amazing! It is clear that the chefs take their time preparing the dishes. While I am not crazy about pasta, I will indeed be back to this spot.

Last, but not least, the service was spot on. Our server was friendly and made sure we had everything we needed. She was not over powering and check on us just enough!

Overall- great dinning experience and would...

We arrived exactly on time for our 8:15p reservation but were asked to wait a few minutes while they seated some other people first. I remember noticing an empty four-top (this was the size of our party) in the middle of the patio and wondering if that could be our table. We were still waiting after 20 mins. so I went back to the host stand and waited awhile for the host to finish a conversation w/ a women who did NOT have a reservation (she was trying to figure out a way to eat there when they had no openings and the wait was long). Finally when it was my turn, talking to the same guy I had previously spoken with, it was as if he had no recollection of us at all, but at least we were seated after that. Oh and we were given the same four-top table I had spotted when I first walked in, that stayed empty this entire ~25 mins it took for us to be actually seated after arriving on time for our reservation. Overall it felt dismissive and the host’s mannerisms were extra fake so even before the meal we were put off.

Service at the table was spotty. Our waiter appeared to be overwhelmed with other tables so he had 2 others helping him. Those two other servers were very nice, they just came by at random times. I know most restaurants are experiencing staffing shortages right now, so I understand and don’t fault them for the situation~ just a forewarning for other diners if they need more consistent service.

Food was good overall… not amazing but solidly good. I enjoyed the cappelletti pasta dish I had. I liked the fact that they didn’t skimp on the spinach. 🙂 I am a nondrinker and my favorite part of the meal were the zero proof amaretti sour and coconut limeade drinks I had. So much fun and delicious!! The others in our group all had alcoholic drinks and were pretty happy with them. So A+ for the bar!

I wouldn’t put Forza Storico at the top of my list again, especially considering it’s not a cheap dining experience, but I...