Della Porta — Restaurant in Town of Liberty Grove

Great addition to the Northern Door dining scene. My husband & I visited on a Monday evening and found the restaurant inside about half-full. They take reservations (thank you!!!) Service was friendly and attentive, and unlike several restaurant meals we’ve had recently in Door Co. (which is experiencing a severe worker shortage), the meal was very well-paced. We appreciated that we were neither rushed, nor waiting long stretches between courses.

Food was outstanding. This restaurant would be worth a visit in Milwaukee or Chicago where Italian restaurants are plentiful, so it’s a particular delight to have it in Door Co. where they are not. We started with a shared dish of arancini (balls of risotto rice stuffed with meat and/or cheese, then breaded and fried). There were two generously-sized arancini sitting on a good (and not sweet!) tomato sauce. Excellent dish - crisp breading, generous amount cheese and meat, great flavor. The pasta dishes were good to great. First, understand that their pasta is in the style of pasta served in Italy (makes sense - the chef is from Italy,) not Italian-American. These pastas are not swimming in sauce. The serving sizes are also smaller than Americans might be used to; this isn’t Olive Garden. That’s not a criticism; this felt like authentic Italian cooking. The noodles were perfectly cooked, neither mushy nor too hard. The meat sauces we had were excellent and flavorful. I had the spicy sauce with tomatoes and ‘nduja sausage, and my husband had the Bolognese meat sauce (his only minor complaint was that he would have enjoyed having just a little more sauce). We finished with three desserts: cannoli, affogato (vanilla ice cream sitting in espresso), and tiramisu. I have cannoli and tiramisu frequently when we eat out Italian - these were great! Every dish we tried had delicious flavor.

Prices aren’t cheap, but they’re in line with Door Co. We met the owners, Joey and Tessa, who were serving customers and very much enjoyed chatting with them.

The restaurant space is being used as a different breakfast / lunch concept (Blue Bear Ellison Bay) and Della Porta in the evening. It’s looks like a daytime restaurant rather than a romantic evening restaurant, but they’re new so that may evolve. It is a little noisy and echoing with hard surfaces everywhere; perhaps that’ll change in the future as well.

We will definitely go back and in fact made a reservation to return in just a...

Food is always great, and last evening was no exception. Absolutely delicious every time, hands down the best food in Door County. The Arancini are to die for and my wife loves the Bolognese which she said was superb as always. We have been hesitant to make the trip all the way from Fish Creek lately due to the short hostess/manager. I always told my employees to leave their egos at the door when they walked in for a reason, and she was a prime example of putting oneself in front of the business. As other reviews noted, the wound up and short with customers style is a huge turn off. Always micro-managing and creating confusion amongst the staff, jumping from the front door to behind the bar into the kitchen, and working over the top of the staff just to leave and talk to friends when they arrive, leaving the staff without the “help” she forced onto them, resulting in a breakdown in the flow and visible frustration from the staff. I’ve seen staff try to step up but are undermined by the furious micromanaging, almost as if she’s afraid that she won’t be perceived as the star of the show when the food itself should be (and clearly is). However, we have been there a few times the past few weeks and have not seen her, so either we have been lucky with their schedules or they are reorganizing now that the tourists are gone. Either way, the dynamic has visibly changed and the staff seems to be working better together, complimenting each other’s roles. Last evening, instead of the usual headache, the bartender last evening that greeted us was warm and welcoming, spending time interacting with returning customers like us and new customers like my friends and giving support when needed to our server Mary, who was absolutely charming, making everyone at our table and those around us feel special and welcome like a guest in her home and not simply a “customer”. If last night is indicative of the operation now, my wife and I will be back often and these guys don’t deserve the reputation as the drive up is...

My family has been visiting the area for more than 25 years, and we have always enjoyed eating at the local restaurants. Our experience with Jen, our server was fantastic, however, the manager (assistant manager?), Melissa, lacked all decorum. They had a new QR code ordering system, and when the system mistakenly double ordered a few items for us, Melissa treated my brother with contempt and disdain when he pointed it out and accused him of mistakenly ordering it twice. His order included order notes, and he only wrote order notes once. There were two orders with his exact order notes. He also requested no mushrooms on his pizza and had them on it. When he pointed this out to Melissa she told him that he could not remove mushrooms, while my nephew had ordered no mushrooms with the same pizza and had them removed. She agreed to remove the duplicate order, with great exasperation, but told him they would not be giving him a pizza with no mushrooms. After this abhorrent exchange, she proceeded to disappear for the rest of the night. At the end of the night, we were charged for 15 pizzas and had only received 10 (big family). Rectification of this proved difficult because every server claimed an inability to fix it, while not informing any higher up of the issue. On top of that, we were charged a mandatory 22% gratuity. I sincerely hope Melissa does not see a penny of tips because Jen deserved every bit of it, but Melissa should not even have a job at this establishment. Previous experiences dining here have been mostly pleasant and the owner seems delightful. Melissa is a dark mark on an otherwise pleasant restaurant. Melissa deserves no stars. The...