June 2016
Petra Jung and Tony Travanty’s search for the perfect location for their restaurant took them on a six-month journey through the western United States. They finally found the ideal spot. The result of that search, Scarpetta, opened just recently at 145 E. Main Street in the former location for Pita Pit.
“We wanted to find a place close to small, sustainable farms that are in production all year,” says Petra. “We also wanted a community in which we could develop relationships with local growers and producers. We found Ashland to be the perfect environment.”
Both Petra and Tony are natives of Wisconsin. Petra developed her passion for food while growing up on a farm. Tony eventually moved to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, where he spent 18 years, pursuing art and art history, studying biochemistry, and even attending medical school for a time before discovering his true calling as a chef.
When Petra and Tony found each other and decided that collaborating on a restaurant was the right direction, they travelled throughout the Southwest and West, refining the concept for the restaurant and scouting out just the right location.
They wanted a temperate climate, Petra says, where their restaurant could obtain as much food as possible from local growers year-round. They chose Ashland because they love the area and, says Tony, “The Rogue Valley provides a stunning array of locally produced ingredients for us to work with.”
Tony and Petra brought Josh Dorcak on board to round out their culinary team. Formerly of Public House and Amuse, Josh has worked in the Rogue Valley for nine years and in 2015 was named Top Chef Ashland.
Scarpetta, which means “little shoe,” refers to the small piece of bread used to mop up the last bit of sauce on your plate. Petra and Tony plan to offer dishes that will elicit that kind of response, appealing to a variety of palates and drawing from Petra’s classical French approach to cooking, Tony’s classical Italian methods, and Josh’s focus on American cuisine of the Pacific Northwest.
“All of us are pushing our boundaries creatively,” Petra said. “We are not reinventing the wheel; farm to table has been done many times. But we seek to create handcrafted cuisine that is both creative and authentically unique to Southern Oregon.”
The phone number is 541-708-6360. And like them on Facebook.
