From Bologna to Home: The Story Behind NORD

I grew up in an Italian-American family where food was always more than just something we ate. It was how we gathered, celebrated, and stayed connected to where our family came from. But it wasn’t until my first trip to Italy in 2023 that I truly began to understand just how deep those roots went.

Years before I was born, my grandfather was a student at the University of Bologna. My grandmother was a hairdresser, and my father was just a baby when they called Bologna home. Decades later, my dad brought me back to the city that had been such an important part of his childhood.

He took me to see the apartment where he had lived as a little boy. We walked the streets of Bologna, met with old friends, took cooking classes, and, of course, ate our way through the city.

And the food was unforgettable.

I tasted dishes I had grown up eating at home, recipes and flavors my family had been making for generations, but I also discovered an entirely different side of Italian food. There were regional specialties, small street foods, local ingredients, and traditions that I had rarely, if ever, encountered back home in New Jersey.

Of all the places we visited, Bologna was where I ate the best. There was something about the simplicity of the food that stayed with me. It didn’t need to be complicated. Great ingredients, recipes rooted in tradition, and generations of knowledge were enough.

But it wasn’t only the food that I fell in love with. It was the history, the architecture, the markets, the long meals, and the importance placed on gathering around a table. Food wasn’t separate from everyday life. It was woven into it.

When I returned home to New Jersey, I couldn’t stop thinking about what I had experienced. We have no shortage of Italian-American restaurants here, and I grew up loving that food, but I felt like something was missing. There was an entire side of Italy that I wanted people back home to experience.

That feeling became the idea for NORD.

NORD began with the idea of bringing the foods and traditions I fell in love with in Bologna home to New Jersey, starting with tigelle, the small, traditional breads of Emilia-Romagna filled with incredible meats, cheeses, and other ingredients. But from the beginning, the vision has always been bigger than one dish.

I want NORD to introduce people to the Italian foods they may not already know. The regional specialties, street foods, ingredients, and traditions that don’t always make their way onto Italian-American menus. Food that feels new here, despite having generations of history behind it.

In the years since that first trip, I’ve spent countless hours testing recipes, researching traditions, developing ideas, and slowly shaping what NORD could become. What started as an idea inspired by my family and a trip to Bologna has grown into something I am finally ready to bring to life.

Most importantly, I want NORD to capture a little of what made me fall in love with Italy in the first place: simple food made with care, quality ingredients, tradition, and the belief that some of the best moments happen around the table.

NORD may be coming to life in New Jersey, but its story began long before that, with my family in Bologna. I’m incredibly excited to finally bring that story home and to share NORD, the food, the traditions, and a little piece of Bologna with all of you.